Just on a lark, I decided not to buy any dark chocolate for myself this week. Readers may remember that I regularly take a few ounces of dark chocolate early in the morning as a pick-me-up (along with Diet Coke, a kiwi and shredded wheat cereal). I told myself that I’d do it for a week to see if I NEED it. Mid-evening, I’m thinking about the prospect of waking up to no chocolates, no sweets, no anything. I’ve cut down significantly on sweets (no ice cream or donuts, and a cookie only at parties and during my once-a-week shopping), so a little splurge on chocolate won’t kill me. The problem is that it’s difficult to control the amount of chocolate I eat. Often I eat more than a reasonable portion of chocolate. Will Robert be able to survive with no chocolate? Stay tuned for our next episode!
(For the curious, here are my two favorite kinds of dark chocolate: Callebaut bittersweet dark chocolate (in bar form, or cut into chunks, 60% or more), and Lindt 70% ). Important Update: Although the linked chocolate is excellent, this Lindt Swiss Bittersweet Fine Dark Chocolate is even better. (Both cost $1.99 at most stores). Better still (mainly for the cost) is Laima, a dark chocolate from Latvia which costs 99 cents. A bit chalky and crunchy, and bitter, but for that price, who’s complaining? For the record, Laima delivers the goods really well.
Speaking of diet, here’s Michael Blowhard on diet books and a meta post on healthy eating at the personal improvement blog, Get Rich Slowly.
Next Morning’s Update: I’ve given up. I just couldn’t function without some small bit of chocolate sweet. Instead I ended up snacking on some leftover sugar-coated candy I had–appalling. If I can be careful with portions, a morning fix of chocolate can inoculate me against the need to consume snacks of more dubious nutritional value during the day.