Confessions of a Chocoholic

Recently, I was talking with a friend about how much we let food control our lives. I am guilty of snacking on foods when I know I’m not hungry but because I simply feel like I absolutely have to have it. Some of you may already know my weakness is chocolate. It wasn’t until I came to H3 that I realized I was a mild chocoholic. I would get chocolate anything and every time I was sad, happy, stressed, on vacation, thought I needed a vacation and every time in between. I am proud to say that now that I have identified this habit, I have slowly been able to break it.

Don’t get me wrong. It was a long and hard road. I thought I would just be able to eat a little here and there but I’m an all or nothing gal, so if I was going to buy a bag of chocolates I was going to eat them until I couldn’t eat anymore… and to make matters worse, I would encourage my friends to eat them with me (as if that would make it okay).

This friend told me that she decided to take charge of her health because she could. Those words resonated with me. Since I wasn’t able to follow my eating plan, did that mean that I couldn’t take charge of my health? No. I think it meant that I wasn’t willing to yet. And if it did, I just wasn't willing to accept that.

We all lapse sometimes but it’s important to remember that doesn’t mean we’re failures. As I said before, I had a very "all or nothing" attitude before, so this was a hard pill for me to swallow. Now, if I miss a workout, I don’t beat myself up about it and reach for chocolate to make me feel better; I get my workout clothes ready and plan what time I'm going to workout  the next day.

Here are some steps that I’ve taken to help me take control of my healthy lifestyle (I am working on them one by one. Slow and steady wins the race:-))

1. Get to know yourself. Journaling is a great way to help you identify eating and workout habits. Write down the time and everything you eat (no cheating) and if you drink anything other than water. Also, write down when and where you workout. Some people do better working out first thing in the morning and some people find it easier to workout at night.


2. Identify habits you’d like to change. After consciously thinking about your exercise and eating habits for a week, you may find patterns. For example, I found that it was so much easier for me to eat healthy during the day but once I got home I would over indulge. By identifying this pattern, I found that if I don’t skip my 3:30 Metabo Meal or if I don’t go straight home, I often would forget that I was even hungry!


3. Develop a plan based on your personal abilities. If a task seems too large, break it down. I realized that I could not eat chocolate because it would just make me crave more chocolate. So instead of focusing on what I couldn’t have, I decided that it would be okay for me to eat any dessert guilt-free so long as it didn’t contain chocolate. Now, I hardly ever carve dessert.


4. Celebrate your victories, no matter how small they may be. When I went one week without chocolate, I bought a one membership to a gym. When I went two weeks without chocolate, I allowed myself to sleep in.


5. Accept that you will slip up and just be prepared for it.

I can’t tell you that I have never eaten chocolate since I decided to quit cold turkey, but I can say that it feels so good knowing that I can take charge of my health. Just knowing this has motivated me to keep going.