No chocolate for 40 days

I haven't drank for over three years, and have been off cigarrettes for over a year and a half. I can give up chocolate for 40 days, can't I? Today is day one, and it's easier said than done. I keep finding myself reaching for the peanut M&Ms, or a quick ice cream sandwich. I haven't eaten any yet, and I don't plan to, today anyways.

Today is the first day of Lent. I don't know why people give something up for the 40 days of Lent, but every year around the middle of it, I think "I should have tried to give something up." I am doing it for the challenge. I just want to see if I can do it. I didn't realize how addictive chocolate is.

I figured that I was just a pig, stuffing fistfuls of M&Ms into my gob at my desk after lunch. I mean, I am a pig, but today showed me that it is addictive. Quitting smoking was a lot easier on the first day than this. It says in Alcoholics Anonymous's Big Book on page 133 that "[a doctor] thought that all alcoholics should constantly have chocolate available for its quick energy value at times of fatigue." I guess I took that to heart, because I seem to always have chocolate around, and eat it after most meals. 

Often when I don't have chocolate at work (or even if I do), I'll get a pudding cup. They're only $1.69, and feed my need. I got this with lunch yesterday knowing it was my last chocolate hurrah for a while. It went down smooth. 

I hope to lose some weight in these 40 days, and that's what I'll focus on when the urge is strong. "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels," right? I know it will get easier with time, but all day I've been fantasizing about the chocolate binge I'm going to have on Easter. 

My stash on 8/1/13. It almost lasted 2 months.