New horizons in chocolate

Weight loss is work. Plain and simple. There are no short cuts, and every bit of the process takes effort to one degree or another. You need to devote time to exercise, time to planning and time needs to be devoted to preparing your meals. Skipping exercise will bring you lesser results, failing to plan leads to many disastrous moments and eating out or eating a lot of packaged meals is a sure fire way to make the scale drift up because of the added salt, fat and chemical enhancements. Time becomes one of your most valuable assets when trying to make any kind of lifestyle change. We have been doing this weight loss journey as a family since December of 07, and a whole lot of the planning, prep and cooking has fallen on my shoulders. It is not a jab at my husband or my son, but simply a fact of our lives. Out of convenience and logic, we have drifted into a largely traditional model of stay at home mom and working dad . It works well, we see many benefits and we both really enjoy this model. That is not to say it does not have it's moments of stress.

One thing I have been casually doing for the last 20 or so years is learning herbal medicine and energetic medicine. I have considered going for a formal degree, but as I have no intention of doing this as a practice , I don't see the real point. I am a Reiki Master with certification that allows me to offer treatment to others in a non hands on fashion. I do this well, but herbs are my first and foremost passion.Herbal medicine is different from conventional forms in the fact that it treats the root cause of imbalance and not simply the symptoms. Since we began the weight loss journey, my time has been very limited, and my own studies have been pushed aside.Two weeks ago I was asked to participate in an ongoing large Reiki healing project, and not only did I agree to participate, but it reminded me that it has been a long time since I devoted time and energy to my own studies, and so I remedied that. I made a commitment to myself to devote at least an hou each day to my own studies, and so far I have succeeded. Homeschool-check ! Houswork-check ! Exercise- check ! Studies-check ! Energetic work-check ! And with it came a dim memory of two herbs that work well together but are not always thought of as being combined together-chocolate and cayenne pepper . What do they do ? They energize you. So what could be a more perfect seasoning combo for an evening meal ? Rather than eat dinner and turn into a slug, eat and actually be present for the evening.

Chocolate Chili chicken

2 T Hersheys Dark cocoa powder( plain will also do)
1/8th t cayanne pepper
2 boneless skinnless chicken breasts

Combine the cocoa and cayanne and mix well. Spinkle on the chicken breast and rub in- coat both sides. Let sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, grill or broil( I cooked ours in the George Forman Grill)

Tastewise it needed a little something, but energetically it kept hubby and I very alert but made our son fall into a very deep sleep very early. It is definately worth experimenting with . Incidentally, adding a small amount of cocoa powder to your favorite chili recipe will give the same affect.

Log for yesterday- I am not taking pics of all meals because they are all pretty much the same
exercise-
rowing 15 min
Wii fit 10 min- balance
Jillian Micheals Ultimate fitness 10 min
bike 10 min
weights 200 reps

Breakfast-
Oats, barley, rye flakes
ground flax,crasins,seed nut mix,wheat bran,coconut,goji berries
olive oil and peanut butter
Yo plus digestive yogert, apple
coffee,water

Lunch-
Turkey pastrami and provalone on whole wheat english muffin
celery and carrot sticks, blood orange
yo plus digestive yogert,water

Dinner-
Chili chocolate grilled chicken
Brown and whole grain rice, California blend
tossed salad, fresca

Snacks
afternoon- sugar free jello, sugar free pudding
evening- sugar free pudding,Fiber Plus bar, apple
carrot and celery sticks

water 18 (144 oz)
Fruits 3
veg 7
lean protien 2
dairy 2
healthy fats 2