Welcome to week 4 of the Challenge! How’s it going for you all? From the comments and people I know, there are some baggy pants after only 3 weeks. It impresses me how quickly people see improvements when they start eating real food with a bit of extra sleep.
Phase 1 was the major elimination. And then Phase 2, we started reintroducing some things and working to create a solid base for you all to live with after the end of the week. I really hope that all of you have no use for a Challenge or resolution at the beginning of 2011 because this one set you up for a healthy lifestyle that you can continue rocking all year.
Today, I want to talk briefly about dessert and give you a few ideas for healthy dessert recipes.
Healthy Dessert Recipes
Let’s get real…we’re all going to want something sweet now and then. While I agree with Dr. Harris at PaNu about regularly making “Paleo-pancakes” and “Paleo muffins” and Paleo-everything else as a substitute for the sugary, glutinous real deal, I don’t think that necessarily means you can’t dress up fruit and nuts with a little something to make some killer desserts.
How To Make A Healthy Dessert
The key to healthy dessert is making sure the ingredients are high-quality and healthy to begin with. When I make a dessert, the base is basically one or more of the following:
- Fruit
- Nuts
- Coconut Flakes (unsweetened, of course)
- Coconut Cream/Milk
- Coconut Oil
Other than the fruit, these ingredients pack lots of good healthy fat (which helps shut down your appetite for more dessert). The coconut also adds a little sweetness and a flair that says “dessert” to me, when mixed with fruit. That’s enough to take care my sweet tooth.
For sweetness, I add small amounts of chocolate, honey, dried fruit (mainly dates or raisins), and/or 100% fruit juice. You really only need small quantities of these last 3. Once you’ve been eating real foods for a little while, your taste buds reset such that fruit alone is often sweet enough.
Quantity Still Matters
I think the place most people go off the rails with healthy eating is relying too much on fruit (particularly dried fruit) and nuts as snacks and desserts. Yes, honey is natural and is fine in moderation for a sweet fix. There’s nothing wrong with apples and bananas. But you do have to watch how much of them you eat, particularly if you’re trying to drop some fat.
Modern fruits are quite sugary. Dried fruit is even more so and is way too easy to overeat. And as I’ve discussed several times, honey is nutritionally nearly identical to high-fructose corn syrup…it may be healthier in other respects, but it’s not something to eat constantly because it will still pack on the fat.
So how often do I eat dessert? Not even weekly. I might grab a square or two of really dark chocolate (85% or higher) once or twice a week, but I don’t actually put together something sweet all that often. Maybe twice a month, at most.
FREE Dessert Recipe
As a bit of shameless self-promotion, I’m including a recipe for chocolate-covered fried bananas that will be in a cookbook that I’ve been working on for about a year, tinkering and tweaking to come up with lots of great real food recipes.
I won’t call it Paleo, because it’s not strictly Paleo. It’s basically just lots of delicious real food: beef, lamb, poultry, pork, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruits, soups, salads, and yes, even a few desserts. I have a few more odds and ends to finish up, then it’s ready for release, likely in about two weeks. Stay tuned!
So check out my Chocolate-covered Fried Bananas and let me know what you think.
What do you turn to when you need a sweet fix? Have you found your sugar cravings dying off over the course of the Challenge?
Phase 1 was the major elimination. And then Phase 2, we started reintroducing some things and working to create a solid base for you all to live with after the end of the week. I really hope that all of you have no use for a Challenge or resolution at the beginning of 2011 because this one set you up for a healthy lifestyle that you can continue rocking all year.
Today, I want to talk briefly about dessert and give you a few ideas for healthy dessert recipes.
Healthy Dessert Recipes
Let’s get real…we’re all going to want something sweet now and then. While I agree with Dr. Harris at PaNu about regularly making “Paleo-pancakes” and “Paleo muffins” and Paleo-everything else as a substitute for the sugary, glutinous real deal, I don’t think that necessarily means you can’t dress up fruit and nuts with a little something to make some killer desserts.
How To Make A Healthy Dessert
The key to healthy dessert is making sure the ingredients are high-quality and healthy to begin with. When I make a dessert, the base is basically one or more of the following:
Other than the fruit, these ingredients pack lots of good healthy fat (which helps shut down your appetite for more dessert). The coconut also adds a little sweetness and a flair that says “dessert” to me, when mixed with fruit. That’s enough to take care my sweet tooth.
For sweetness, I add small amounts of chocolate, honey, dried fruit (mainly dates or raisins), and/or 100% fruit juice. You really only need small quantities of these last 3. Once you’ve been eating real foods for a little while, your taste buds reset such that fruit alone is often sweet enough.
Quantity Still Matters
I think the place most people go off the rails with healthy eating is relying too much on fruit (particularly dried fruit) and nuts as snacks and desserts. Yes, honey is natural and is fine in moderation for a sweet fix. There’s nothing wrong with apples and bananas. But you do have to watch how much of them you eat, particularly if you’re trying to drop some fat.
Modern fruits are quite sugary. Dried fruit is even more so and is way too easy to overeat. And as I’ve discussed several times, honey is nutritionally nearly identical to high-fructose corn syrup…it may be healthier in other respects, but it’s not something to eat constantly because it will still pack on the fat.
So how often do I eat dessert? Not even weekly. I might grab a square or two of really dark chocolate (85% or higher) once or twice a week, but I don’t actually put together something sweet all that often. Maybe twice a month, at most.
FREE Dessert Recipe
I won’t call it Paleo, because it’s not strictly Paleo. It’s basically just lots of delicious real food: beef, lamb, poultry, pork, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruits, soups, salads, and yes, even a few desserts. I have a few more odds and ends to finish up, then it’s ready for release, likely in about two weeks. Stay tuned!
So check out my Chocolate-covered Fried Bananas and let me know what you think.
What do you turn to when you need a sweet fix? Have you found your sugar cravings dying off over the course of the Challenge?