The countdown is on

The countdown is on – just two days until my De-chox challenge begins!  If you’re not sure what that is, I’ll explain.

This March the British Heart Foundation are asking people to give up chocolate for the month of March to help raise money for their research.  

I am a bit of a chocoholic. 

Chocolate is my thing.

So giving it up for a month is going to be emotional.  Taking on my six-minute plank challenge is more appealing at this moment!!

I’ve spent the last two weeks looking at how to substitute my chocolate habit and it made me realise, how much my taste buds have a liking for it. 

If there’s a chocolate option, I’ll always go for that.  Even my protein bars are chocolate-based.  Initially that’s not a problem I thought, I’ll make some protein bombs. ( A Bear Grylls recipe)

No, can’t do that, they have raw cacao powder in them!  

My Nakd raw fruit & nut bars – cocoa orange flavour.

Favourite biscuit with a cup of tea – chocolate digestives.

The list goes on……

The challenge is to give up something that you like, makes you feel good and that tastes delicious.  

But what got me thinking was if you just replace a chocolate digestive with a plain one, you are still consuming the refined sugar that doesn’t quite hit the spot of a chocolate one and isn’t part of the objective to cut down on the sugar?

I’ve made a few changes in preparation for the De-chox and have swapped my protein bars to nut-based ones and I’ve made some banana and cashew bread to snack on and I also have sultanas/raisins with me if I feel I need a sugar fix.   

It hasn’t been that traumatic – but then I did by a Toblerone in Tesco at the weekend and had a chocolate swiss roll with custard for my Pudding after a very delicious Sunday Roast!

I am determined to complete my challenge and also be very mindful of what I’m replacing chocolate with. 

I welcome you to join me in the De-chox challenge and join our WhatsApp group to support each other along the way.

Have a wonderful weekend and look forward to seeing you for a chocolate-free March

xx