Easter is just around the corner and that means one thing! Chocolate! And generally lots of it! Special events and holidays like Easter and Christmas can be a challenging time when you’re trying to lose baby weight and follow a healthy eating plan. It can feel like temptation is around every corner, waiting to sabotage your weight loss efforts!
Fortunately, there are ways to stick to your goals while still enjoying the holiday and a couple of your favourite treats. As with many weight loss related topics, knowledge is the key. Knowing exactly what you’re putting in your mouth, how many calories it has and how you can help offset them allows you to enjoy a chocolate bunny or hot cross bun without the guilt or gradual kilogram creep.
To help you stay on track this Easter, we’ve tracked down and ranked, from best to worst, the top 10 most popular Easter treats and listed their calories, so that you’re able to factor them into your usual healthy eating plan. We’ve also included a few handy hints for reducing your intake, burning off the excess calories and making healthier choices.
Top 10 Easter Treats And Their Calories
- Lindt Chocolate Mini Egg – 5g – 30 calories
- Red Tulip Bunny – 100g – 135 calories
- Cadbury Mini Creme Egg – 36g – 160 calories
- Lindt Gold Bunny – 40g – 176 calories
- Coles Traditional Hot Cross Bun – 80g – 210 calories
- Baker’s Delight Traditional Hot Cross Bun (1) – 67g – 220 calories
- Baker’s Delight Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Bun (1) – 67g – 245 calories
- Darrell Lea Fluffy Nougat Egg – 100g – 390 calories
- Cadbury Plain Hollow Egg – 100g – 530 calories
- Cadbury Crunchie Easter Egg – 167g – 885 calories
When you’re checking out the above, you’ll probably notice that the smaller the egg and the less filling etc it contains, the lower the calories. The portion sizes between brands also vary considerably with Cadbury and Nestle offering much larger eggs and bunnies than Lindt and Darrell Lea. To keep your calories in check, try the following:
- Choose a hollow (unfilled) egg over a solid chocolate or filled egg
- Indulge in 3-4 small, good quality mini eggs over a larger, sweeter ‘big’ egg
- Check out the dark chocolate options! Dark chocolate, especially that which contains over 70% cocoa has far better health benefits than its milk variety cousin. Added bonus? It’s decadently rich and you usually can’t eat as much!
- Choose plain hot cross buns or make your own (check out our recipe HERE)
- Try and have a healthy breakfast and mid morning snack before starting on the chocolate. If your tummy is already filled up with a nutritious meal, you’ll find yourself eating far less chocolate.
- Don’t raid the kids stash! Whether it’s an easter egg hunt or the grandparents going overboard, your kids may end up with an enormous chocolate stash. If that happens, try and minimise how much you bring or keep at home to reduce temptation. Sharing the stash with friends/relatives or letting family know that the kids only need 1-2 eggs is a great way to prevent a chocolate avalanche.
- Take along your own sweet treats! There’s no reason why you can’t bake a batch of low fat, delicious sweet treats for Easter. Try our low fat hot cross buns, chocolate fudge bites, salted dark chocolate popcorn or healthy chocolates for all the deliciousness, without the extra calories and fat!
- Include your usual exercise. Having the family around is a great opportunity to get out either solo or with the kids for a walk. Include some outdoor time over the Easter weekend to burn calories and offset some of that chocolate!
- And grab a copy of our Guilt Free Chocolate Treats & Baking Book to make lots of your own healthy chocolate treats over Easter with the kids
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