How I ate Dessert for Breakfast without Gaining a Pound

Me and sweets (especially chocolate) have had a long and enjoyable life together. I ate some form of dessert everyday until I hit age 35.

Stupid metabolism.

I hadn't realized just how much weight I had gained. It sounds weird, but I didn't think my body had changed at all. I was still skinny in my head until I went shopping for a new dress.

I had always worn a size 8 in my adult years. Let's just say that wasn't the number I was seeing that day in the mall. I kept trying on larger and larger sizes until I realized even a 14 was too small. I choked back tears as I left the changing room. I refused to buy a size that big and vowed I'd lose weight.

I tried the traditional way by cutting calories and exercising, but an annoying thing happened. I ran out of calories before I ran out of day and I was starving by 6:00 p.m.

I remember sitting on the couch one evening thinking, "God didn't make us to be fat, and he sure enough didn't want us to be hungry either," so I knew there had to be a better way to lose weight.

I scoured the internet for alternative weight loss plans, and finally found one that captured my interest.

The low carb way of eating, ie. Wheat Belly, Atkins, and the like, meant no calorie counting, eating until I was full, and *gasp* I even got to eat dessert.

Hey, now that's my kind of diet!

I've been in search of a healthy replacement for chocolate chip cookies for a while. This recipe is fantastic, and nearly tops my favorite low carb, gluten free chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe.

The butter makes this batter extremely soft. If it's warm in the kitchen, I suggest refrigerating the batter just to firm it up a bit before putting it in the oven.

If you're feeling nutty, add 1/4 cup chopped nuts.

Going wheat free has helped me with my weight loss, and it's also relieved some strange symptoms I had been experiencing when I was a wheat eater:

• Severe bloating
• Stomach pain
• Unexplained diarrhea
• Feelings of Anger (I was to the point of seeing a professional)

This recipe is very versatile. By adjusting a few ingredients, you can make:

• Vanilla Muffins. Omit cocoa and chocolate chips and use 2 tbsp of coconut flour.
• Banana Muffins. Add one mashed banana and decrease coconut milk to 1/2 cup.

Tweaking and creating grain-free recipes can be tricky, but here's a few tips to get you started on your way to becoming a great gluten free baker. Just remember me if you make it big and become the next low carb megastar.

1. Start by taking an existing recipe and add or omit ingredients to your liking.  This step helps keep you from having gloop that gets thrown in the trash. By adding more sweetener or adding a shredded fruit or vegetable to a recipe, you can adjust the flavor and texture without changing the backbone of the recipe, which is flour and leavening agents.
2. Bake often. The more you work with low-carb recipes, the more you get to know how a recipe is put together. Generally, the backbone ingredients don't change much, it's the proportions that change. Once you learn, say, the ratio of leavening to flour, it's easy to create your own recipes.
3. Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. Hey, sometime's you've got to go with your gut. If you're curious as to how something would taste, go for it. Some of the best dishes in culinary history have been an accident.
4. Be smart and write it down. In the beginning, I made the worst mistake by not writing down how much of each ingredient I put in a recipe. The result? I'd have an awesome dessert, only to never be able to duplicate it because I forgot what I put in it.

When I was overweight, I thought I had to eat minimal amounts of food to reach my goal. I never dreamed that I'd be able to eat dessert while being on a diet.

Weight loss comes with eating healthy foods like proteins, vegetables, nuts, and lots of good fats. Dessert can fit in there, too, when it's made the low carb way.

My loss of weight didn't happen when I decided to go on a diet, it happened when I decided to begin a new way of eating. Focusing on eating healthy low carb foods, which thankfully included dessert, was my key to returning to my normal weight.

So the next time you see your hungry dieter friend munching on carrot sticks and water, just whip out your chocolate chip cookie, smile, and take a big bite.