redefine fitness

The other day at a networking event,  I met a woman who felt totally lifeless and stuck in her 9-to-5 job but was unsure of how to quit and start her own business doing something she really loved – makeup design.  I totally understood her fears; I was in the same boat several years ago.  Plus, her interest in makeup design is in the personal services business, just like mine.  I spent some time talking to her and relating my story in hopes that I would excite her and motivate her a little bit to keep trying, because she was losing faith.   I mean, I was excited to know someone who could teach me how to do put on all the makeup I buy, and I really could tell that she needed a few gals to tell her all the exciting ways she could make this a career.  She needed support.

This, of course, is where my personal trainer-esque comments started flowing.  I told her that if she had a business card, I’d have taken one in a heartbeat.  Taking the first step is the hardest, and for a lot of people they find ways to NOT do it.  (Are you seeing the similarities to fitness and lifestyle change here?)  I THINK I got her friend to agree to be her “accountable” person who would give a little push make her create business cards by a certain deadline.  Then she can get networking (and I can start passing her cards to all my friends who want their makeup done, he he) and get support from other friends and entrepreneurs.  Then the ideas start flowing.

The bottom line is, this is usually how it goes with health and fitness.  You want to lose weight, get a little more toned……but you don’t know how to start AND you are a little afraid to do it.  That’s a major commitment.  The key to success here is your support network; the more people you have cheering for you, the better you feel.  A personal trainer like me is great for that but it’s not the whole package – if you are going to make a major change you are better off being open about it so you don’t hold on to those insecurities too tightly and feel so alone.  I have never had a happy client who didn’t have full support from spouses, family, or friends.  It’s just too easy to get sucked up in something else or negative thoughts (especially if those important people are flat out UNsupportive).

The other key thing is accountability.  Not everyone can be accountable to themselves, so they need someone else to keep them in check.  If  a personal trainer is not an option, the next best thing is a workout buddy or a group exercise class that you regularly attend.  This way it’s easy not to skip or psych yourself out, because you are on the hook with someone else.  I have some clients email or text me when they workout on days we do not meet – they know I am always monitoring if they workout or not, and they know that someone cares.

Think of this the next time you feel unmotivated, stuck, lacking creativity….anything.  You might be amazed at not only how much other people can help you succeed, but how much they WANT to help you succeed.

I have been talking to a lot of clients (and more) about sleep and rest lately.  Not only because it is something near and dear to my heart (it is), but because the change from summer to fall has gotten EVERYONE sick or worn down.  It may sound like an oxymoron that I, a trainer, am telling people to rest instead of exercising every free moment they have.  But I look at clients’ bodies a little differently, and it is no different how I look at (and treat) my own.   Rest is not something we are forced to do when we are sick; it is one of many ways to care for ourselves so that we can RESIST sickness.

These days, sleep seems to be considered a “luxury”.  Let me explain why  try to make it a priority (do I always succeed? NO), and why I encourage clients and all others to do the same.  Don’t worry, this won’t be super technical – that is, the body’s processes are so complex that I couldn’t explain it all if I wanted to.  In a sleep-deprived body, a lot of things short circuit.  You may have experienced (aside from fatigue) crankiness, fogginess, headaches, random aches, sugar cravings, or anything else.  There is a lot of organ recharging and cell repair that goes on while we sleep, and if we don’t get enough sleep, we don’t get properly “recharged” and “repaired”.  When this happens, it puts a huge drain on our system – in effect, the body goes into stress mode (read my previous post for more on stress).  Add to the mix our typical diet that places stress on our body, and it becomes a mindless, vicious cycle.  We drink coffee (lots of it), eat more sugar, drink “energy” drinks (battery acid, I call it)…..after a while we are toast.  And we don’t even know it; we are in effect pumping ourselves up with things that are hurting us even more just to stay AWAKE.  Hopefully you see where I’m going – it’s about more than staying awake.  It’s about caring for our our bodies so those bodies will keep ticking when we really need it.  Like now – when we are all fighting a cough, an allergy, a chill.

