Overcoming chocolate/candy addiction

I`ve decided to quit cold turkey. Tapering off doesnt work for me. I just end up devouring the whole bag.

How long until my body stops craving the chocolate?

The famous "Three day hump"?

Any advice? Im serious about cutting out this chocolate crap, its a new phanomen, i`ve never been crazy about chocolate before, until about 2 months ago.

Advice?

I can't really help with cutting it out completely, because I have never managed that. Everytime I try and cut it out I end up craving it so strongly after a few days I eat too much. I've never managed to go long enough that I stopped craving it - the more I say 'none at all' about something, there more I want it!

But I can offer some advice on how I stop from eating the whole bag. I buy a bag, take out my allowance for the day (for me I use peanut M&Ms, 10 is about 100 cals I think) then give the bag to someone else to keep. And I tell them not to let me have it again (to stop me from giving in and going back to the bag).

This has helped reduce my cravings by a *lot*. For instance I always used to crave something sweet after lunch, but now I know I can have something sweet after dinner so I find it easier to just wait for that.

Hope this helps somewhat :)

My advice is to cut out all refined sugar, not just chocolate and candy. The less you eat refined sugar the less you will want it. If you want something sweet eat fruit. Eat as much whole natural food as you can. Fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean meats... I used to eat candy every day and crave it all the time. We have a box of candy bars at my work and after everyone else would leave I'd eat a candy bar.. or two or three. After I stopped eating refined sugar I stopped having cravings and I can't even remember the last time I had a candy bar.

It took more than one try, and it wasn't incredibly easy at first, but it does get easier. If you DO want to have some candy and treat yourself, or if you think you won't be able to hold out, just eat it as late in the day as possible and keep your portion as small as you can. Once you eat it you usually will crave more sugar, so the later you eat it the less time in the day you have to be craving/eating candy.

Oh i see, thank you so much.

The only refined sugars i eat aside from candy is honey, and i guess the sugar in yougurt. But thats about it.

I've cut down my portion of honey into half, i eat it on one piece of bread now instead of two, im tapering down in that sense. But i must quit cold turkey with the chocolate bars, i dont know what caused this sudden chocolate craze.

I found that completely cutting dessert out of my diet simply made me crave it more...and I was never a huge dessert eater, it seemed to be more about the 'forbidden fruit' than the food itself.

Now I allow myself some treats that assuage my craving for sweetness and/or chocolate without breaking the calorie bank.

I bought Nestle's Cocoa mix in the individual packets.  Each one is 80 calories.  If my daily allowance allows it, I will treat myself to a cup of hot cocoa near the end of the evening.  I find it relaxing, sweet and it utterly knocks out those chocolate cravings.

I also bought some of those real fruit popsicles that come in lemon, lime or strawberry.  One popsicle is 80 calories and seems almost too tart/sweet (yum!)  These are especially handy when I feel that my daily diet has been too bland.  It takes care of my sweet craving and gives me something with an overdose of flavor.

Why would you want to quit chocolate?
It's one of the major reasons I get out of bed each morning (that and needing to go to the bathroom).

Don't let it be a fear food. Your fear foods are your binge foods, and your binge foods shouldn't exist. I used to have an awful time with noodles this way (I'd rather eat real food than dessert any day) so I started keeping lots of noodles ready to be eaten around the kitchen. Then I taught myself to portion my damn noodley cravings.

Once I got my noodle habit under control it just became another food instead of a guilty pleasure habit... I still love noodles, but I can portion them these days, which rocks...

God I love noodles.. and chocolate... and cheese... omigosh can I take a minute to tell you about my love affair with cheese? I'm lactose intolerant and I love cheese... total love/hate relationship there.

As a fellow "chocoholic" I understand your problem.  And, yes, cold turkey is the only way to go.  It will be at least a week, maybe two before the cravings completely stop.  I have had to do the same thing.  I found that after I completely get the stuff out of my system, I can safely have a dessert once or twice a week without the cravings coming back.  I have also found that dark chocolate(at least 70% cacao) doesn't tempt me to overeat and I can limit myself to a single square a day.  I think the real problem is sugar, not chocolate.

