Can I do it? Can i give up chocolate?

[ace]

Hi Thistle,

I feel for you, and can really relate, agewise (I'm 45), weightwise (at one point, I weighed 300 lbs- I'm 5'5), and addictionwise (have dealt with a disturbed relationship with food for most of my life). And dealing with an addiction to food is really tough. I think the main difference between being addicted to food and being addicted to alcohol/drugs can be summed up like this: when you become abstinent from abusing alcohol/drugs, you put the tiger in a cage, and leave it there. When you become abstinent from abusing food, you put the tiger in a cage, and then have to take it out for a walk three times a day. It is really hard to find the right balance between not abusing food, yet still being able to enjoy it.

Whatever anyone else says about their own relationship to chocolate, only you can know whether it's something you can never, ever have, or if you just have to cut back. But be careful about setting yourself up by saying you can never have it- forever is a pretty long time! Might be easier to just give yourself a goal of not eating it for a week, then see how you feel.

One thing that really helps me is I don't have any food in my house that I don't want myself to eat. If I'm going to have candy, I bring home a small packet. If I bring home enough for 10 people, I'll eat it at one sitting. This is one of the changes I've made that have helped me lose 85 lbs over the past 5 years (still got about 65 to go).

Be nice and gentle with yourself, and please let us know how your experiment is going.

Best,
Amy

[solveig]

You CAN give it up. Not necessarily that you should give it up forever...but I have a similar relationship with sweets. I went cold turkey...ate no sugar for a week, and had really classic addiction withdrawal symptoms. Edgy, cranky, etc...but I filled the time with something else and regained a whole lot of time that I had previously spent thinking about how rotten my digestive system felt.

I do still eat sugar / chocolate occasionally, but in far lesser quantities and frequency. But the experience of eating none for a while is one I learned from and that I'd recommend.

Good luck!

S

[Offthegrid]

I have binged on food off and on for a long time. My highest weight ever was 270 pounds several years ago.

One of the things I was taught is that if you make any food forbidden, you're much more likely to binge on it. Instead, it is healthier to eat a small portion of the food you are craving. Much easier said than done, I know.

An example from my life. Right now I personally am working on drinking less diet soda. In the past, I tried to give up diet soda altogether and could not do it. This time I've not banned it altogether from my diet, but I am not drinking it at work. Now I'm drinking far more water and feel better. Maybe you could try something similar.

In the end, see what works for you. Maybe there is a new hobby you could try instead of chocolate that could give you some of the same benefits. I find knitting very relaxing and it keeps the hands busy. Same with writing in a journal, scrapbooking, whatever.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I am another one who could eat chocolate until I felt ill.
I discovered if I get that STRONG 70% or higher cacao content chocolate, I feel completely chocolate-satisfied after 2 or 3 tiny squares. There is something in chocoalte that we crave- and it's actually GOOD for us! But most commercial choclate has so much sugar and added lecithin and fat and milk that you have to eat a huge amount to get what your body is REALLY craving in pure chocolate.

Try it- it solved my chocolate problems completely! Now I can have good choc. and not eat a half a pound of crap in the process!

[Crankin]

I eat 2 small squares of really good dark chocolate every day. Usually after dinner, but if I'm home, sometimes after lunch. It completely takes away any urge for dessert that I might be feeling. When my husband goes to Europe he buys like 15 giant bars of a certain style of Nestle bar that you just can't get in the states. If we can't have that, we buy the Hershey's dark chocolate bars.
Thankfully, he goes to Europe every 8 weeks or so...

[lauraelmore1033]

I find some of those energy bars which balance the sweet (carbohydrates) with protein to be quite satisfying. I love Balance bars which come in many decadent flavors like chocolate mint and caramel and nut. I'm told we should eat about 100 calories per hour of riding, and so for a 30+mile ride, for instance, I feel absolutely obligated to eat at least one and a half of these delicious treats. I've lost more than 30 pounds over the last year eating this way, so I must not be too far wrong. Having permission to eat candy while riding reduces much of its allure. I even give myself permission to have them when I'm not riding. They don't give you the blood sugar crash that candy does and they go a long way toward alleviating that terrible, desperate, doing-without feeling that can lead to binging.

[smilingcat]

Many of the comments remind me of "Why French Women don't get Fat" book. French snobbery is quite obvious in the book but the jist of it all is eat only high quality and in small portions. The high quality will satiate your desire to eat volume.

Anyway, I do agree about eating dark chocolate 70% cocoa content. one or two small truffles with coffee. And let the truffles melt in your mouth and savior the taste. When you eat it slowly like this, your hunger mechanism in your body has a chance to respond and tell you its enough.

And you don't have to go to Godiva for the chocolate (IMHO, after godiva was bought out by Nestles about 20 years ago, their truffles have taken a nose dive. Its not the same from pre-Nestle days).

You can find very high quality chocolate at Trader Joes. Really. oops just realized Thistle is down under so Trader Joes means nothing to her. but for those here in US its a thought.

Lindt chocolate is very very good high quality and its cheap.
Peters chocolate (Its American) is still good but it was recently acquired by Hersheys ??

I use Callabaut bitter chocolate (65% cocoa) from Belgium in my brownies, double double chocolate-chocolate chip cookies...

Shawn