So you love chocolate? Me too. The other day I wrote a blog article about binge eating and that restrictive diets can have a negative impact on you and your relationship with food. In this blog article, I will elaborate further about flexible dieting and how this can give you the option of having chocolate every day and still get a banging body.

When I found the flexible dieting approach I can honestly say that it changed my life for the better. After years of restrictive dieting and binge eating cycles, I was in my worst health state ever, both physically and mentally.

Flexible dieting did not only help to restore my health, but also my relationship with food. That’s why I am so passionate about this way of living and that’s why I also created my program Body By Nina. My program is an entry-level approach to flexible dieting, providing you with a structure, but at the same time providing you with the ability to swap foods and have dessert every day.

Flexible dieting is an approach to food that not only athletes benefit from, but that anyone can follow to lead a fit, healthy, and balanced lifestyle. Making sure that your diet does not only look after you physically but also mentally and socially as well is really important.

So I know you are all wondering… what is flexible dieting? Well, it’s just that, a flexible diet, but let me elaborate further.

Flexible dieting is where you track your daily food intake in an app (on your computer, tablet or smartphone) like My Fitness Pal, and hit your food quota for the day. You can either track your overall calorie consumption or break it down into a protein, carbohydrate and fat quota. It also important that you consider your fibre and your micronutrient intake (vitamins and minerals) as these are important for your overall health and wellbeing.

I love this approach for so many reasons. Firstly, no foods are off limits if you can fit them into your overall target for the day. This really helps you find a balance in your diet. When you track your food you become more aware the amounts of protein, carbohydrates and fats that are in the foods you eat every day. This, in turn, will help you make better food choices overall. It also eliminates any guilt when you choose to indulge. 

For example, if you want to eat chocolate every day, then you may choose to only have 1 bar or one square rather than two or three like you normally would because only one fits into your daily food target.

So if you’d like to have chocolate every day these are my top tips on how to go about it…

1. Enter your favourite chocolate into you calorie counter first.
2. Allocate an amount that you think that you will be satisfied with.
3. Start adding your breakfast, lunch and dinner – focus on lean protein, complex carbs, healthy fats and vegetables.
4. Add snacks – focus should be on healthy, nutrient dense foods to ensure an adequate intake of micronutrients.
5. After you have added all the meals you might need to adjust the amounts of each ingredient to ensure that you don’t go over on your protein, carbs and fats. 

So YES, now you can have a balanced diet with chocolate daily without feeling guilty about having it and still be reaching your health and fitness goals.

Just give it a try and remember, like anything, it takes the time to get hang of it, but once you do it will be life changing.