The Chocolate Challenge

Every New Year's marks the beginning and end of the Chocolate Challenge. For each month the girls go off of chocolate, they get $10. However, if they make it the entire year, both sets of grandparents match the $120 for a grand total of $360. If the girls can hold out, they essentially earn a dollar a day just for not eating chocolate. And there is a big chocolate party at the end where they can eat everything they denied themselves throughout the year. 

The first year we introduced it, Ireland went alone and made it a whopping 4 1/2 months. The next year Liesel decided to join her and they both held out 3 1/2 months. Easter was the undoing on that one. Turns out 2017 was THE year and both girls made it the entire year without eating chocolate. The biggest hurdles are Valentine's Day and Easter- big chocolate holidays. Then it's pretty smooth sailing until Halloween. By Christmas, they were so deeply in the habit of turning down chocolate, it was no longer a big deal. That's not to say they weren't eagerly looking forward to January 1 when they could once again eat chocolate. 

Here is their first taste of chocolate upon completing the challenge.

While a handful of chocolate chips is a sweet introduction back into chocolate, I really felt the girls deserved something more. The next day, I treated them to The Cheesecake Factory. Liesel opted for the decadent s'mores while Ireland went for the scrumptious Oreo cookie. Chocolate never tasted so good! I mean, look at those smiles. 

A core concept of the Chocolate Challenge is going without something you want now for something you want even more later. Some of the skills we hope the challenge develops are self-discipline, money-management, sacrifice, delayed gratification, patience, healthy eating habits, independence, big-picture thinking and honesty.

We've actually received a little criticism for the challenge. One person asked if I thought this was teaching the girls to diet at a young age. I reminded them that the challenge isn't to go entirely off of sweets, just chocolate. All year long we helped the girls find alternatives to chocolate and strawberry cupcakes became a huge favorite. Even though we adamantly asked everyone not to, some people felt pressured to create an alternative for the girls when they went to events like birthday parties. We told the girls from the get-go they would simply have to go without sometimes while everyone around them enjoyed a chocolaty treat. Even though the girls became accustomed to this, there were still people who felt it wasn't fair and voiced their frustration with us and this challenge.

Over Winter Break we visited the Museum of Science and Industry and the girls noticed a little corner we hadn't paid much attention to on previous trips. It was a display about how eliminating certain bad foods can save you calories in the long term. At one end was a can of soda and at the other was a chocolate candy bar.

The average person can lose 26 lbs in a year by not eating candy bars! You could lift up the candy bar and inside the box was the weight so you could see how that adds up. Liesel and Ireland had to lift it together because it was so heavy.

The display kept going blank right when I snapped the photo, but you get the idea.

 I loved seeing them marvel at what they had accomplished.

The Chocolate Party was pretty darn epic. Even though we put a fire in the fireplace and set out pretty much every chair we own in the family room, everyone congregated in the kitchen while kids played downstairs. The place was bursting and my intentions of getting pictures of all the different kinds of chocolate went out the window as I was caught up in so many wonderful conversations. We had friends from church, school, and the neighborhood. People commented that they could smell the chocolate as soon as they walked in the door!

I did manage to get a photo of all the shoes and some coats (even though we had a temporary coat closet just off camera)...

...and the chocolate fountain that was a gift to the girls from Julie. This is what it looked like by the end of the night- you can't even read the sign that says "NO DOUBLE DIPPING!" Pineapple turned out to be a favorite although we provided various fruits, pretzel sticks, potato chips, red vines and Swedish fish.

We had SO much chocolate!!! From the mini-candy bars to the exotic chocolates around the world, there was something for every chocolate lover. Liesel and Ireland loved talking about how they made it through the challenge and what they were going to do with their chocolate money. Liesel used it for more dance classes and Ireland is saving up for a trip to Ireland. 

The girls are taking a break for 2018 but they are determined to do the Chocolate Challenge again in 2019. I have to admit, I didn't think they'd make it and more than once, Brent and I forgot about it entirely until Liesel would sweetly refuse the hot chocolate Brent made her or Ireland would just smile at me as I handed her the last portion of the chocolate donut I didn't want. They deeply impressed us with their determination to finish this challenge and I'm so very, very proud of them!!!