I shrieked in horror at the chubby person in my bathroom as I stepped out of the shower. It took only a moment for my eyes to clear, and then I realized that it was only my round reflection in the full-length mirror.
Then I yelped a second time at how much weight I had apparently gained. It was diet time.
At first, I hung my head in despair at the thought of having to say goodbye to my dear old, sugary friends and switching to healthier desserts. But it was time to start eating better and cutting calories, so I summoned the courage to turn the spotlight on my dessert addiction.
I found myself sometimes eating more calories at dessert than I consumed from the entire main course!
Don't Give Up on Desserts, There's Hope!
Many people simply cut out desserts all together. That just plain stinks. There was no way I could go cold turkey and give up my favorite part of a meal.
I started looking around, experimenting with recipes, and happily discovered that there are many delicious alternatives to my favorite high-fat, carbohydrate-laden, dessert dishes. A healthier dessert does not have to taste like cardboard with air icing!
In desserts, fats and sugars are the ingredients that really pile up the calories. Replacing those things with healthier alternatives and adding ingredients like fruits and whole grains to your recipes will help make dessert better for you and less of a guilty pleasure.
At the market, if you feel compelled to buy a drool-inducing packaged dessert, glance at the nutritional information label first. See how much each serving contains of your recommended daily allowance of fat. If it is a high percentage, put the package down, walk slowly away and over to the fresh fruit aisle.
Also, always take note of the serving size and "number of servings" per container. Sometimes what you might think is a single serving actually is two or more!
Healthier Dessert Recipes Are Easy to Find
In the olden days, there were amazing places called "libraries" and "book stores" that lent out or sold magical, strange things called "books". Surprisingly, unimaginable amounts of these "books" still exist, with thousands upon thousands of them available that contain recipes for low-calorie desserts.
Waddle down to your local book store or library - they still exist - and you will find treasure troves of healthy recipe books.
Now in this millennium, we have the beloved internet literally at our fingertips. It is very easy to hop on your search engine of choice and find a bajillion healthier dessert recipes for treats that taste great and are better for you. Search for terms like "healthy dessert" or "low-calorie dessert recipes".
Try Some Lower Calorie Substitutions
When making your own desserts from higher calorie recipes, it is possible to substitute some of the standard ingredients with lower calorie alternatives. For example, in place of butter, oil, or margarine you can sometimes use applesauce or another fruit purée.
You can get away with substituting low-fat or skim milk for whole milk or cream at times. Experiment with lower calorie ingredient alternatives, and come up with your own healthier recipes.
If you are trying your hardest to diet, lose weight and eat the right foods all the time, it can be a real pain. But if you look in the right places for healthier recipes, and are not afraid to experiment with different ingredients, you can happily include lower calorie desserts into your meals.
There really are great tasting, healthier desserts!
Patrick V. Thomas has started posting free recipes, reviews and articles on his blog, Low Calorie Foods HQ.
http://lowcaloriefoodshq.com/
Copyright 2012 - Patrick V. Thomas. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprints: You may reprint this article as long as you give the author name credit, leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, and follow all of the EzineArticles terms of service for Publishers.
