That’s right, not one chocolate chip this month. I’m halfway through the month and still going strong. But why chocolate? Why just a month? It hasn’t been as hard as you might think, but it has had an effect on my life.
Real or imagined, I’ve noticed two major impacts:
- Self-mastery – I think any time you give up something you enjoy, for a good reason, you are going to feel more in control of your mind and your body.
- The Social Impact – People wonder why you’re not eating chocolate and most everyone around you is partaking of the delicious cacao but my friends and coworkers have been, on the whole, very supportive.
Why? A few reasons – the health benefits of not consuming extra calories, it helps me think about what I eat, and to show my wife (and myself) that I can do it. It’s easy to dip into the snack drawer at work and pull out 100+ empty calories that could have been satisfied with a small piece of fruit. I haven’t changed anything else about my lifestyle but this and if I like, I’ll add to it next month.
So why a month? I thought a month was a much easier and more manageable time frame than a year. Its also much less intimidating. At the end of the month I’ll consider this goal/habit “up for renewal”. If I enjoyed the previous month’s goal/habit then I’ll add another one. I may also modify the habit, or drop it all together. I’m doing a bit of reading online to find out more of the health benefits and negative effects of chocolate and will do a post shortly about that.
Going without America’s favorite candy hasn’t been easy, but for me the benefits have outweighed the chocolate.