Most people would say I'm a very healthy eater. I've been doing the (mostly) vegan thing [1] for years, and I rarely eat processed food [2]. Except chips. For the life of me, I cannot part with my beloved nightly snack. Usually, just before dinner, I'll pop a few heavenly tortilla chips in my mouth and relish in the crunch, the saltiness. Everything about chips makes my mouth happy.
Unfortunately, I know eating chips every single night — even when they're organic, stone ground, made with beans, whatever — isn't a great habit. Sometimes I'll overdo it, and then my appetite for dinner is negatively impacted. And I'll end up feeling bloated [3] and kinda gross about myself. So I decided to try my very best to give up chips for an entire week. I hoped that by eliminating this indulgence from my diet, I'd stop craving it so much. Read on to find out if I was able to nix my chip dependency and what I learned during my cold turkey, er, chip experiment.
Spoiler: They Were Hard to Resist
The first day I was officially off chips was right after the Thanksgiving holiday. Since I was pretty stuffed and (whispers) kinda hungover [5], I didn't feel tempted to snack. But the next day, I think I literally heard my heart break when I forced myself to pass the chip aisle during a grocery run. Sniff. And then, OK, confession time: Sunday, I cracked! We'd gone out to dinner to my favourite Mexican restaurant [6], and there they were. Glaring at me. The chips were so shiny and golden and warm. A nearby bowl of salsa beckoned me to just. take. one. dip. Sigh. I took so many more dips than one.
I felt badly after that dinner and swore off chips for the rest of the experiment. I swear. Until I found a bag of chips lurking in the back of the pantry one night. There was nothing else to eat, my hand to God. So I sneaked just a few.
On the last night of my chip purge, I was desperately craving chips, but I managed to call upon my willpower and opted for the satisfying crunch of broccoli [7] with tangy dressing. That combo totally satiated my desire for a predinner snack, and I didn't even want the chips. Looking back, I should have been more prepared with healthy snack options to counteract cravings the entire week. And yeah, maybe I should have suggested another restaurant on Sunday.
What I Learned
By the end of the week, I decided that maybe it's not worth fighting something as strong as my love for chips. Instead, I think my energy would be better spent swearing off foods I wouldn't miss as much, like bread, pasta, and cookies [9]. OK, I have to eat a cookie once in a while. But seriously, if you have one food you just can't say no to, allowing yourself to enjoy it isn't the end of the world [10], if your eating habits are mainly healthy. Going forward, I just want to be more careful not to oversnack. Because the day after my no-chip week, I totally binged. I was just so happy to be reunited with my darling chips. So in the end, moderation seems far healthier than chip feast or famine.