The change of season can take a toll on us (which one depends on each person) – I hate to see people getting sick, but it is a daily reminder of how well people are taking care of themselves on a regular basis.  The tank is already drained and there is little left to fight the shorter days, colder nights, and so on.  I am a walking example that it is possible to reverse this cycle – I rarely get full-on sick now.  I sneeze a bit, sleep too lightly, get some digestive upset (TMI?) – but I go to acupuncture, target my diet for what is deficient (with guidance from Chinese medicine, really), slow down a bit,  and I bounce back in a couple days.  I really practice what I preach.  So today, when I told my client to take a bath and go to sleep before 11pm**, I really mean it.  I know it works.  I will help her reach that goal of doing it more often than not, so we can get her body back in balance and get more out of her workouts.  Because in the end, I can work her until she’s sweating bullets every other day, but if her body is not in balance she will see less weight loss -  maybe even none – and the cold that she just got over might come back sooner than she wants.

It should always be a part of anyone’s exercise plan: rest, eat well, SLEEP.  And lay off the coffee!  Take care of your body so, when you need it, your body will take care of you.

**Why 11pm?  Again, we are cyclical: up to 11pm our melatonin rises to make us sleepy (this is when you SHOULD go to bed!).  Between 11pm-1am our bodies are in high speed recharge mode; this is supposed to happen while we are sleeping.   So if you find yourself getting a “second wind” or unable to fall asleep before 1 or 2am, this is why.  It will take some practice to get back to sleeping before 11pm, even though it may sound crazy right now.

This article is taken from Kristen Thalheimer, a business and personal coach I know from Boston.  It’s a simple but great reminder that change can be GOOD, and is often the key to happiness (few of us are actually happy with every single thing in our life, as is).  This certainly applies to my area of expertise – after all, changing your fitness level or health status is not easy.  The trick is to not let the scary element STOP you….

Eat, Pray, Love, and Get Unstuck. . . just outside your door

Sure, it would be great to travel to another country (or three) the way Elizabeth Gilbert does in Eat, Pray, Love to pursue your own personal “search for everything.” If you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, Gilbert felt stuck in her marriage, and then, wow, she got herself really unstuck by signing a book deal and traveling for a year to Italy, India, and Indonesia. Thankfully, however, if you’re on your own personal search, you don’t have to go that far.  Your own proverbial backyard can provide an abundance of un-sticking opportunities.

A lot of people feel stuck because, as they tell me, they don’t know what to do next.  They have a good job, but not great.  Or, they have a relationship, but it’s not exactly the one.  And then, sadly, the years go by. And still their job/relationship/life is good, but not great.

But here’s the good news: You don’t have to know THE answer to start your “search for everything,” you only have to DO something.  One little something.  But best – take a deep breath – if you do that little something that scares you.

What kinds of scary? I don’t mean the kind of scary such as getting over a fear of spiders (my phobia) or a fear of heights.  I do mean those things that stand out as exciting and scary at the same time. Search your mind and your heart for the nexus of exciting and scary, and that’s where the gold is.

What might that little something be for you?  Here’s a list of things that might sound exciting and scary.  Remember, start small; then go big.

Travel by yourself: not necessarily to India, but how about to the next town, or to a city two hours away by car?  Rent a car, book a hotel room.  Walk, shop, and yes, eat by yourself.  One hour? One day?  One week? Whatever you can do.

Take a class: medieval history, knitting, calculus, car repair.

Do something physical: a long-distance walk, guided sea kayaking, kick-boxing.

Make something: build a table, refinish furniture, start a garden, paint.

By doing anything, big or small, which is different from your usual routine, you do several things at once:

You build a new neural pathway in your brain, i.e. you learn something new.

You prove to yourself you can do it, i.e., build confidence.

While your mind is occupied with one enjoyable thing, it can actually work on other unrelated questions, i.e., what’s my next life step.

You open yourself up to unexpected new ideas.

This last one is key to why this connects with getting unstuck.  When you invite new people and new situations into your life, you get to say whether you like it or not; whether it sparks something in you.  Follow the spark.  It is the magic that tells you to keep going (or not).  Sooner than you think, you may be onto that path that takes you from a good life to a great life.

Elizabeth Gilbert’s year of traveling is a story about having personal faith, taking some risks, and doing what her heart tells her to do.  Finding your path need only start with the same faith in yourself and just a little step outside your door.

The following article comes from my friends at the Life Empowerment Wellness Center in Sandy Springs, GA. They are a holistic chiropractic office with practitioners who, like me, are generally concerned with preventative health care for wellness.  Chiropractic is not just for back pain! (see other myths here.)  Remember, your spinal cord is part of the central nervous system which controls vital organs that create “health”  (heart, lungs, liver, kidneys)……

What Would Happen if Chiropractors Were the Primary Care Doctors for Families?

