The Chocolate Bet of Freshman Year
’m talking about something more extreme. My freshman year of college, I was eating about 1700 calories a day in chocolate. That has nothing to do with the other food I took in. I would regularly eat like 4 Snickers bars, multiple chocolate cakes, Reese cups. It was a lot, it was disgusting. While I was certainly a chocolate connoisseur who enjoyed the finer, more delicate chocolates, I did not discriminate. M&M’s, Reese’s cups, etc.… It was truly an addiction
Me posing with my hero.
One day, I told someone I planned on not eating chocolate until Halloween. This was 8 weeks from the day of my announcement, and already I’d gained the reputation for being a chocolate addict.
Immediately my friend Kiko said, “I’ll bet you 5 bucks.” Ok, I agreed immediately, not backing down from a challenge, but immediately regretting the low financial payout for my abstinence. Another friend of ours joined in. “Yeah, I’ll match that. 5 bucks. Doubled! Yes! So it began.
The first few days were extremely difficult; the novelty and attention I was receiving enabled me to cruise through the bet a little bit. However, there was a palpable void in, a degradation in the quality of life.
I could easily put my finger on it. While I always understood my lifelong love for chocolate, this first week was making me aware of just how deep the love goes. My two friends who bet me would soon make the challenge more difficult.
Weeks earlier, I had been unable to find anyone to bring me food from the dining hall when I was sick. My roommate Karim said he would but arrived empty-handed. During the chocolate bet, I would return to my room to find pieces of chocolate cake, brownies, and all sorts of forbidden desserts covering the entire surface area. Nobody would feed me in times of need, but during my chocolate fast, the cakes and chocolates were flowing.
This was difficult at first, but it provided me with the competitive fire required to overlook my cravings and addiction. I decided to kick it into the next gear of mental discipline. Some days passed, eventually weeks. Suddenly, the chocolate bet became easy.
The roles reversed. I would buy chocolate every day, collecting them into a cardboard box that would be by my bed for motivation. I began to collect, catalog, and smell chocolate, as a display of my discipline and indifference to the sensual temptations that chocolate embodied.
Soon my collection of chocolate became preposterous. I most vividly remember a family-size bag of M&M’s, the kind with the peanut butter filling. The red bag. This was no entry-level M&M flavor; this was decadent rich peanut butter-filled chocolate. The big night rapidly approached. Halloween eve was a day full of excitement. The anticipation of being reunited with my love was in the air all day. Many people congratulated me on Halloween’s upcoming nature. I had no costume.
By now, various friends, family, accomplished members of the business community, and a handful of members who had flown into town to watch the outcome of the bet (jokes). With a few minutes left till midnight, my dorm room began to slowly pack with spectators. A chocolate-eating tornado was going to happen. The quantity of chocolate I possessed was unprecedented. With other addictions of mine, I was able to amass a surplus, never with chocolate. It is quite common for me to go to sleep possessing marijuana (CBD, wink) and wake up and still have some remaining. This was never the case with chocolate.
Chocolate was eaten until completion. Until chocolate ownership was no more. But now, I was in the rare and dangerous position of having a supply that would suffice for weeks.
Anyways, with a little bit of time remaining till midnight. I turned on a most epic scene from American film history. The edible room scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The song began to play and the mood was set for chocolate appreciation and worship. As soon as the clock struck midnight, a bean to eat chocolate in a way that started as attention-seeking performance but slowly turned into a lustful session of chocolate consumption.
The room full of people started to slowly dissipate as they sensed they were intruding on quite an intimate moment. I don’t remember very much after that. I woke up to an empty box. The next day I met up with a friend, Eleanore.
Eleanore was well aware of the bet but missed the Willy Wonka watching/chocolate-eating Session. The next day she told me about coming into my room afterward. I’ll never forget how she described the scene…
“Yeah I came into your room and you were passed out, there were chocolate wrappers everywhere and you smelled strongly of chocolate.”
This was before the age of smartphones, but this is one of the photos I’d most like to have of myself.
The last crazy thing is that, during these 8 weeks of my chocolate abstinence bet, my food routine remained the same, minus chocolate. My workout routine remained paltry and close to nonexistent. I ended up losing 22 lbs! Just from eliminating chocolate!
…My name is Sherif and I’m addicted to chocolate.
A CHOCOLATE FACT
One thing I learned which is interesting is that intense chocolate cravings are often the result of magnesium deficiencies.
THE CLASSIC MOVIE IS ABOUT THE CHOCOLATIER WILLY. CHARLIE IS THE REMAKE.
The original is called Willy Wonka and the other remake they made after was called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Obviously, Gene Wilder’s rendition of Mr. Wonka is the real one.
A tribute to Wonka, Gene, and this magical movie
Willy Wonka’s imagination, deviation from normalcy, and nonnegotiable eccentricity have played a big role in my life. Mr. Wonka looms large around here. His trickery and bewildering demeanor are both endearing and aspirational. Here is an iconic clip of Gene Wilder and one of my favorite moments in the movie.
Thank you for reading. I have many chocolate stories and adventures to share. It’ll be a long while until there is another, but thanks for reading. I’m so happy you are here and I look forward to working hard to bring you more stuff.