I went by the old "takes 21 days to make a habit" adage.  I went cold turkey off ANY sugar.  No sodas, sweeteners, no honey, no nada.  Then started to introduce it back in really small quantities and it honestly hasn't been a problem in almost 2 years.  At least the chocolate/candy dept hasn't.  Somehow got snared by the evil of sodas again and I"m cutting that out now.

i too had the same problem with choclates, i was born with sweet tooth, i could finish 2lb. of choclates in minutes, well i figured out that my body was craving for something sweet not choclate, so now a days whenever i have sweet cravings( which i have quite a few in a day), i eat either red seedless grape or peach,believe me my craving goes away, it has been months since i had a choclate, u too can try it.

Avoiding the sugar in your yogurt might be a good idea also. I eat plain greek yogurt and if I need it sweeter I add agave nectar or some fruit. Agave nectar is similar to honey, same calories I think. It's easier to work with as it's not so thick and sticky, and it has less of an effect on your blood sugar levels I think. So it might be good to switch to that, or try to cut it out.

Also check the label on your bread (and any other processed foods), a lot contain High Fructose Corn Syrup, which I'd also suggest avoiding!

I even try not to eat sucralose or aspartame, for one thing I'm sensetive to the taste, so I KNOW when something has sucralose in it, but also just having the overly-sweet taste might cause you to crave the sugar.

One thing that helped me realize I needed to just stop eating refind sugar was a post on here, where someone had a link to this blog, the author writes about her "sugar addiction" and how she conquered it! It inspired me, and helped me a lot.

http://www.competingtolose.com/category/sugar -addiction/

i used to pound entire bags of hersheys kisses in one sitting. chocolate has been the hardest thing to give up since i started eating healthier. instead of cutting it out all together, i opted to find healthier options. i keep sugar free chocolate pudding in my fridge all the time and let myself have a smores luna bar most days as one of my snacks. its not exactly the same but it helps. also having sweet fruits like frozen grapes (those are the closest thing texture wise to chocolate in my mind) has helped.

when i just HAVE to have some, i always get a small bar of dark chocolate.

ive never tried to cut out chocolate cold turkey but these are some things i have done to help with the cravings.

i did cut out caffeine cold turkey so i really feel for ya!!

good luck!

Original Post by samismilexx:

Why would you want to quit chocolate?
It's one of the major reasons I get out of bed each morning (that and needing to go to the bathroom).

Don't let it be a fear food. Your fear foods are your binge foods, and your binge foods shouldn't exist. I used to have an awful time with noodles this way (I'd rather eat real food than dessert any day) so I started keeping lots of noodles ready to be eaten around the kitchen. Then I taught myself to portion my damn noodley cravings.

Once I got my noodle habit under control it just became another food instead of a guilty pleasure habit... I still love noodles, but I can portion them these days, which rocks...

God I love noodles.. and chocolate... and cheese... omigosh can I take a minute to tell you about my love affair with cheese? I'm lactose intolerant and I love cheese... total love/hate relationship there.

I want to cut it completely out because i cant enjoy it in moderation. I eat too much, too often. I've tried tapering off, it kills me. And most important of all, i dont want these chocolate cravings anymore. Like right now, i havnt had chocolate today, but i would kill for a brownie batter blizzard from dairy queen.

Its hard. Very hard. I know its just food, but i dont need that kind of food, especially since its my trigger food. I cant get enough of it. So i decided to just quit it. I dont need that crap stalling my weightloss. I've had enough of it. Its a love-hate relationship.

I live in norway, we dont have HFCS thank god, so the only sugar i consume is fructose and some added sugar in my cultura yogurt and honey. I think that should do me for the sugar. Maybe an occasional bowl of chocolate ice cream. But i really dont need foods i cant control myself with, so i decided to part with it. :)

Original Post by healthisinplease:

Oh i see, thank you so much.

The only refined sugars i eat aside from candy is honey, and i guess the sugar in yougurt. But thats about it.

 

I've cut down my portion of honey into half, i eat it on one piece of bread now instead of two, im tapering down in that sense. But i must quit cold turkey with the chocolate bars, i dont know what caused this sudden chocolate craze.

Ah! I'm the exact same way. I found that the thing that worked best for me was keeping chocolate and cutting out other crap that I didn't like so much-- like cookies. I dont really like cookies, but its really easy to buy them/make them and then overeat. And instead of keeping chocolate in the house, I make myself go out and get it. But I WILL NOT drive there. Ride your bike to the store if you must, and then you at least get to counteract some of the calories. Also, try No Pudge Fudge-- theyre like brownies, but they taste awesome, have very little fat and calories and they satisfy a chocolate craving. =D