One-Month Challenge: Chocolate Free, Week 3

This will for sure be me in 2 weeks. CAN'T WAIT.

[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer as she takes on a personal challenge. This month, reader Lauren is going on chocolate detox. Last week was challenging. And this week even more so.]

By Candy

I guess I can honestly say I think this challenge has gotten harder and easier at the same time. With Lent starting, everyone is asking me what I’m giving up and they are totally confused when I say, “Well I’m giving up chocolate in March. Not really for Lent, but I guess it counts…” Yeah, I don’t even want to try and explain it. Anyways, back on track….

The other day I was out with a friend home on Spring Break doing a little shopping. It was drizzling outside and extremely cold and windy and we could not stop yawning, since the darkness at 3 p.m. made it feel like 11 p.m. We hopped on in to Starbucks, noticing they had a deal going on! Free food? Yes, yes, yes! With our lattes we got to try a free petite pastry for free. Without even thinking, I ordered the mini red velvet cake. Immediately after, I started thinking…Is red velvet chocolate? Should I eat this? Then became: whatever, it is so small and who cares? My friend assured me that she didn’t think it was chocolate.

Later that day, watching Cupcake Wars (that show rocks!), they all were ordered to make red velvet cupcakes. Which include cocoa powder. Oops. My first official cheat.

It kinda went downhill from there. It has been three weeks without chocolate and I guess I kind of stopped caring a little bit. I got a banana split cupcake regardless of the fact it had a chocolate piece on top. And I ate it because it wasn’t that much. And it was good. Really good.

Most of the time when I do something, anything, I want it to be perfect, and that’s how I was the first two weeks of this challenge. But then I got frustrated. And then I got all “I only live once and I want to live a life of chocolate!” And then I stopped caring so much. And I’m OK with that; I’m human and not perfect and I shouldn’t claim to be. And really, even if I have a few cheats here and there, it’s still way better than what I would normally doing, right? A petite red velvet cake is still a step up from an entire sleeve of Girl Scout cookies….every day.

Okay, when I said easier and harder at the same time, I meant harder. I’m just ready for this challenge to be over. Thank god I didn’t do this during Easter. I just want an egg shaped Reeses!

What are your chocolate weaknesses? Let me live vicariously through you!

[Check out the other One Month Challenges we've taken on. And if you've got a challenge you want to tackle (and be held accountable for), email us and we could feature you next month. Come on - it's good for you!]