Going Raw – Day 24
I felt fine today. A little tired and not much appetite, but otherwise fine. And – I did well this evening. Many times on a Friday evening I want to get myself a treat, a week has gone by, my daughter is at her dad’s and I just felt like something special. Tonight I felt like a chocolate coconut bar. I started thinking about it while shopping in Walmart, then as I walked from Walmart to Bulk Barn I started thinking about it even more. Mainly, however, I thought about the other ingredients in the candy bar. The sugar, the dairy, the chemicals. I wondered if I could make something even remotely tasting like a chocolate coconut bar. Maybe if I used coconut, Agave, ground cacao nibs and coconut oil. I looked at all the bars in Bulk Barn, none of them combined chocolate and coconut in a healthy way. So I finally bought a bag of healthy sweet potato chips instead. Funny thing is that once I ate a number of those, I stopped craving the chocolate bar. I may yet try to make one, just not right now. And to be very honest, if I wasn’t reporting what I am eating, I might had the unhealthy version of the chocolate bar, or two of them.
We are surrounded by junk food, it is just too easy to obtain, and it is too easy for me to rationalize eating it especially if I am stressed. I want to break that habit. The problem is that while a chocolate bar once every few weeks is not a big deal, once I have eaten one, then shortly after I want another, then another. It seems to take so much willpower to be surrounded by abundance and yet ignore it. When I lived in the country it was easier. The nearest small store was a 20 minute drive one way. The nearest big store was an hour away. Now I can walk to a large drugstore in 2 minutes. A grocery store in 3. Another grocery store and drug store are a 15 minute walk away. Two ice cream stores are close by too. While the proximity of these stores is a blessing for buying my weekly groceries, they are a curse when I am craving junk food! And I am not the kind of person who can buy a chocolate bar and eat 2 squares of it each day and feel satisfied. It must be either the whole chocolate bar at once or no chocolate bar. Anyway, here’s what I ate today:
Breakfast:
Apple, coconut, date, spinach processed together into a “cereal”
Lunch:
Lentil veg soup from yesterday and the day before
Tomato with Daiya “cheese”
Supper:
Brown rice spaghetti
Pasta sauce with tomato and sweet peppers added
Daiya “cheese”
Snack:
Sweet potato chips
Posted on May 25, 2013, in Uncategorized and tagged chocolate, cravings. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
Wendy Presant, RHNC, Certified AIP Coach 
Oh, I know exactly what you mean! I can’t have treats in the house and save them either – if it’s in the cupboard, I just eat the lot. And junk food IS too easy to obtain. It’s everywhere, in every shop you go in, chocolate at the checkout counter pretty much everywhere.
It takes incredible willpower and planning to stay away from it, but in the interests of our long term health, it’s fantastic if you can do it.
Well done on resisting – and I think you should make a healthy coconut bar and tell us the recipe ;-). I have finally decided that eating home made treats is better than store bought ones (especially for my children), but my cooking skills are not great, so I’ve got some learning to do!
Thanks Rose! There is no scientific evidence, but I think there may be two types of people, resistors and non-resistors. The resistors can be moderate in their choices, they are the ones who can eat that one square of chocolate each day, or keep goodies in their freezer, or resist treats when out. They don’t always understand, either what a battle it is for non-resistors when they offer us a cookie! I agree about home-made treats. They are much healthier. I don’t even do a lot of baking for us, with just two of us it is still too much. I will let you know if I come up with a good recipe for chocolate coconut bars though!