“Please take me seriously when I say I am addicted to chocolate because I AM. No matter what I do I just can’t go a day without it. Even though I don’t buy it I still end up making a special trip out just to get my hands on some. I know that it isn’t doing me any favors because I end up feeling really grumpy and irritable especially when I don’t get it. Not to mention it isn’t exactly doing wonders for my wasitline~! What can I do to overcome this in the easiest way possible?”

Sound familiar? Many people really feel addicted to chocolate and it isn’t surprising when chocolate stimulates opiate receptors in the brain (not to degree of heroin but enough to keep you coming back for more and more).

So what can you do to overcome this chocolate addiction as painlessly as possible? First to overcome the physical cravings you experience for chocolate you have to eat right. Your diet plays a key role. If you want to overcome the cravings without having to really fight against them, then give yourself the right foods. One key food that most people do not eat enough of is fruit. Eat as much fruit as you desire before every meal and if you crave eat 4-5 pieces of one type of fruit. When we crave we crave for two reasons. The first reason being that we have not eaten enough, so we crave nutritionally. We go for the chocolate because this is the habit we have gotten ourselves into (even though it isn’t nutritious our body will search for the first and best familiar food item). If you eat 4-5 pieces of fruit and continue to so with physical cravings, you will find this will be the new habit you pick up. You will also feel satiated and quickly as fruit is easily absorbed and contains nearly all the nutrients the human body needs.

If physical cravings are the only thing you have to worry about then this should be enough to overcome them very easily. Make sure you do not even have a little piece of chocolate as a “treat” because after the first bite it is much harder to resist.

The second reason we crave is due to emotional triggers. In a society that uses food for comfort, celebration and mourning, many of us from an early age have adapted to use food as a way to comfort us and to repress emotions. This can be ok if it is on the odd occasion, but for some we do it more often than we should. Those emotions need to come out at some point so better now then never.

The best way to tackle the emotional addiction to chocolate is to know what triggers the cravings for chocolate. Once you know the triggers you can then start to make a plan of action to stop yourself giving in to the craving and also to replace the craving with something much more healthy when resolving emotions. There are some great articles available at Eating Naturally for emotional eating and there are also some great tools at ShrinkYourself.com.