Confessions of a chocoholic: Falling off the wagon can be tough

I fell off the wagon on Valentine’s Day.

I had gone 14 days without chocolate and I might have gone 14 more — if that temptress, Rita Menke, hadn’t handed me a 9.9 ounce bag of Triple Chocolate M&Ms at the YMCA.

Yeah, you read right. The YMCA. The place people go to get healthy.

“You don’t have to eat it all today,” said Rita, an award-winning softball coach who exercises alongside me. “Save it for when you’re off your diet.”

Like most of my pals, Rita knows I’m a chocoholic and, as such, I cannot be trusted alone with chocolate. But this was Valentine’s Day — the most sacred of all chocolate holidays — so I gave myself special dispensation.

Rita reached into her gym bag and pulled out a Baggie filled with a smooshed-up brown substance.

“It’s the black bean brownie (our fitness instructor) Tammy made for you,” she said. “It looked a lot tastier before Trixie got a hold of it.”

Trixie is Rita’s neighbor’s dog. I looked closer and noticed teeth marks on the Baggie.

“I don’t think she actually got her mouth on it,” Rita said.

This may surprise you but even I have my limits.

After leaving the gym, I headed straight to Chick-Fil-A, where they were handing out free chocolate chip cookies. Later that night, my husband presented me with a box of chocolate-covered strawberries. Then my pal Beverly Voelkel gave me a container of dark chocolate hummus. (Yes, they really do make dark chocolate hummus, and it was absolutely delicious.)

I wish I could say I went back on my diet the next day. But by then I was a hot chocolate mess.

“Your friend Ginger Miller dropped something off for you at my office,” my husband, Mark, texted me a few days ago.

“Well, knowing Ginger, it’s either chocolate or a puppy,” I texted back.

I don’t know which one I wanted more. But I was thrilled when Mark brought home a Ginger-licious chocolate cake topped with the best ganache I’ve ever tasted.

In case you were wondering, I am still on a chocolate high. And if the chocolate chip muffin I had for breakfast is any indication, I won’t be coming down any time soon.