A progressive thinking HMO in Illinois was investigating varied approaches to cutting costs while producing improved patient outcomes and patient satisfaction rates.  They took a very unconventional approach.  In their investigations they found that chiropractors had one of the broadest educational programs among all health professionals, they had extraordinary safety records for their treatments, they were able to treat patients from infants to seniors with similar results, they were trained when to refer to medical professionals and they had the highest patient satisfaction rate amongst licensed professionals.  On final decision, they chose chiropractors to be the PRIMARY physicians for the families in the test group.  They hypothesized that if patients could be first treated with safe, effective natural therapies (chiropractic care) to resolve the patient’s health concern then they would save thousands in surgeries, medications, side effects and hospitalizations.  The results were stunning!

The first conventional HMO in the U.S. to use doctors of chiropractic as primary care physicians found that after just two years of utilizing the primary care chiropractors, their hospitalizations were reduced by 80%, outpatient surgery was reduced by 85% and prescription drug use was reduced by 56%.

The HMO discovered a secret that the chiropractic profession has been trying to share with the world for more than 110 years now…safe, natural, conservative approaches delivered by doctors of chiropractic produce healthier bodies that are more able to heal from injuries, infections, ailments, and chronic disease.  The care simultaneously produces happier and more satisfied patients who are ready to create healthier lives.  Could you imagine the impact on the health and finances of our country if this health model was implemented across all our 50 states?

Imagine the operating gears of a battery-operated mechanical clock – smooth, precise, efficient.  Now imagine shoving a few grains of sand in those gears – they still might work, but less smoothly, less efficiently.  Put in more and more sand, or larger and larger grains of sand, and the gears will work slower, louder, burn more juice from the batteries, and start affecting the time on the face of the clock – or the clock may stop altogether.

Obviously this is my metaphor for our bodies.  The way our bodies work, to me, is the most complex example of science.  NATURE.  Natural science.   All of our systems (internal organs, muscle groups, or neural pathways for example) interact with each other in order to respond to the “grains of sand” that are introduced on a daily basis.  We were built this way for a reason, and our bodies will make every attempt it can to exist the way it was designed to exist – just like the gears that will keep moving as hard as they can to keep the clock ticking.

Our lifestyles, environmental factors, stress, diet and other external elements (our “sand”) cause much of the illnesses and general health complaints that we experience on an increasing basis.  To remedy these, we claim ’science’ – basically Western interventions – as the savior that we rely upon for a quick solution to the problem.  By Western interventions, I not only mean pharmaceuticals (the foundation of Western medicine), but today’s “diets”, synthetic supplementation, cosmetic surgery, etc.  Of course there are always exceptions – but they are fewer than you think – but otherwise what I’ve just listed is very myopic.  They are not NATURAL science.  They are band-aids that do not address in the long term any causes or solutions that will get our clocks back into natural working order on a whole basis – that is, without experiencing side effects or systemic damage, which then repeats the cycle of relying on “science”.

What I am saying is this: we are getting further away from knowing how to return our clocks to being smooth and efficient as they were meant to be.  We may think that we are living healthy by subsisting on protein shakes and meal replacement bars because the marketing sounds logical and we want to lose weight, but we are actually cheating our bodies from the nutrition that enables them to function the best.  We lose weight in the short term but risk long term damage to our internal systems because it wasn’t lost properly.  Women take a synthetic drug to conveniently have 1 or 2 menstrual cycles per year, because a voice on the commercial told us 1 per month is unnecessary.  We gain convenience and “freedom”, but again we incur long term risks for cancer and other diseases or side effects because we are cheating our hormonal system.

Be careful what you adopt as a “healthy” alternative to the status quo.  I applaud your efforts to lead a healthy life – but so does the multi-billion dollar ‘health and wellness’ industry.  Listen to the claims that are made by these products, do your research, and try to change your mindset from those who fall prey to the allure of convenience and immediate gratification promised by a “magic bullet”.  It does take time to do this – and that is why I do it full time and offer it as a service to people. And there are multiple schools of thought on what really makes our clocks tick naturally.   So if you are going to listen to someone, listen to someone who knows more than what you just heard in a 30-second commercial or read in a major media headline article.  If I haven’t turned you off already, I hope one of the people you listen to is me!

