You Can Have Your Chocolate & Eat It Too

Discovering the flexible diet has been a game changer for me; it completely removed the "cheat meal" / "cheat day" terms from my vocabulary (terms which I personally think should be 'cancelled').

I did struggle in mastering the art of the flexible diet, however, eventually figured out the key secret. If you can answer yes to these two questions without starving yourself, then you my friend are on the right track!

Question No. 1: Does this fit my macros?

Question No. 2: Does this fit my calories?

Asking myself this question has lead me to making the best nutritional choices that I can wear with pride. However, if you're like me and have a sweet tooth problem, or even if you just occasionally like to indulge in the sweet tooth craving with a chocolate bar, brownie/blondie, cookie, or even cake every now and then, you can still indulge it (daily) without going off track with your body composition/training goals.

I indulge in having either a chocolate bar every day for dessert if I want. The key was finding the right healthy alternatives that did not sacrifice taste for the nutritional value, Grenade Carb Killa Chocolate Bars are what blew my mind when I found them. Below is a list of popular treats but paired against the Carb Killa protein bar that is equal in flavour and taste. I have personally tried these flavours many times and even tested them on my friends to verify that the protein bars are just as tasty if not tastier than the original bars.

Regular Brand	Protein Brand
Hershey's Cookies 'n' Cream Cal: 220 C: 28g (Sugar 21g) F: 11g P: 3g	Grenade Carb Killa White Chocolate Cookie Cal: 220 C: 21g (Sugar 2g) F: 8g P: 22g
Snickers Bar Cal: 250 C: 33g (Sugar 27g) F: 12g P: 4g	Grenade Carb Killa Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cal: 230 C: 21g (Sugar 1g) F: 10g P: 20g
​Mars Bar Cal: 233 C: 31.4g (Sugar 26.1g) F: 11.5g P: 4.1g	Grenade Carb Killa Caramel Chaos Cal: 220 C: 21g (Sugar 2g) F: 8g P: 23g
Girl Guide Cookies Mint Thins (2 cookies) (17g) Cal: 120 C: 14g (Sugar 10g) F: 6g P: 1g	Grenade Carb Killa Dark Chocolate Mint (60g) Cal: 214 C: 14g (Sugar 0.6g) F: 8.5g P: 22g

Another thing you will find by substituting high sugar treats with these alternative treats enriched with quality nutritional value into your diet is that your sweet tooth will also reduce; in that when you have a regular piece of cake, or a chocolate bar etc you may find it to be too sweet, chocolatey or rich.

I will warn you that these alternative treats do use Sucralose which, though rarely, but for some can lead to an increased appetite, however if you're tracking your caloric intake and can differentiate between the Sucralose appetite vs your actual appetite (if you're hitting your caloric intake goal and rack your total caloric burn (BMR) you know you are eating enough to sustain a healthy lifestyle, but a little over indulgence on quality calories never hurt anyone, if anything, done right, it helps confuse your metabolism.

Ultimately listen to your body and your taste buds (but give it a fair try).