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Could dark chocolate be your secret weapon for weight loss?  It might be!  Dark chocolate as a treat can help support your weight loss efforts in a few ways.  First of all, it’s very low on the glycemic index, which means that it won’t cause sugar spikes.  Keeping insulin levels steady is very important to weight loss.

Dark chocolate can also be helpful for women who have difficulties with emotional eating or food addiction.  It can help satisfy cravings for both sweet and fatty foods, and contains a feel-good compound called PEA which may also help improve mood. Because of its rich flavor and low level of sugar, it’s difficult to eat too much, especially at percentages higher than 80%.

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Do you frequently feel hungry before it’s time for your next meal or snack?  Or does it just feel like you’re ALWAYS hungry?

There are a variety of reasons for persistent hunger.  For one, it could simply be that you’re restricting calories too much.  Eating too little will actually SLOW your metabolism and cause your weight loss to slow as well.  Skipping meals or eating too infrequently has the same metabolism-slowing effect, and it will leave you feeling hungrier throughout the day, too.

Another part of the hunger equation could be WHAT you eat.  Surviving on a lot of sugar or carbs and not eating enough protein, fat and fiber will definitely leave you feeling famished.  This is because sugar and white carbs cause a spike in blood sugar that then plummets shortly thereafter, causing you to crave more of the same!

To stay satiated throughout the day, it’s important to eat frequently and to get a mix of proteins, fibrous and starchy carbs and healthy fats in each meal and snack.

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Ladies, it’s mid-summer and it’s HOT out there!  The warm weather makes us crave cold, fruity, icy treats.  Things that have a fresh flavor, a tropical twist or just help cool us down.

Especially after a workout, it feels great to drink or eat something cold that will help replenish our body’s carbohydrate stores and bring down our body temperature.  The best post-workout snack will also contain a good portion of protein to help jumpstart the muscle rebuilding process.

On those scorching hot days, doesn’t a shake, popsicle or ice cream sound appetizing?  You may think that these treats are off the menu if you’re looking to eat healthy….but that doesn’t have to be the case!  It’s totally possible to make healthy versions of these delicious summer treats at home.

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Let’s face it.  Most of us women lead extremely busy lives.  That leads many of us to eat out frequently or eat packaged foods at home or work for convenience.  While there are healthy restaurant and packaged food options out there, we all know that cooking fresh foods at home is:

• Safest: You control what ingredients go into your food.
• Healthiest: You can swap out ingredients to make your recipes as healthy as possible.
• Cheapest: No restaurant or packaged food will ever be less expensive than preparing at home, especially if you’ve got a family.

However, none of those great reasons for cooking at home change the simple fact that cooking meals takes time. Even if you try to pre-plan recipes and do all your grocery shopping on the weekends, making dinner can still take up 30 – 60 minutes each night.

What if we could cut that dinner prep time down to 5 minutes?  Wouldn’t that make life easier?

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