With the summer days becoming more hot and humid, my clients that like to exercise outside are suddenly LESS motivated to step out the front door.  I don’t disagree – sometimes sweating buckets and gasping for thick air while your skin cooks is not the best thing for an intense workout.  Days like this can decrease motivation, increase fatigue and ruin a perfectly good workout.

There are some great things to do inside (after you turn up your A/C) to get a workout; and remember it doesn’t all have to be at once, either.  Do three to five 10-minute intervals throughout the day if you are hanging around the house.  Here’s what I do to get clients’ hearts racing and muscles pumping:

• STAIRS are my favorite.  If you have a long flight of stairs, run (or walk) up and down – you will work up a good sweat after several minutes – and alternate by taking one stair at a time, then two, etc.  If you only have a few stairs, you can do something similar and pretend like you are in a step class: do standing jumps up the stairs, step up and down 2 at a time, do a fast shuffle up and down the bottom step.
• Mix in jumping jacks and running in place to keep up your heart rate.  Plus it’s more fun!
• Lunges and squats are great to slow yourself down but keep the intensity UP.  Good for butt and thighs, they will keep metabolism up and increase tone.
• Finish with some push ups (on your knees if necessary – no one can see you!) and planks for some quick core and upper body.

The great thing is that there is no equipment involved – which is the point, because it’s a quick workout – and that you can vary the intensity based on your level of fitness.  As a beginner, do this almost every day for 30 minutes and you will notice a difference.  As an avid runner or more advanced exerciser, use this to fill in gaps when the weather stinks.  Either way, have fun with it (it may make you feel like a kid again, bouncing around the house) and get moving when you are not motivated to go anywhere!

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“Core strength” is a buzzword in the fitness industry that is not totally understood by most people.  Some might just think it means doing situps, some think we’re born with it, or some might not know how to work on core strength at all.  I work it into all exercise programs and tailor the skill level to each client, and I will give some general tips here.  Want to test your core strength?  Read on.

Briefly, core strength involves having the proper musculature in your trunk or midsection to properly carry the body.  That includes “abs” (rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis), obliques (internal and external), back (erector spinae).  And since we move in 3 dimensions – side flexion , extension and flexion (front to back), rotation – this is a very functional and important concept for everyone.   You may have heard that the rectus abdominis (the long flat muscle that runs from your pelvis to your ribs) is one of the bigger muscles in your body – which is great for burning calories – but it only moves you one way in trunk flexion.  This is what you work when you are doing crunches.

Now, here’s the test: does your ab routine consist only of crunches?  If so, you may be sacrificing strength in the other core muscles, which causes an imbalance and places you at risk for injury – like low back pulls/spasms, pain in other joints, or even oblique tears if you play sports that involve rotation (golf, softball).  Most injuries occur in the rotational plane because it is rarely trained well, if at all.  Just go look in a gym and see how many people are doing any trunk rotation exercises; you’ll probably see 4 people doing crunches on a mat before you see one person doing seated trunk rotations.  But this type of motion is very common every day, whether you are hurling a bowling ball, sweeping/raking, or lifting a child (think about it – do you only lift boxes or kids that are right in front of your toes?).

I said in the beginning that I tailor core exercises to the skill level of each client – so don’t immediately go do 100 trunk rotations and woodchops because I made you feel guilty!  The first tip is to think really hard about how balanced your core muscles are.

Here is a demonstration of a seated trunk rotation with a medicine ball, a fairly good exercise for beginners to focus on core strength (the more beginner, the lighter the ball).  The focus is on form at first, not weight – this uses all core muscles in either stabilization or action, so it’s important to get it right.  If you can do 3 sets of 12 reps for 4 or 5 workouts, you’re in good shape to progress to a more challenging seated angle or medicine ball weight.  If you are too weak in some or all of the muscles used, you may want to work each muscle in isolation.  Here’s how you’ll know:

• if you cannot do 8-12 reps without keeping your back straight (ie, your back curves into a “C” shape and your shoulders slump forward), your erectors (low back) are weak.  Work on those for several weeks by doing Supermans.
• if your feet lift off the floor while you are rotating to each side, then either your abs or obliques is weak.  Try a lighter or no medicine ball (you can hold each end of a light weight, too).  If that doesn’t help, isolate the muscles for several weeks with Side Planks (only as shown here, with bent knees and elbows).

