In past months, learned to love dark chocolate I have. Before paleo, handle it I could not. Now, love it I do. 90% cocoa… wonderful it tastes and relish it I do. BUT, limited quantities I eat and easy that is to maintain now that paleo I am and avoid sugars I do.
Since trying dark chocolate, dark chocolate with chili I have wanted to try. Find it locally, I could not. The other day, saw it I did whilst buying 90% and buy a bar I did.
On a hot, humid planet I live and believe I do that all cultures that live similarly love spicy foods. Suspect I do that it is to make them sweat when spicy foods they eat. Feel cooler in the heat, when sweat they do. In my heart I know this. Consequently, spicy foods I love as well.
When I found the dark chocolate with chili, happy I was to finally try it and try it I did. Odd it was to feel the spice after the sweet. A bad combination? Think not I do.
But a problem I found…
For months now, 85% or higher was the cocoa I tasted. Used to it I was and no other sugars did I eat. Love this cocoa I do now. But when trying the dark chocolate with chili, too sweet it was. At the package I looked and only 45%* cocoa it was. Over three days, finish the bar I did, but buy another I will not. After months of walking the paleo path, overly sweetened chocolate I cannot eat. To my tastes, too sweet it is. Almost, I did not like it. Honest I will be and say that almost I did not finish it.
Glad I am to have tried it. But again I will not.
Do not be afraid to try new things. But know that on the paleo/primal/JERF path, straying to old ways… not the same they will be. Comfort they may sometimes bring, but more often I think, make you see the boundaries of the path they will.
Along the same lines, indulge a little I did during Thanksgiving. A couple pounds I gained (and lost them again I have). These last few weeks, served me well they have in spite of these stumbles. For shown me they have how much a little waiver in walking the path can affect my goals and my tastes. The hard boundaries of the path they have shown me and easier it will be to follow.
If weight-loss your goal is (as mine is), then stay on the path you must. Say some will that 95% is ok, but sometimes not enough it is. The weight I gained, because very little I strayed and immediately to the path I returned, lose it again I did. But, on the path had I stayed, then where gain and loss there was, there would only be loss.
These past few weeks and the overly sweet tasting chocolate (which to those eating SAD**, too much dark chocolate they would have tasted), while tasty they were, help MY goals they did not. The only good thing I see: reaffirm my faith they have.
Stay on the path and MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU.
*at best
** Standard American Diet