Argh! A coworker brought in a TON of chocolate and it's just sitting there, 4 ft away. It's probably going to be there all next week too, and people keep coming by to get some and asking if they can bring me a piece.

SO far today I am handling it. Chocolate is a major trigger for me, so I am trying to avoid having any.

Bring in a stash of pure de-lite candy for yourself. They aren't bad!

Yeah, bring in an Atkins bar cut into pieces and some SF hot cocoa.

Ugh. I hate that about the workplace. Sometimes I walk into the staff lounge for lunch to discover a huge sheetcake left over from some event. Sometimes 'staff appreciation days' occur and people bring in all sorts of sugar-laden baked goods and act offended if you don't consume them. "Please stuff yourself with food to verify that you know I appreciate you."

Anyway, I'd be tempted to take one little piece of that chocolate, wrap it in a sticky note, and write on it, "Eat this to grow fatter", and just leave it on my desk. That way the nearest piece of chocolate has a very clear reminder about why I don't want to eat it. Maybe I'd put another sticky note on my water bottle: "Drink this to grow thinner."

Can you tell I really, really like Alice in Wonderland?

GG

if u can get your hands on some sugar free hersheys chocolate, 1 piece and u ll be turned off of chocolate forever!

Wanna bet I'll be turned off chocolate forever? Nay, never. Sometimes I will eat a whole square of Baker's unsweetened chocolate because I NEED something chocolate. Of course, I much prefer the sweetened stuf, but any port in a storm. I usually handle my chocolate craving with cocoa and stevia, but I suspect it's just keeping my addiction alive.

Walked into the break room the other day and there were the remains of a big breakfast--cream filled doughnuts and half a dozen bagels.

One bite is too many, and a thousand aren't enough.

I looked at them and thought about how the old me would have wolfed down at least three and taken more back to my office for later. But I don't smoke any more, either. Maybe I'm kidding myself here, but I'm working on the idea that the stuff isn't even tempting. I don't eat that anymore. It's OK that you can, but I'm allergic and I don't eat that anymore.

I have two foods--tomatos and peanut butter--that cause powerful, painful reactions. Tomatos give me head spins and cold sores, and peanut butter, although not yet peanuts, causes explosive intestinal discomfort. It's real easy to not eat peanut butter now, you know what I mean? I just have to think it through... Where's the nearest bathroom? I (am working to) put real candy, bagels, cake, etc. in the same category.

Think it through... How it will taste is the easy part. How I will feel on the other side, how I can't be 100% sure I WILL quit, how I know I can eat the whole bowl, how bad the cravings are when they come back how nice it is to not have them now. Eye-candy cravings are different from real blood sugar cravings, too.

Two answers that work: "Not yet, thank you," and "I've had enough." They don't need to know you'd had enough by 1995...

are delicious. And since I've found some candy that I CAN have and that I DO like, I don't feel so deprived and "punished" is the closest I can come to it. You know, when you look at thin people who can eat anything, and you're like "what did I do wrong?""why can't I eat just anything?". The funny thing is, knowing I can have it is usually enough. I have some now, but still haven't opened them.

Another observation; there was a girl I worked with. She could eat anything. She used to eat those cracker things, I can't remember what they were called. They were little, round, with a cheese center. She ate those things constantly, and was thin. This was a good 20 years ago. I ran into her at a deli a few months ago, and you know what? She's gotten heavy. She's about 45 now. (She was drinking Nestle chocolate milk and eating a sandwich, and had chips).