Easter is a 4-day holiday NOT a 4-day feast!! Easter should be a time to relax and enjoy the company of family of friends, and I hope you all have a chance to do this while being ‘sensible’ and not overindulging in Easter bunny treats! Instead of feasting all day every day of the long weekend, select Sunday as your ‘special’ day.
Of course, you are only human…so I know you are going to have some chocolate. Rather than making ‘bad choices’, why not learn how to make choices that will be kind to your waistline.
The two lists below outlines the best choices for Easter splurges and their not so good alternatives – of course, the foods in the ‘Good Choices’ list are not totally guilt-free, however, these are much more ‘kilo-friendly’ than their ‘bad’ alternatives.
Good Choices
Hot Cross Bun, Plain: contains 150 calories, 2.5 grams fat
Cadbury small Marshmallow Egg, 23g: contains 92 calories, 2.8 grams fat
Darrell Lea Nougat Egg, 100g: contains 388 calories, 15 grams fat (probably halve this with a friend, as 100g is a LOT of nougat)Hard Candy Egg, 100g: contains 370 calories, 0 grams fat (again, only eat half of this, otherwise you will have a sugar-high!)
Make sure you buy good quality chocolate. Don’t buy cheap eggs from the $2 Shop (or Woollies) but, instead, purchase some quality chocolate in a small portion size. For example treat yourself to some small Lindt eggs (i.e. the ones in the packets) & enjoy every bite, instead of purchasing cheaper chocolates in bigger quantities.
Bad Choices:
Hot Cross Bun, Buttered: contains 222 calories, 10.5 grams fat
Cadbury small Crunchie Egg, 23g: contains 121 calories, 6.4 grams fat
Mars Bar Chocolate Egg, 100g: contains 538 calories, 38 grams fat
Plain Chocolate Egg, 100g: contains 530 calories, 30 grams fat
As you can see, the bigger the egg the more calories / fat it will contain!! Even a small, solid chocolate egg will be around 80 calories and 4.5g fat…so be careful with your chocolate, as we all know it’s pretty easy to eat more than 1 small chocolate egg. For example, a relatively ‘small’ hollow Easter egg weighs around 50g and contains 270 calories while a large chocolate rabbit weighs around 150g and has 770 cals
…and a few Other Suggestions:
Make a rule with family and friends that there is no chocolate giving this year.
Move away from the chocolate tradition and start something new. Why not try a fruit hamper, movie tickets, music cards or even a bunch of flowers?
With kids why not set up an outdoor Easter egg hunt? Include the children and adults and make it challenging – most of all include lots of running and laughing. Activities like this burn calories, and it is a lot of fun!
If you want a chocolate fix over Easter – but are determined to go ‘cold turkey’ on anything egg / bunny shaped – try a Jarrah Choc-O-Lait (or something similar) instant chocolate drink. If prepared as directed, it only contains 46 calories and 1 gram of fat. Perfect!
The Natural Way offers great eating, drinking and nutritional advice to all of our weight loss clients all year round! If you have been struggling to manage your weight, you need to talk to the weight loss experts. After all, we have been in business for over 40 years, and we know we can help you to get back the body you want. Call us today on 1300 SLIMMER (1300 754663) and make your FREE appointment to find out more about us.