Support for breaking my chocolate addiction?!

I am doing a very bland elimination diet for the next few weeks to aid in treating my current flare. There are a lot of potential triggers I'm supposed to avoid, but the hardest one to deal with is chocolate. I am a serious dark chocolate fiend and have been for many years. I have tolerated it just fine for long periods of my life, but right now my doctor wants me to stop it. I'm finding it VERY difficult! I know I need to cut it out for at least two weeks just to stick to the diet and give my gut a rest, but it seems almost impossible. Any tips on breaking the habit or at least convincing oneself to hold off on it for a couple weeks?

Oh goodness, I feel for you as I love chocolate too. Here's something that's helped me cut back (but not quit) chocolate. Every so often, I go to an expensive fancy chocolate shop and buy myself a small box of pricey chocolates. They cost so much that I can only afford to eat, at most, one per day. (And if I'm feeling even more budget-constrained than usual, then I'll only have one every few days or one per week, because I know it'll be awhile until I can afford to go back to the chocolate shop.) Perhaps you could do something like that? Buy yourself some amazing, expensive chocolates that are almost too pretty to eat, with the promise that you can have one in two weeks. At the end of two weeks, just have one and see how you do. I hope that helps a little bit? For what it's worth, you definitely have my sympathy!

I like Cat's suggestion!

Another thing - are you cutting out all added sugar? I recently cut all added sugar (it's surprising how many things have some sort of sugar in it!) and all artificial sweeteners (I still eat some fruits that I tolerate) and thought it would be horrible. I was shocked when it wasn't. I barely think about chocolate - and I used to eat it just about every day.

Now I know folks who've cut added sugar and it was just horrible for them, so it could well be I'm just weird.

So - if it works with the diet your doc has you on, maybe cut sugar altogether and see if that helps?

I can't find the edit button! By "recently" I mean cut added sugar/artificial sweeteners 4 -6 wks ago (can't remember exactly), so I've had lots and lots of experience walking right past the chocolate aisle at the store

It ttruly is an addiction, because I've had to kick it. It's also scary the thought of living without something that's so good.

I'd say switch to pure dark chocolates of the organic variety to get your fix and ween yourself off it slowly.

Introduce more fibers to your diet to satiate your desire for sweets.

I've been doing intermittent fasting and it's interesting but my desire for sweets is gone. When I come how from work after a 16 hour fast all I want it something hardy and meaty.

Thanks for the advice Thus far I have had moderate success... Trying to be kind to myself for not doing it perfectly.

Can you tolerate strawberries? great for a sweet fix with low glycemic index and moderate fiber content, good vit C.

Strawberries are the one thing that came up with a strong IgG antibody reaction on a recent blood test so I'm trying to avoid them. I love them, of course!

Can you eat dried dates? If you can get some organic dates they are rich, sweet and caramel in flavour. I weaned off my chocolate addiction with dates. Basically replaced a whole bar with just 1 - 2 dates. The dates were so sweetly satisfying and rich, that I could never manage more than 2 in a sitting. I did this for about six months and when I tried chocolate again I didn't like it. You could also raw organic cacao powder, as a little goes a long way. I have read of people weaning themselves off chocolate with either cacao or carob. Also two weeks is a short period in the scheme of things and would be quite easy to eliminate chocolate from your diet for such a short space of time. Chocolate makes me flare quite badly and I always regret having it afterwards.