When I decided to give up smoking for good, I went cold turkey. I just made the decision and never looked back. That was five and a half years ago. Since then, I've given up other things that are bad for me - like different types of foods, bad habits, etc. At one point I went about a year and a half without any fast food.
Most recently, I gave up chocolate. Yep, that's right, chocolate. Whenever I've told someone about this they look at me like I'm crazy. This look is typically followed by the question, "Why?"
The Intent
It all started about over thirty days ago when I was at my friend Bostonian's for a dinner party. It was the Sunday before Fat Tuesday and a few of the conversations that evening centered around Mardi Gras and Lent. Our friend, Ally, mentioned that she was giving up all sweets for Lent. I wished her good luck with that as I enjoyed the yummy dessert she had prepared that particular evening. Prior to my departure, Bostonian offered up some candy he had stashed at his place. Turns out he had won a year's supply of Twix, M&Ms, Milky Way and Snickers, but was sick of them. I figured "why not?" and took a few Milky Way bars and some packets of M&Ms.
A few days later I was at the train station food court with my friend D. As we were deciding what we would eat, D commented that the wait for my meal might be a bit longer than I'd like because it was Ash Wednesday and McDonalds, the establishment in which I decided to dine, was the only place that served any type of fish item.
I think the comment was meant to be funny and make me laugh, but instead it led me to ask the question, "If you observed lent what would you give up?" I've always been intrigued by Lent given that Judaism doesn't ask you to choose what to give up, it tells you. Leaven products on Passover and food for 24 hours on Yom Kippur. The whole idea that an individual gets to choose what they are going to give up intrigues me and got me wondering what I would give up if I were to observe it.
Before I go any further, no, I did not give up chocolate for Lent, but you'd think that is what did it. If I were to observe Lent I wouldn't take something away; instead I'd add a habit that was good... but I digress.
On my way home that evening, I got hungry. It was late and I hadn't had anything of real substance to eat since my oh-so-healthy lunch. Being the Girl Scout that I am, I looked in my bag to see what snacks I had brought with me for such an occasion. The only thing there was one of the Milky Way bars I had snagged from Bostonian's place earlier that week. I told myself it was better than nothing and started munching away. I was no more than a 1/3 of the way into my snack when I started to realize I wasn't going to finish the candy bar. Not only did I not like that I had such an unhealthy snack on me, but I wasn't even enjoying the taste of chocolate.
Now, you have to realize I've been a chocoholic since I was a little kid, so feeling this way about something I typically enjoyed was a bit upsetting. However, in all honesty it wasn't a new feeling. I hadn't enjoyed the taste of chocolate in sometime. Chocolate had become something I just went for as a treat just because it was there. I didn't like this fact and felt it was time to do something about it. That evening when I got home, I took all the chocolate that resided in my home (which boiled down to some chocolate chip cookies I had bought the day before) and put it in my freezer. That's when I decided, for the next 30 days I would not eat any chocolate.
30 Days and 30 Nights of Temptation?
When I made this decision I didn't think it would be such a difficult thing to achieve. Surely, going without chocolate for a mere 30 days wouldn't be difficult - it's just chocolate. Ha! That is until I realized all the little habits I had that all seems to come back to chocolate. Here are some of those "habits" . . .
• Coffee Shop/Cafe Treats: Knit Group and a chocolate chip cookie apparently go hand-in-hand. Oh, did I also mention the cafe also has a mocha/caramel/salty drink which just happens to satisfy my love of mixing sweet and salty?
• One day, I was visiting an old employer of mine. I had gone into the head person's office to write a note. On their table is a container full of York Peppermint Patties. Later that evening, I was cleaning out my purse and found that a few of these treats had made their way from that container into my purse. Part of me was shocked by this; the other part not so much. During my time working there, it wasn't uncommon for me to go into this person's office and snag a pattie - or two - on a daily basis. When they say old habits die hard, I think they were talking about things like this.
Into the freezer they went . . .
Now, add in all the instances where chocolate just presented itself . . .
• Did you know they make Cheesecakes without chocolate? I sort of did, but hadn't really had any of them. That is until this little challenge. My mom and I had dinner together one evening not too long after I started this no chocolate hiatus. I had specially suggested to meet at Cheesecake Factory as I felt like having a slice of cheesecake. After we made our plans and had hung up the phone I thought to myself, "Crap Monkey!" I knew I had just set myself up for temptation.
• "Chocolate Happy Hour": Seriously, y'all! There is a coffee shop near me that has a chocolate happy hour. For a long time I didn't understand why they didn't offer chocolate cookies in their bakery case, but never really complained about it. It wasn't that big of a deal and it kept me from buying junk food. Guess others did complain . . .
• An invitations to a Chocolate Lounge party - Didn't know such a thing existed.
and . .
• Apparently, dessert tables at a lot of events are 99% chocolate and 1% other. When you're not eating chocolate you become vastly aware of this fact.
You probably get the point, chocolate was everywhere I turned. Yet, I held strong to my commitment. At first, I was counting the days. I may have even mention this a time or two on this blog. By the time I reached week three I barely thought about it at all.
The After Effect,
It's now day 43-ish and I have still not had any chocolate. Honestly, I have no craving for it. I find this humorous - like I said, when this all first started I was counting the days.
I say it was easier to quit smoking because smoking was blatantly bad for me. (I dare anyone to find a report that shows one cigarette a day is good for your health.) I was fully aware of the effects even inhaling second hand smoke could have on a person's body, so why would I keep directly putting it in mine? For me that was enough to just quit. On the other hand, with chocolate it isn't that clear cut. Ok, chocolate is bad for my waistline and is not nutritious by any mean, but there are studies out there that show chocolate, in moderation, is good for you.
When I look back on the past 43 days I notice one problem with what I set out to accomplish. Chocolate was the only thing I cut out of my diet, not sweets altogether. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I just feel like I replaced one bad "habit" with another. Instead of having a chocolate chip cookie I had a Snicker Doodle. What's the difference? Ultimately, what I've come to discover is that I need to do is cut down on sweets altogether. I have a major sweet tooth that I need to curb. I do love sweet, but not the weight that accompanies it.
Maybe one day I'll have chocolate again, but right now I think keeping it out of my diet is the best course of action. Especially if I plan to eventually curb my sugar intake as well. Cutting out sugar all together seems like an impossible thing to do, but I've seen it done. One of my family members actually gave it up several years back.
Either way, now that I've seemingly over come my obsession with chocolate, I can now focus my attention toward furthering my on-going effort to develop healthier habits and making positive changes... after all 2011 is the year of change, isn't it?!
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It's Thursday, which means it is time for the weekly blog project. This week it was my turn the pick the topic. My question for everyone was . . . You have to give up something up for 30 days, what would you give up and how do you think giving that up will change your life? Or, have you given up something for a period of time - what was your experience like?
Ok, I admit it. I picked this topic because over 30 days ago I gave up chocolate. I had intended to write a post about my experience so why not make everyone else do it. :) Please take a moment to see what the lovely ladies of this blog project have to say about the thing they'd give up, or have given up, by clicking on the links below.
Mom of Many (Susanna)
Merryland Girl (Melissa)
Moma Rock (Sara)
Until later . . .
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