I Gave Up Chocolate For a Year--It Changed My Life

Happy 2026!! Welcome back to the Living Well with PMDD podcast. I hope your new year is starting out wonderfully. 

In today's episode, I share with you about a decision I made right before my 17th birthday that changed my life. I decided to go without chocolate for a year. 

Summary

• Why and when I made the decision
• Surprises (and sacrifices) along the way while keeping to my goal
• Results: then and now
• How you can apply this in your life

Take Aways

• I was inspired by my dad having gone a year without candy. 
• Decisions don't have to be well thought out to be worth doing.
• My decision and keeping to that commitment has provided strength over the years for me to hard things.
• Think about who you want to be in 5 years. What is something you could start doing today that would help you become that person?
• Consider: What have you already done that can give you strength? Remember it. Let it lift you and be a foundation to what you want to pursue (or endure) now.

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Music 

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Transcript

I Gave Up Chocolate for a Year--It Changed My Life

[00:00:00] Hello, this is the Living Well with PMDD podcast. I'm your host, Heidi Bradford, certified life coach, mom of five and PMDD Survivor. Happy to have you here. This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered health advice.

Hello. Hello. Happy New Year. Happy 2026. I hope you closed out 2025 in a good way. Today we're gonna talk about one decision that changed my life. I am gonna share with you the decision that I made a long time ago and some background to that decision.

Then I will share some things I learned along the way .

Then I'm gonna share some results I got then and now, and then how it applies to you [00:01:00] specifically.

The decision I wanna share today that has changed my life was that I did not eat chocolate for a year. Now, this episode is not a health rant. It's about how one decision can impact and affect the whole rest of your life.

This decision was inspired by a comment that my dad made. He said that he had gone without candy for a year when he was younger.

I kind of think he was in college when he went without candy for a year, but I don't remember. Something I should probably ask him about. I don't really remember the specific conversation, but I do know that's what inspired me because I thought, wow, that is so cool. I wonder if I [00:02:00] could do something like that. And in the next day or week, I don't even know how long it took. I thought, "I wanna go without chocolate for a year."

I made this decision as I was approaching my 17th birthday and about to start my senior year of high school. I remember making a point of not having chocolate on my birthday that year because I wanted to be able to celebrate with chocolate on my birthday the next year. So August 12th, I ate chocolate, and then August 13th, I didn't eat chocolate so that I could go a whole year without eating chocolate. My birthday's August 13th.

 Prior to making this episode, I thought that my no chocolate year was my junior year of high school. But I looked in my journal. . Nothing in my entries in 1998. And then I realized, oh, [00:03:00] you know, it wasn't like one of those huge decisions and goals that I would've written in big letters in my journal. I just kind of made the decision. So I looked at 1999. there was nothing in 1999. Both years I talked about birthday celebrations with friends and

I was like, this is not how I remember it. Like what is going on? So then I looked at 2000, August of 2000 and sure enough, I talk about some desserts, that people had made to celebrate me not having chocolate for a year.

I'm not always making goals and decisions, but I don't have rules about them. Like, I don't only make a new goal or resolution at New Year's. Um, it may be a Tuesday at 3:00 PM and I'm like, you know what? I wanna be able to run a mile in under eight minutes. That is [00:04:00] kind of how I am and how I've been. Maybe you're that way, maybe you're not. But this was not unusual for me. It wasn't unusual for me to just make a decision that's pretty significant and then to, uh, stick to it.

Now, I don't stick to all of my goals and decisions; just wanna throw that out there.

Okay, so I made that decision. Then some things that happened along the way: a day or two into this Noe chocolate I had the thought, " our Tootsie Rolls chocolate? Our Oreos made of chocolate? Do those count? And I was. I really, uh, disturbed. I was like, there is no way I can go without Tootsie Rolls for a year. There's no way I can go without Oreos for a year."

I. I thought through those things, but I just [00:05:00] decided, you know, Tootsie Rolls, they seem like chocolate, Oreos seem kind of like chocolate cookies, so I'm not gonna have them this year because I'm not eating chocolate. Now I stuck to this decision.

I remember in the winter time, leading up to Christmas having the realization that hot cocoa

it was chocolate. So I didn't get to have any hot cocoa. I remember being sad about that. And although I don't remember a specific conversation with my mom, I talked to my mom about everything almost every day of my life growing up. She was a wonderful listener even if, just to let me express all of these thoughts and feelings and doubts, she was wonderful.

One day I opened up our pantry and there was French vanilla hot cocoa [00:06:00] mix. So that was my substitute for chocolate flavored hot cocoa that year.

