We were talking about New Year's resolutions, my friend and I, or rather, our lack thereof.

She had begun the conversation by asking if I'd been sticking to mine. Clearly, this was a trick question.

I don't make resolutions because I know I won't keep them. I know me. She does too. So why ask? Unless ... she's going to try to trick me into making some.

So I answered her question with a question. Are you?

Nah ... she said. She doesn't make resolutions either. Except ... she said she had decided not to eat or drink anything that doesn't contribute to her health. Actually, what she said was that she wasn't going to "put anything into her body" that didn't contribute to her health. Or energy. Or something along those lines. In other words, nothing with empty calories. Or nothing that had proven to be absolutely positively bad for you ...

With those kind of guidelines, what qualified as being bad for you? What was she giving up? Rat poison?

Daily stops at the fast-food joints, she said. No more Big Macs and French fries.

OK, I could see that. But how would her nightly beer fit into that diet plan? I asked. Carbohydrates, she said. Beer has good ones. It also increases the level of B vitamins and folate.

I see. And what about all that gum she chews? How is gum healthy? Apparently, the kind she chews contains calcium, which strengthens teeth.

Oh, well. Now that she explained it that way, yeah, I'm doing that too.

Now that I've had more time to think about it, I've realized that I've been on a path of healthy food choices for quite some time, and without even knowing it. In fact, I've been making healthy choices even though they were considered unhealthy at the time.

But all that's changed, because now, bad is the new good.

Dark chocolate. Good fat. Green tea. Antioxidants, monosaturated fat and flavonoids — they're my friends.

I recognized the superiority of dark chocolate long before anyone ever heard of the word "antioxidant." I was one of the few kids who would even eat the "Special Dark" Hershey's miniatures left over from Halloween or Christmas, much less preferred it.

I've always preferred to pair chocolate with nuts — especially almonds and the much-maligned macadamia. They're still full of fat, but apparently it's now considered the healthy kind of fat, so now they're OK. Besides, I never believed that stuff about fat being bad for you anyway. Or that eating low-fat food translated into a low-fat body. A cow can eat nothing but fat-free grass and drink nothing but fat-free water and still be full of fat, inside and out.

I didn't have to be convinced to switch to dark chocolate peanut M&Ms.

Now, the green tea ... that did take some getting used to. It isn't quite as tasty as orange pekoe, but what the heck ... it gives me an excuse to feel good about a caffeine buzz.

My friend wasn't really fooling me, though, with all that talk about healthy eating. That was just her way of trying to identify with me, trying to lull me into identifying with her, despite the fact that she's nothing but lean muscle, despite eating her weight in Quarter Pounders every day. That was her way of easing into the subject of why I hadn't been at the gym in about ... forever.

Coincidentally, I'd just received news that very morning of another scientific breakthrough. According to a very reliable source of health and fitness information, not only is there a diet that will allow me to get rid of my tummy while eating chocolate, peanut butter and avocados, there's an exercise plan that requires only 12 minutes of my time, four days a week.

I ordered the diet book, because past experience has taught me that I can commit to eating chocolate and nuts. I'm holding off on the exercise plan until they get that down to something I can commit to as well. Twelve minutes a year, and I'm in.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

4-5 oz of dark/bittersweet/semisweet chocolate (chopped or chips)

1/2 C. butter

3/4 C. sugar

3 eggs

Pinch of salt

Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

1/2 C. cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 375. Butter an 8-inch cake pan or spring form pan and line the bottom with buttered parchment paper. Melt the chocolate and butter in a medium size bowl in the microwave. Stir until smooth. Mix in sugar, then eggs, with a hand whisk or wooden spoon. Mix in the salt and cayenne pepper. Sift the cocoa powder over the mixture then stir until just blended. Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake for 25 minutes until the top looks dry. Cool for 10-15 minutes then invert to a cooling rack.

Icing:

3-4 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips or chopped

1/2 C. heavy cream

In a saucepan bring cream to a boil. Lower heat and add chocolate and stir until all chocolate is melted. Spoon over cake after cake has cooled to room temperature.

Karla DeLuca is editor and publisher

of The Daily Sentinel.