Oh Goody, Yum, Goody Dessert!

                                                                                                               

Wow!  Sorry to leave y'all hangin' at dessert but you know life happens!  I hope you've been wildly successful in the past couple of  weeks with your portion control and boosting your proteins and knocking off the free carbs that will keep you slim and trim going forward.  I suspect you're all experts, like I am, at dessert.  It's my favorite time of day...about 9 PM and I'm indulging but wait, maybe you're not as expert as you'd like to be or need to be so let's chat.

If you've been following along you've realized that you're dividing up your calories during the day so that you keep your physiologic engine burning but don't really provide enough "leftovers" for it to start turning anything into fat.  Also given that you're not indulging on a lot of over processed sugar/fat carbs and are turning mostly to whole foods, especially the fruits/veggies stuff what you're providing is great nutrition.  But what about the you inside that loves a treat for being good all day? We have to satisfy that or you'll fall off the wagon.  The key is what you eat for dessert but trust me it can be very satisfying and keep you connected with your healthy eating too.  The key is what is today's indulgence?

So given you've probably successfully kept your intake to the portions and food types we've talked about you've probably got something in the neighborhood of 150 - 180 calories you can spend for dessert with no worries.  You don't want to wake up at night starving though so along with some well deserved sweetness try to think a little protein too.  So when I was on my diet plan they provided me with protein packed good tasting cookies, cake, ice cream, pretzels, snack mix and that's just what I remember.  But this wasn't your garden variety "Chips Ahoy". So when you're thinking dessert don't go to the bakery to pick it up. Instead start in the aisle with the protein bars and supplements for starters.

Again there are several manufacturers including South Beach, Atkins and a bunch of others that make fairly good tasting "desserts" that have a little protein.  One of my current favorites is the Atkins Cashew Trail Mix Bar at 170 calories with 7 gms of protein along with your carbs.  Another South Beach favorite for a day when I think I've hit it a little heavy is the 100 calorie Whipped Chocolate Almond Snack Bar with 6 gms of protein.  So theses are satisfying but still put a little protein in there to keep you feeling full overnight and your blood sugar stable.

Then of course there are any number of Weight Watcher's Desserts if you're an ice creamaholic like me.  They have a coffee latte bar that's 90 calories that's to die for, my opinion.  I don't remember how much protein is in them but they have a chocolate fudgicle type snack  bar that's 45 calories I think and has about 2 gms. of protein or so.  The  serving size is 2 bars so that's 90 calories. Jello has those great pudding cups for 60 calories with a variety of flavors  so my point is this.  Go look around your market but skip the bakery, skip the cookie aisle and find things that will satisfy your sweet/salt cravings but try to get something that has some protein value underneath the carbs and the sugar to keep you from spiking your sugar and sending you back into overeating. Even the picture above could be a great treat if you used sugar free pudding, fresh fruit and used a graham cracker bottom with Splenda instead of sugar. There are ways to make great tasting desserts out there too  and it doesn't mean you have to give up taste.  Like everything else watch your portion size and determine how to get the most out of the calories you're consuming that will satisfy you so you don't feel deprived.

I happen to know you can order things like desserts from Nutrisytem's line " a la carte" but I think that's pretty expensive.  They did have some great tasting cookies packed with protein but I've seen similar things where the protein bars are.  Special K used to make a packet of drink mix that you poured into 16 oz of cold water which was like 30 calories and super satisfying too as a drink mix.  So look around and be sensible.  Don't believe the labels about low fat, low calorie printed on the front.  Look at the label.  What's the serving size,  how many calories, how many gms protein, how many grms carbs and eat healthy!  Enjoy the treat at the end of you day because you've earned it and tomorrow you'll start again feeling fabulous because you're in control of your health and what you're eating.

How's the moving and stretching going?  Is it second nature yet?  Are you drinking your water?  Let me know how it's going!

'til next time,
HV 13