[AnnRue]

I am Ann and I am a chocoholic. When I say that I don't say that in a very "ha ha wink wink way'... no, I use chocolate like a alcoholic would use alcohol. I must have it daily or I feel annoyed. When I do have it it makes me feel better and the worst part.. I can't really stop.

One of the worst things is that it is too easy to buy a pack of chocolate that can be small but still be 500 calories. It is just that it is so perfect for my life. I don't have to cook it.. I can grab it easy as a snack and it is easy to eat when I am working or something by putting it in my mouth and just sucking on it.

I realize now this has been a problem for me since I was younger. In fact it could be the reason I am over weight. I consume 200+ calories I don't need every day just due to this addiction. When I was younger I would literally make my mom pick me up a package every time she went out. When I would get a chance to buy candy on my own I would and eat the whole thing with abandon.

I don't think this is an emotional thing. I do feel it is physical. No matter what is happening daily I am broken out of my reverie by this need at some point in the day.

A few years ago I ate a only prepackage food diet. Though some were chocolate flavored I realized that real chocolate has such a super sugar / reaction in me that everything else feels bland. That diet felt bland and once I took real chocolate again it took very little time for me to be back on the daily grind. It is like chocolate is a super sugar that adjusts my tastebuds to need the super sugar.

I have decided to give it up cold turkey. Not sure if this will work, I doubt it will, but has anyone had any experience with it? It just seems so hard to avoid. You go into the store and the first thing you see is an Easter display. And you want it. At one point I thought, well I can keep this in the house, but no no I can't. I put it in a locked container in the basement -- which I hate to go down to. I never visited the basement so much in my life and got what I wanted.

[Wannabehealthy]

Hi Ann. I love chocolate, although I never looked at it as an addiction. When I was a child my mother never bought candy for us. I used to take money from my mother's purse and go to the store and buy several candy bars and eat them right away. She never found out. There for a while, I used to buy big bags of Hershey's Kisses, with the explanation that they were for my grandson when he came to visit. Once that bag was open, it was gone. I would eat one after another until I got nauseated. I found that I had to stop buying it because it rarely lasted until he came to visit. My DH eats a lot of candy, but it's mostly hard candy. I have no interest in that. But he recently started buying Dove Chocolate and fun size Milky Way. I am having a very hard time staying away from them now that they are always in the house. I have diabetes, so it's really more important than just the calories they contain.

After reading your post, I think I am going to take it one day at a time. Stay out of the candy bag just today. Then tomorrow is another day, and I will stay out of it for another day. If I manage to do this all week, I will reward myself with one piece of candy on Sunday. I'm not going to count today, because I've already had my candy this past week. I will stay away from it all week. Who knows? I might get so used to not eating it that I won't want my reward.

The games we play with ourselves!!!!

[AnnRue]

Originally Posted by Wannabehealthy

Hi Ann. I love chocolate, although I never looked at it as an addiction. When I was a child my mother never bought candy for us. I used to take money from my mother's purse and go to the store and buy several candy bars and eat them right away. She never found out. There for a while, I used to buy big bags of Hershey's Kisses, with the explanation that they were for my grandson when he came to visit. Once that bag was open, it was gone. I would eat one after another until I got nauseated.

Oh dear I don't mean to be the bearer of bad times but I think you are too. My drug of choice was Hershey kisses as well. In fact, I wonder if Hershey chocolate doesn't have some sort of chemical in it that makes you addicted because I find more than anything else it is Hershey that I crave. I also have no interest in like hard candy or fruit candy. Can totally take or leave that.

I finally decided that my body burns off about 1600 cals per day. And just eating breakfast lunch and dinner will get me to that or less. But eating 6 Hershey Nuggets (what seems to me a small amount) is 300 calories and then if on Saturday I demolish a bag of kisses.. I am way over for the week.

This right here is probably why I am fat, and probably why I have trouble keeping the weight off. It is a tremendous source of calories. Empty unfilling calories.

I have to give it up. I think you helped me though determine that maybe it is the Hershey's chocolate. I have noticed that other chocolates that I might get at like a fine food store are different and I don't have the problem with like chocolate cake etc.

[AnnRue]

I just wanted to comment that since January I have cut out Chocolate (Hershey's) and I have to say, I don't think I miss it. In fact I have had a few bites after weeks off and realized it tasted odd. Like mud not like the sweet nectar of the gods.

I guess I didn't get rid of it completely. I might still have a slice of chocolate cake or a non Hershey's candy but those don't seem to have the effect on me that Hershey's does.

I even tried some non chocolate candy from Hershey's and while not as quick to set me off, they did eventually start to get to me. I tried cookies and creme and white chocolate.

I do now think it could very well be Hershey's candy. I have googled it and saw more than a few people wondering about it being addictive. I am now wondering if it has more calories than it reports as well as I don't find "non hershey's candy" or chocolate to have the effect that hershey's has on the scale. A guaranteed stall.

[Jaguar89]

Hi folks. Try to reduce your chocolate intake and seek professional help for your addictions. If you need to have chocolate daily against all odds, then I recommend dark chocolate with minimum 70% cocoa. Sure it contains plenty of sugar but due to the high cocoa content, it rates low on the glycemic index so you can have your cake and eat it too.

[AnnRue]

It has now been a year. I had a relapse over the summer were I forgot about the Hershey's pledge but I gave up Hershey's chocolate for mostly a year now. I can say I haven't lost weight but I have stopped large gains. I have maintained my weight.

I even got through the xmas holiday. My rule was only Hershey's... which I hate to say I think is addicting. If you even taste the candy it tastes very different than say Lintz. I eat that and it tastes good but I don't feel like I got crack. I have hershey's and I want more and more and more.