So, it’s that dreaded chocolate-filled time of year … again.
It feels as though we’ve only just stopped using Christmas as the excuse to stuff our faces! Although, that always seems to be followed far too quickly with the Valentine’s Day excuse, where you either celebrate being happily in love by spending a night over-indulging on rich restaurant food, or, you otherwise over-indulge instead in the self-pity of being single, which is obviously teamed with a day of good old comfort eating; either way, the day results in the unsurprising relapse of the New Year health kick. Then, before you can even think about making it back to the gym, it’s Pancake Day! Yet another guilt free excuse to fill your face, this time with endless amounts of piled high stacks of pancakes, which obviously just have to be eaten with all that creamy ice cream or sugary syrup, only further ruining your new healthy streak. But then, before our poor bloated tummies can even begin to recover, then comes the real big one, the real unavoidable binge, the real nightmare for chocoholics like me … Easter!
Not just one evening, or just one day, but a whole week, sometimes even two whole weeks (or in Leeds University’s case: four entire weeks) to go home and stuff your face yet again, with Easter eggs, Easter bunnies, and yet more Easter eggs.
Now, at first the idea of eating more chocolate than you can manage at Easter seems like an unavoidable one when you have not only a couple of generous friends treating you to a cheeky Easter egg, but also caring mums, grandparents, aunties, all insisting they must buy you their traditional Easter egg no matter how healthy you’re trying to be. However, here are some helpful ideas that will hopefully leave Easter appearing a lot less daunting to the new healthy you.
So read on for some tips on resisting the irresistible…
Why so big?
One really easy way of cutting down your Easter intake is to simply get smaller eggs. If your generous family aren’t listening to your insistent pleas that you are trying to be healthy, just point out the money that they will be saving from buying smaller sized Easter eggs and I’m sure that will be enough to convince them.
One of your five-a-day
So what if sometimes we give in to our cravings? We’re allowed to indulge every now and again! But if you’re still feeling guilty about it, try melting your Easter egg and then dipping some fruit into it. Bananas, strawberries, grapes, kiwis, whatever you fancy, it’s one way to make sure you eat your five-a-day.
Dark is best
Let your egg buyers know that you would prefer dark chocolate, which is reported to be the least unhealthy type of chocolate. Dark chocolate has a 65% higher cocoa content in comparison to milk and white chocolate and contains far more antioxidants, which are good at protecting our hearts.
Money vs. Egg
If you know that your mum, dad or someone else always gets you an Easter egg every year without fail, you could perhaps suggest that it may be more helpful to you if rather than buy you an egg, they instead gave the couple of quid or however much they normally spend on the egg straight to you. As long as you show that you’re grateful, they should hopefully not mind your suggestion and understand that money is more useful to you as a student.
Sharing is Caring
A simple way to help you eat less is just to share your Easter eggs! Not only will this mean you have less to eat, but it will also help to get you in the good books when you generously offer round your precious egg to your mum, dad, siblings, boyfriend/girlfriend or whoever.
So, there’s a few simple ways to make Easter a little less unhealthy. But, it’s important to remember that it really is okay to treat yourself now and again. So, whatever you do, don’t become too much of a calorie counter and enjoy at least one egg this Easter!
Happy Easter eating!