[teawithsunshine]

Augh... I haven't had any chocolate for some 6-weeks and just today I had a pretty darn bad craving for them. So I went to the store and bought a bar of lindt 85% cocoa, saved one serving for thursday for an afternoon snack and gave the rest to family to munch on.

I'm motivated to keep losing weight but it is dang annoying to get a craving for chocolate every once in a while. I'm like "man, can't you go bother someone else?" lol!

But I figured, if I don't munch on some chocolate now and get rid of that craving outta my mind, then it'll probably develop into a worse craving and thus I may be more tempted to binge down the road.

Bleah. what do other people do when they get a craving?

[H8cake]

I think you did the right thing. I'm reading the thin for life book by Anne Fletcher and she says that having a small portion of something that you really want is much better than completely cutting it out. In studying successful maintainers she found that they handle their cravings that way. I'm trying to do that, but I have a hard time with portion control sometimes. Especially pms cravings.

[mazza]

6 weeks! AAAh. I'd go insane. I treat myself once a week. Don't allow yourself to be in a constant feeling of deprivation for so long. In moderation, it's ok to treat yourself.

[yoyoma]

One of the few times I have binged (which led to falling off the wagon for about a month), it was triggered by Easter candy, particularly peanut butter cups. We had stocked up because of the clearance sales.

Since then, I've incorporated a medium size PB cup into my diet plan every day (80 calories). I really didn't have any problem resisting the Halloween candy, because the pb cups are my ultimate and I wasn't depriving myself.

[Tomato]

But I see no reason why you would have to deprive yourself of chocolate. I buy a lot of chocolate with 85% of cocoa (in fact, I don't buy anything but) and I usually have a square every single day.
Unless chocolate triggers a binge in you or unless you can limit yourself to just 1 or 2 squares a day, then why not? It is actually quite good for you. IMHO, not to have something that you really crave may cause you really go overboard one day (I mean in general, not you specifically) and "make it up" for all the days you didn't have it.
So have a square of good dark chocolate every day, and enjoy it.

[RangerChic]

You don't need to deprive yourself of chocolate. Just work it into your calories (or diet plan). I eat some chocolate a few times a week (2-3 times), but only dark chocolate. My favs are the Hershey's Dark and 3 Muskateers Mint Dark bars.

[PhotoChick]

I also eat chocolate a couple of times a week at least. I alternate between good quality dark chocolate and sometimes pb cups (the minis) or the little mini snickers bars.

They're my treat after dinner sometimes.

.

[4star]

You can work a small amount of choc into your calories allotment or try some sugar free cocoa.

[nelie]

I eat chocolate pretty regularly. I buy 70%+ chocolate bars and eat a square every so often. Amazingly, its the only 'sweet' that I can control and won't binge on.

[AngelMae]

I dont deprive myself either. I have either a piece of 80% dark organic chocolate, or a few Hershey Kisses! I would be crazy if I didnt have chocolate for 6 weeks!!

[Pandora123a]

We sometimes confuse deprivation with virtue and success. In my mind, deprivation is the road to longterm failure. None of us is willing to be too deprived for too long.

You've gotten great advice about working some chocolate into your plan on a regular basis...or even just when you have a craving.

Someone once told me that with a craving try to delay it for about 30 minutes. If it sticks...indulge it.

The catch is to indulge the craving in a healthy way, limited portion which you enjoy...not a binge! (I think when we deny ourselves for long periods of time we set ourselves up for binges.)

So...congratulations! You successfully negotiated your craving in a healthy way.

[teawithsunshine]

LOL thanks for the suggestions!

Actually, I should have mentioned that I have my own food desserts... since cutting sugar/starchy carbs outta my diet, I find I rarely have cravings for chocolate.

I typically have 1 or 2 tablespoons of almond butter for dessert on a daily basis, since it's delish and is more manageable than chocolate.

But once in a great while, I get a craving for chocolate and have it. Otherwise, I really don't have that many cravings for chocolate these days.

[tealassie]

I read somewhere that if you are craving chocolate then you are deficient in magnesium.

One time when I was craving choicolate I took a couple of magnesium pills and the chocolate craving went away.

Now I take a magnesium pill every day and never crave chocolate.