Chocoholism cured in 10 easy steps

My name is Sharon and I'm a chocoholic.

That's Step 1, right? Admitting you have a problem.

Now to the rest of my plan for losing weight while living with chocoholism.

Step 2. Accept that chocolate isn't inherently evil. In moderation, it's a health food!

Step 3. Say no to total deprivation. Chocolate is a food and we can't go cold-turkey on food as with alcohol, drugs or cigarettes. Denying yourself something you love-- especially something that's healthy in moderation -- can set you up for failure. How many times have you heard, or said, "I can't lose weight because if I can't have this-thing-that-gives-my-life-joy I would rather be fat?" Chocolate isn't weight loss kryptonite. If you love it, make peace with it.

Step 4. Recognize that the addiction is not to the cacao bean, but to the sugar with which it's blended. If you want to test this theory, expose yourself to a bag of cheap milk chocolate (maybe mini-Snickers bars) and a large bar of very dark chocolate. Which one is harder to stop eating?

Step 5. Therefore resolve to choose dark chocolate over milk chocolate. The darker, the better. Or maybe make your own stevia-sweetened chocolate bars.

Step 6. Follow the advice of Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women Don't Get Fat, who recommends eating small amounts of the best quality chocolate you can afford and savoring each bite.

Step 7. Make the principles of satiety work for you. If you're mindful that the first bite of chocolate is the best, you can put the bar away and save the next bite to follow another meal.

Step 8. Consider going naked. Raw chocolate is increasingly available (Oryana sells it in T.C.), can be lightly sweetened with stevia or honey, and tastes quite good. Sometimes when I crave chocolate, I toss a tablespoon of cacao nibs in the blender with a cup of almond milk and a little stevia and enjoy it hot or cold. But take it with a healthy dose of skepticism about raw food claims.

ok, maybe this really is kyrptonite

Step 9. Learn which form of chocolate is your particular nemesis and endeavor to avoid it as much as possible. Mine is Green & Black's milk chocolate almond bar (sugar and nuts, an addictive combo). Oryana seems to put it on sale every other week, and if I bring home a bar, it will be gone in an hour. A bar of 85% dark can sit on my desk for a week or more. Choose correctly at the store and win.

Step 10. When you indulge, make it count. If you bite into something heavy on calories and it's not freakishly good, stop eating it. Otherwise, you'll feel ripped off just like you did when you paid too much for tickets and the star was either sick or phoning it in and the big-haired woman in front of you kept inanely commenting and you missed your friend's birthday party to be there (this is a totally made-up analogy). You still got something, but you didn't enjoy it and it wasn't worth the cost.

For a recipe to get you started, try this chocolate blueberry treat featuring blueberries, currently in-season and abundant at the farmer's market.


Chocolate Blueberry Smoothie
(adapted from Louisa Shafia's Lucid Food)

1/2 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 cup unsweetened nut or soy milk
2 tsp. cacao nibs
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cubes (about 1/2 cup) ice
sprinkle of cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom
5 drops of stevia

Whiz all ingredients at high speed in a blender.

Made with unsweetened coconut milk, this is about 100 calories.

If you don't have cacao nibs, add another tsp or so of cocoa powder. You may prefer the taste of that anyway. Experiment!