Once you build up strength and coordination, you will be able to move from seated trunk rotation to Standing trunk rotation, and so on.  There is no limit to what you can do, you just need to start with the basics so you are training the proper form and focusing on strengthening the correct muscles.  In fact, many advanced movements that work core stability can also give you a pretty good cardio workout too!  Core strength is crucial to avoid injury and maintain balance and good posture, so I encourage you to add a little more “core” to your day!

As you can guess, one of my many motives in life is to help people improve their own health – and  much of the time this starts with weight loss through exercise.  Education is my best tool (for example, this blog) to help people create the change they need from within.

However, I am but a soldier on the front lines of the war against obesity and deteriorating health that is sweeping the nation.  I am fighting against the powerful fast food and processed food industries, pharmaceutical industries, fad diets’ and exercise gadgets, video game culture, and myriad other opponents that perpetuate the average American’s sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle – or, as the younger generations view it, all things NORMAL.  Two-thirds of this country is obese – a term that, especially to children, has probably lost meaning.  As we get bigger, so do our cars, meal portions, and clothes sizes – thus resetting what is “normal”.   Big business will not change this as long as it is profitable.  And the growing size of Americans certainly seems to be making someone’s wallet fat.

Here is my point: Michelle Obama’s campaign against childhood obesity is something that we should all support and follow.   The President has created the resulting “task force”  to tackle the following objectives:

(a) ensuring access to healthy, affordable food;
(b) increasing physical activity in schools and communities;
(c) providing healthier food in schools; and
(d) empowering parents with information and tools to make good choices for themselves and their families.

The question is, will government get out of its own way and help the fight?  It is a question that was raised this week by one of my friends and colleagues Veronica Brown.  We certainly need to do all we can to shift our own mindset to help ourselves, but Veronica makes a strong point.

As much as I am a fan of personal responsibility, I believe that foods affect our behavior like drugs, and the effect is increased for children. If my belief is a fact, then it would inconsistent to invoke personal responsibility in our use of food while we regulate and legislate tobacco, alcohol, and narcotics.

Example: Is it realistic to expect kids to stay away from a candy machine in school? Can we fault parents for a lack of control when their kids spend their lunch money on candy? Would food companies voluntarily turn their backs on the schools as a market, for the sake of the nation’s health? Would school districts turn down the money they make from these machines?

We should all enlist to fight this battle, but you and I are not powerful to lead it.  I will stand behind the Task Force general because it is the Task Force that can influence the change necessary to keep physical activity in schools, to keep the food and drug industries from killing us by flooding the market with mislabeled, overprocessed, chemical-laden food and drugs, and to provide Americans with the proper “weapons” to prevent obesity and disease (rather than focus on ways to treat it after it’s too late, as is the current norm).  This is the quickest way to lend hope to the fact that not only WE can live long and healthy lives, but that our children and grandchildren have a chance to do the same.

I wholeheartedly agree with Veronica: “I love free enterprise when it works. It works great for magazines, blue jeans, and washing machines. It does not work for addictive substances, assuming we place the highest value on our health and safety.”

“Stress” is a common buzzword in today’s on-the-go culture.   I’ll bet if you kept count, you will say it more than once today.  Often we use it as a broad term to describe a state of mind.  (eg, “I’m stressed out about losing my job!” or “I’m too stressed out to go to the movies.”)  But can it really make you fat?

Think of it in a literal translation, though:  the physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain (thank you, dictionary.com).  The stress you put on your muscles when you lift a weight, for example, is helpful in building and maintaining bone mass.  But I’m not writing to talk about that.  Hopefully you can relate that image to this translation (also from dictionary.com):  a specific response by the body to a stimulus, as fear or pain, that disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological equilibrium of an organism.  This, of course, describes what you have heard of as “fight or flight” syndrome.   You brain releases cortisol to, in essence, make you temporarily superhuman so you can save yourself from a dangerous situation (such as an encounter with a bear, with which I have personal experience).  Unfortunately, the side effect of that is that it shuts down an many other systems as it can to put all its energy into that one,  superhuman effort to outsmart the bear chasing you up the hill. Once the bear attack is over, your body’s relaxation response kicks in so your brain knows to ease up on the cortisol levels.  Then it goes back to its regularly scheduled program of controlling blood pressure,  glucose metabolism and insulin release (think “blood sugar”), immune function and many others.  This is one of the many amazing, complex balancing acts (Cliffs Notes version given here!) that our bodies can do.

