Dark chocolate & peanut butter. 

Heavenly, yes, but was my lunch combo actually healthy?

More on that later, but first … 

Consider that today I woofed down roughly 3 ounces of 88% dark chocolate — nearly 540 calories — plus another 300-400 calories of organic freshly-grinded peanut butter.

A whopping 900-calorie lunch, spontaneous and unconventional by “The Organic Tank” standards.

Lately I’ve been craving dark chocolate. Also in the past week: I’ve started intermittent fasting for the first time in my life.

Granted, in years past I starved myself to lose weight for wrestling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu grappling tournaments, but I don’t count those occasions as true “intermittent fasting.” My motives for intentional food deprivation are different this time around.

I’m experimenting, easing my way into fasting:

Usually I’ll sleep 6-8 hours, then refrain from eating for the first 8 to 10 hours after waking. That means I’m fasting 15-16 hours a day, leaving an 8- or 9-hour hour window to eat. Eventually I’ll probably play with 24-hour fasting a few times each month, and also go with 18-hour intermittent fasting each day. All in due time.

Unlike many of my friends who fast, I actually aim for calorie restriction. Right now I try to keep my calories under 1,600 calories most days. I’m not saying you should — I’m just saying I do.

Why am I fasting?

To try and detox my body;

to reset my body;

to lessen the burden on my digestive track and organs;

to replenish my microbiome and intestinal bacteria;

to increase my energy and mental alertness;

to cultivate increased discipline and remind my body who’s really in charge (my spirit).

We’ll dive deeper into my fasting methods and experience in a future post… but suffice it to say that Dark Chocolate plus Peanut Butter is not exactly the Breakfast or Lunch of Champions.

If Peak Performance & Age Defiance are primary goals, then there are far superior nutritional options (a Super Salad, for instance. Super Salad, in The Organic Tank lingo, being a salad with 20 or more ingredients including herbs, spices, salts and peppers).

Why the Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter indulgence?

Because life is about BALANCE Even for Organic Tankians.

As much as many technocrats are doing their absolute best to make us more robotic, we’re not robots — we’re human. Thus I recommend that even the strictest and most Enlightened & Elite Eater ought to indulge from time to time. If we repress too much and too chronically, often times it causes us to snap and cause much greater damage via Binge Eating, etc.

And so this Dark Chocolate & Peanut Butter concoction, under my ForzaFitness ethos, effectively serves as a Cheat Meal. It’s not the Holy Grail of Health.

But it’s not junk food, either, at least not when you consume this meal in the proper context.

Let me explain with via analogy:

We’ve all heard wisdom, “It’s not what you say — it’s how you say it.”

And I’m sure you’ve experienced the truth of that principle many times in your life.

Another analogy:

In the fight sports, say competing in a wrestling match or inside the Ultimate Fighting Championship octagon, “the right move” to execute on your opponent usually depends on the circumstances, perhaps how your opponent reacts to a feint or your opponent’s particular weaknesses. In other words, you must learn via experience, intellect and instinct when to hit “the right move at the right time.”

So on the baseball field, in Game 7 of the World Series, it’s not always your best pitch that is most likely to get the strike-out — because the batter might be expecting your best pitch (say, a 97-miles-per-hour fastball).

So it might your third-best pitch, a change-up, that strikes out the other team’s best hitter and wins the World Series.

So for me, Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter, was the right meal at the right time for Monday’s lunch after 16 hours of intermittent fasting. Combined with my craving, it felt like “the right meal at the right time.”

Should I be eating that every day or multiple times per week at this point of my life if I wish to be super healthy and fantastically age defiant?

The answer is certainly “no” — it’s not a good idea to be eating 900-1,000 calories of dark chocolate and peanut butter every day (for myriad reasons).

But I seldom eat ice cream. I seldom eat candy. I don’t eat cakes and donuts.

So if Dark Chocolate and peanut butter serves as my dessert of sorts, well, then I’m probably doing something right.

It’s worth noting that this indulgence cost me a grand total of $3.50 or so. So if money isn’t manifesting at the moment in your life, and you’re effectively living on “a shoe-string budget,” well then Dark Chocolate and peanut butter conveniently becomes the Lesser of Evils.

Is 3 ounces way too much chocolate to be eating at one sitting?

Generally speaking, I’d have to say yes.

The dark chocolate I ate, was it organic?

Sadly, no it was not.

I recommend Organic everything whenever possible, and I recommend 100% Cacao bar when possible.

In this case, it was cocoa, not cacao. 88%, not 100%. And non-GMO, not organic.

Ideal?

No.

But again, we’re not robots. We don’t live in a bubble.

 

 

 

 

 

$3.50 — economoical

Grade: C- (if I ate it every day, I’d give a lower grade)

kind of like saying, 500 pushups a day, 3x a week might be a fantastic idea … every day might be overkill on the joints, rotator cuff and ___ for most people.

 

Dis

 

 

 

 

In fact, there are healthier choices… cacao, powder, nibs

 

reading Dr. Greger’s ll.. low carb Diet and heart disease …

 

 

Let’s analyze my food choice:

 

Balance: