Rich Double Chocolate Banana Bread (~100kcal per serving!!🤯)

The Why

My absolute favorite part of the fitness and nutrition industry occurs when people are trying to find ways to lose weight with their diet. You'll run into all of these nutrition coaches/personal trainers going to the depths of the earth to try and find the newest way to avoid the problem, not fix the problem. Take the following example: you have someone who is trying to lose weight, but when they are 3-4 weeks into a caloric deficit, they've done so by completely eliminating chocolate-- what do you think they're going to crave? CHOCOLATE. If you go to your Instagram influencer/personal trainer, they might take one of two polarizing approaches.

1. Avoid the problem by saying: just eat what your body wants and cave, go buy a chocolate bar.

2. Chew gum or eat jello/ some other fruit to curb your sweetness craving.

Well kids, what if I told you BOTH of these approaches are ridiculous? The reality is such that you are in a caloric deficit, you want to eat the chocolate of course, but will the chocolate bar fit in your macros? it might... but if you cave, and eat until you're satisfied, that might be 2-4 chocolate bars later... and does that help curb your craving? FOR SURE! However, it will also set you back almost a whole week of hard work in the deficit. The other issue is by chewing gum/eating some low calories sweets or fruits, it just avoids the issue. My craving is not being satisfied by eating a banana, thanks rachelfit94🤦‍♂️!

I will say one thing, the most effective way to treat these issues are to find ways to steadily KEEP the foods you love as part of your routine. I love sweets, but more specifically I LOVE pastries. I have banana bread on the regular. However, when I found out that I was consuming 400kcal per slice (and I can EASILY eat 5 slices consecutively) i knew it was time to solve this problem. So without further ado, I am going to show you another recipe that I have created to help me stay consistently within my calories, keep my protein high, limit my overeating of sweets (because I'm too dang full to shove more in my mouth) and best of all, be so easy that I'd PREFER to make this, from going to the store to just avoid a bit of work and buy store-bought.

Ingredients

• 1 cup All-Purpose Flour

• 1/2 cup cocoa powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp sea salt

• 2+ scoops of whey protein (or plant-based protein of your choice)

• 2 Large Bananas (mashed)

• 1/2 cup Unsweetened Applesauce (if you have 1 apple, cinnamon, and 5 min you can make yourself-- how to-included below)

• 1/2-3/4 cup Stevia (or brown sugar-- but this substitution will add calories)

• 1 large egg (you can sub 2-3 tbsp egg whites)

• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (how dare you try to sub this😅)

• 1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (divided in half-- as a side note I personally think this is too much, but if you love chocolate... go nuts, its already in the macro calculation, so you might as well 😅)

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350F, grease your loaf pan with zero-calorie spray (or use parchment paper)

2. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, sea salt, protein)

3. While whisking, slowly add your mashed banana, applesauce, egg, vanilla extract, and sweetener of choice. Stir until a smooth, moist mixture is formed.

4. Add in 3/4 of your chocolate chips, and stir until relatively well mixed.

5. Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of chocolate chips over the top of the bread. Bake for 50-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out mostly clean, you might have some melted chocolate chips on the toothpick and that is fine. You just don’t want gooey batter left over. Check at 50 minutes, just to be safe. Oven times vary.

6. Remove the pan from the oven and set it on a wire cooling rack. Let the bread cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the bread and carefully remove it from the pan. Let the bread cool on the wire cooling rack until slightly warm. Cut into slices and serve.

7. Note: the bread will keep on the counter, wrapped in plastic wrap or in a sealed Tupperware, for up to 4 days. This bread also freezes well. To freeze, cool the bread completely and wrap it in plastic wrap and aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 2 months. Defrost before slicing, but let's be real, will this even last two days?🧐🤪

8. Cut into 12 slices and ENJOY 😍😍

If you're struggling with anxiety/depression/body image during this time-- I feel you. I know I don't post as often as I should. While I love posting, it does require a lot of effort which overwhelms me sometimes, but I will pass along an amazing piece of advice I heard today which motivated me to WAKETHEFXCKUP and finish this post: "when you're going through a storm, you are not the storm.. you are going through it" the same thing can be said about depression/anxiety. When you are going through it, you are not ANXIETY you are still you. 🥰 HAVE A GREAT DAY AND ENJOY THIS RECIPE, GUYS!