So if elevated cortisol levels in these stressful situations give us “superhuman” responses like increased mental acuity, quick bursts of energy, lower pain threshold and bursts of heightened immunity (remember, you are fighting a bear here), how can it be that bad?  If the levels of cortisol are always high, that’s how.  If you are constantly in a state of STRESS – whether mental or physical – the cortisol is pumping into the bloodstream without the brain being able to tell it to relax (sound familiar?).  Eventually your body will do a mental eye roll and start ignoring the message that the elevated cortisol level is sending – thus it becomes desensitized and no longer elicits that “superhuman” response.  After a prolonged period of time, you will get the opposite reaction as your chronic stress tires your body out.  Then, you might experience this:

• decreased mental acuity
• blood sugar imbalance (hypoglycemia, for example)
• elevated blood pressure
• decreased immunity
• abdominal fat

Yikes.  Do you know anyone who is constantly stressed (at work, say) and ALWAYS sick?  Know you know why.   And you may know that abdominal fat puts you at a higher risk for heart disease (and all related factors).  There even may be a connection to higher cortisol levels and overeating (especially refined carbohydrates) – which can also contribute to unwanted FAT!   This highlights the importance of recognizing and managing your stress levels.  Everyone has different responses to different amounts of stress, but none of it is good on a chronic basis.

Exercise is a great way to reduce stress levels – even a little physical activity can expel that pent-up tension (unless your chronic stress comes from overexercising, but that’s not usually the case these days – more on that later).  You can kill two birds with one stone by reducing stress AND burning fat.  Massage, acupuncture, yoga and meditation have gained popularity as a regular part of Americans’ fitness and health regimen; it really is important to relax and rebalance too! If you are a stress eater, try to outsmart yourself by using a diversion (take a walk, nap or even some deep breaths for a few minutes); just steer clear of those foods (like sugar!) by not allowing yourself close to them in the first place.  Of course, sleep is the magic process that allows your body to reset and repair, so don’t ignore that, especially in high-stress times when you are feeling run down.  I love sleep.  It’s so underrated.

I recommend any of these practices over supplementation (if you know me well you know I’m not a huge fan of that anyway).   You may have seen commercials for cortisol-reducing pills to lose weight (DHEA and adaptogens, for example).  Aside from the studies that show these may not work (there may be other issues in the body that contribute as well), the basic fact is that we are dealing with hormones.  Hormones are a chemical that your body makes to be used somewhere else in your body; that’s nature.  Consuming a synthetic chemical that simulates a hormone is just not the same.  Plus,  your body knows how to balance these things out – if you are not even sure what hormones are at what levels because of stress or any system imbalance, popping a pill is probably not the smartest thing.  If you really need to take this route, at least do it under the direction of a doctor who has tested your blood levels.  But remember, imbalanced hormone levels don’t just happen – which means they are not usually the solution.  Try reducing your stress and taking a look at your physical activity and diet (start with your meat, dairy and sugar intake) to see what is creating the problem.  Then, you’ll have a better chance at avoiding the unwanted fat and disease that comes with it.

We have all seen the press that chocolate gets – both good and bad.  Studies say it’s good for your health; but when you are trying to lose weight, chocolate can be your worst enemy.

Both are true, actually.  Anything in excess will be a diet-buster – chocolate included.  The key is to focus on the quality of chocolate you are eating. The cocoa bean is natural – and had some really great compounds that are, in fact, good for your health.  Look for high quality chocolate that is minimally processed – that means less sugar (dark and bittersweet chocolates), preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, colorings and all that bad stuff.  My rule is this: if it has more than a few ingredients (usually cocoa butter, sugar, soy lecithin and vanilla), I don’t eat it.  And here’s how to cut the calorie and sugar content: look on the nutrition label – and stay away from high sugar content per serving (like 15 grams, and especially 20+ grams).  Dark chocolate will usually have less than 10 grams per serving.

Choosing your chocolate smartly like this will help you avoid higher calories and awful sugars and chemicals that will do harm to your body.  And what about “sugar free” chocolate?  Skip it – the chemical substitutes that make it sugar free are really bad for you.  Keep it natural, and just keep it lower in sugar.  It tastes better anyway!

Enjoy in moderation!