I'm just so lucky that my mom did that for me. It really did make the whole thing easier because I had that to have instead.

Okay. The results then and now from this decision. I felt more emotionally stable during that year and I don't think I attributed much of it to the chocolate consumption until I went to college. And I just noticed that I felt, um, less in control of my emotions, especially around relationships and things that happened with roommates or boys that I liked. That was one result I got then.

I got the awesome, yeah, I did it. That comes when you [00:07:00] fulfill a goal that's difficult that you sacrifice for. That was a great result.

Another result I received then were all of the responses of other people to me doing this. I do not remember any discouragement or anyone telling me "you can't do that." "You won't be able to do that." Or " you don't have enough willpower." I don't remember that now. Maybe there were some naysayers and I just don't remember it. It's possible, but I do remember it seeming possible for me to do. And my dad had gone without candy for a year

so that also to me, increased my probability of being able to do this thing. And then just the support that was given me. I gave you the specific example of my [00:08:00] mom getting French vanilla flavored hot cocoa, but I'm sure there were a other things that happened that year that I don't even remember. I really think support from others helped me fulfill that goal. 

In my journal for my birthday of the year 2000... i'd finished my senior year. I'd done the summer after my senior year, and now I was getting ready for college. That's when I ended my year of not eating chocolate. I wrote in my journal that we went to church, that my mom left for Utah to help one of my sisters. And that, one of my sisters and her husband had invited us for dinner and then had chocolate tip cookies for dessert. Smiley face with the chocolate tip cookies. The next thing I write is that my sister, another sister also brought a chocolate ice cream dessert that [00:09:00] she'd made. It was in celebration of me and accomplishing my goal. I don't even know how much I appreciated it at the time.

I think I moved from one thing to another pretty quickly, but hopefully they know that I appreciated it and if not, thank you now. I appreciate it. I really think that support from others probably helped me fulfill that, that goal.

 My friend Sarah o. made a batch of brownies with powdered sugar sprinkled on top that are my favorite in honor of me making it that year without chocolate. I can't remember all of the particulars around this, but I remember her cutting them and giving me the first piece. Super sweet and very thoughtful.

A fourth result, and this is. From me looking back, that [00:10:00] one decision changed my life because it has indicated to me on many occasions over the last 20 years that I can do hard things.

Oh, I meant to tell you this a minute ago. In my journal. Um. Same day after I wrote about the desserts I wrote, "I'm already pretty sick of chocolate," and then the next day I recorded, "I don't know if I'll eat chocolate as much as I used to."

Anyway, just kind of funny.

But just being able to look back and say, I went without chocolate for a year, that's a big deal. And I was okay and it really wasn't that bad, so I can probably do this thing that's seems really hard for me right now. That decision has influenced and given [00:11:00] me other results in my life from that time till now.

Last piece is, how does this apply to you or how could you apply it to your life?

Decisions and goals don't have to be well thought out to be useful and good, and maybe even the best decision you ever make.

You don't necessarily have to have a valid why in terms of like long-term growth. A valid why for making a decision or setting a certain goal can be: I wanna see if I can. Or even: it would be cool to dot, dot, dot. Decisions don't have to be super serious.

As you think about this for yourself, is there something that could help the future you? Is there, um, a challenge or something you could accomplish [00:12:00] that looking back will help you move forward? I hope that makes sense, but I have it written this way.

Having done blank, I'll be able to remind myself that I can do hard things. Having gone without chocolate for a year, I'm able to remind myself that yes, I can actually work toward the goal of under an eight minute mile if I want to. What's something that could help your future self if you did it now and you stuck to it and followed through?

On a lighter note, what have you already done that proves you can do hard things? Or what have you already done that proves something you already want to believe about yourself?

Maybe you want to improve your identity, that you are a healthy person. What have you [00:13:00] already done that proves you're a healthy person?

sometimes we just write off these things that we've done. If you've had a baby, that was a really hard thing. And it wasn't just a few hours of pain. That was nine months plus any other preparation you did. That's a big deal.

Think about those experiences, and let it give you strength. Let it boost your confidence that you can do the next thing that you need to do. Whether it's hard or whether it's just surviving a certain period of your life right now, a struggle you're going through. Let the things you've already done support and lift you. You have a whole life of experiences, and I'm sure that you've done some hard things. Draw from the strength that you gained by doing it.

Thanks so much for listening to the Living Well with PMDD podcast. To learn more about [00:14:00] life coaching with me, visit my website Heidi, H-E-I-D-I, bradford coaching.com. Until next time, keep hoping, keep loving, and remember that you are not alone.