My little addiction....

The first thought in my head when I woke up last Sunday morning was, "Uuughh....I can't believe I ate six chocolate bars yesterday." And they weren't the mini Halloween-type chocolates that you can get away with eating four or five of without anyone batting an eye. These were full sized, Skor, Milky Way and Twix bars (even one King Size) that I downed over the course of an afternoon with my family over a football game and shopping. On Sunday morning I was so ashamed of my over-indulgence that I jumped on my brother's stair climber and desperately tried to out-step my chocolate sin.

12 minutes into the workout I realized I was in hot water. (But that's tomorrow's story.)

Anyhoo, when I came home from visiting my brother in Chicago and returned to work, I told my co-worker (let's call her Ms. Churchy) about the excessive snacking and we decided to go on a week-long fast of our vices. Today happens to be Day 7 of that fast and I find myself counting down the hours until I can have a little Twix bar. (I bought some of that discount Halloween on Nov 1st as incentives for my students and plan to eat a few myself.  I may not celebrate with ghouls and goblins, but I'll sure as heck take advantage of the discounts!!)  Here's the thing: going 7 days with no sweets hasnt' really been all that hard. Yeah, I see a treat and would like to have it, but I can walk away without breaking into a cold sweat.  What I do have a problem with is stopping when I start.  So tomorrow when I arrive at work I'm going to peel back the golden wrapper on that 10g log of goodness and enjoy every morsel of it slowly......then I'll likely pocket a handful of them and finish them all before the national anthem starts.  Once I open the floodgates it's hard to stop.

I don't really want to swear off chocolate forever, but I lack self-control in this area and, though chocolate may not seem like a big deal, a lack of self-control certainly is. Don't trust me, trust the Word:

Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance leads to godliness. Godliness leads to love for other Christians, and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop these virtues are blind or, at least, very shortsighted. They have already forgotten that God has cleansed them from their old life of sin. (2 Peter 1: 6-9 NLT)

My only answer for this is the same answer that I have for resiting other temptations that I can predict/foresee, and that is by not putting myself in situations that might cause me to fall/(over)indulge. At this point it's not really the chocolate - it's the principle - that I'm concerned with.  So, I'm keeping the bags (yes, bags) of Halloween candy at work, not at home. I've told Ms. Churchy about my struggle and asked for her support to keep me accountable. I'm praying continually for God to keep me from situations in which I might be tempted and for the strength to resist when I do come upon temptation.

I'll keep ya updated....

~gg~