February 20th - Weigh-in/Chocolate Addiction Today was weigh-in day and I am happy to report a further 1.5kg loss. Check it out on my progress page if you like. ***** You may remember reading in a couple of earlier entries that chocolate is a Mopsy no-go for 2001.  Now I know that WW and any other balanced diets don’t have ‘forbidden foods’, but I believe I have a sound rationale for this decision. Firstly, to clarify what I mean by not eating chocolate – I eat chocolate flavoured foods (such as low fat chocolate cakes or muffins, or hot chocolate drnks with skim milk) but I don’t eat chocolate itself – so no cadbury dairy milk blocks, M&Ms, maltesers etc.  I made this decision in light of conceptualising my chocolate eating as a serious addiction.  I was having it almost daily, I was eating more and more over time, I ate it very quickly and I ate it in vast quantities.  Buying it was a priority in my daily routine and I was darn cranky if I couldn’t get hold of any (sounds like any other ‘addict’ doesn’t it?)  All this spelled out to me that I was in the clutches of a serious addiction. It so happens that I’ve read quite a bit about addictions, and efforts to overcome them.  Having a period when the dependent behaviour is not partaken in at all assists most people in breaking the behavioural patterns and associations.  Most people with a serious addiction will find it easier to take a break from their addiction than trying to cut it down.  For me, eating chocolate had become associated with a significant smattering of life’s activities.  Watching TV, watching movies, reading a book, having a bath (cause I read in the bath and I couldn’t read a book without eating chocolate of course), after dinner snacking, feeling depressed, feeling happy, feeling anxious, and even occasionally breakfast.  That’s a lot of associations to break.  I also know from my reading that the longer the period of addictions, the more quickly the associations are reinstated if one ‘relapses’. I figured, therefore, that I needed a LONG time without chocolate to break all the associations and build up some healthy new ones instead.  At the end of the year I will review whether I want to include chocolate at all in my diet again, and if so how. So far my decision is working very well for me.  I am now 51 days into the no-chocolate resolution and have not felt my resolve weaken.  I know though that if I was trying to eat just a little bit, or just occasionally that I would struggle every day on the way home with whether or not I would buy some, and if so how much.  It’s just easier for me to say no altogether. This may not be an answer for everyone, but if you’ve got a particular food that you find hard to control, cutting it out of your eating for a while might be an interesting experiment for you.  Just a thought. The little poet inside of me struggling to get out wrote a little tongue-in-cheek ditty (with more than a passing nod at Mr Shakespeare) about my struggle with chocolate.  So I’ll say adieu on that poetic note; ODE TO A SLIM FIGURE  by the Mopster Shall I compare thee to a cadbury flake? Thou art more lasting and so much more healthy So oft the shopkeeper from my purse did take But when with you I find I am more wealthy The crumbling bar, a fleeting tempting morsel No sooner had it passed my lips 'twas gone And afterward left sitting, feeling awful Lamenting o'er the shallow thing I'd done. But now with you, companion through the day Reminding me to cast aside temptation, I will be strong, and then so shall you stay Repaying all my months of dedication Oh! slim figure, forever shall we be together,  I swear I shall be true to thee. <<Back   Home   Next>>