On 1/1/12 at 4pm local time I ate my first bite of chocolate in over 365 days. This momentous occasion was shown to the world by a live stream. Also, as the crowds gathered, we got some exclusive behind the scenes interviews and gossip - here are the highlights!

Well. what a year it's been! A long, loooooong year! But I'm very nearly done and can honestly say that not a piece, drop or morsel of chocolate has passed my lips at all in 2011. To tell you the truth, I never, ever thought, back in January, that I would do it, that I, the chocoholic would get through the whole year without my favourite food, dessert and snack. There's been tough moments, really tough moments and there's been doubters, teasers and tempters but I feel strangely proud that I have not given in, not even slightly.

I woke up in the morning and first things first, I had to start the day with an advent calendar chocolate. What would it be? Yes! It was a malteser celebration! Yum! The day continued well – a piece of chocolate chip brioche for breakfast, a caramel keg from the roses tin upon arrival at work, a couple more roses throughout the day. Ooh, someone’s just brought around chocolate mini rolls – don’t mind if I do. A few more roses in the afternoon, a segment of terry’s chocolate orange in the car on the way home, ooh I’ll have something from the selection box I won in the raffle when I get in. What a perfect day.

So 290 days in, and 75 days to go until I can eat choocolate again. It's not really a struggle anymore, I've gone so long I just know that chocolate in all forms is forbidden and a no go area. Sure I still have my moments when I want to rip those smarties out of that child's hand and I want to scream at my phone when someone tweets me a picture of a three-tiered maltester cake (you know who you are!) but they are few and far between these days. I do have people asking me if I'm going to carry on not eating chocolate in 2012 but the answer is quite categorically no! I've always said from the beginning that this is just for a year! How crazy do you think I am to carry on past a year!

So, I must confess, August wasn't a good month for me where dieting is concerned. I sort of lost the plot. There were birthday celebrations which equalled a krispy kreme donut, cheesecake, thornton's fudge and a trip to Nando's and there was a weekend away which meant garlic deep-fried mushrooms, stuffed crust pizza and ben and jerry's ice-cream (yes, I did manage to find a flavour that had no chocolate in.) There was also the office move, an end of an era in the office I've worked in for 8 years - this of course means a trip to the all you can eat indian restaurant for the whole office followed the next day by a chinese takeaway for the staff left in the office until the very end. Then of course, you've just got to sample the all you can eat breakfast at the hotel next door to your new office. That's a must. Isn't it?

Someone asked me if I’d failed my chocolate challenge because I haven’t written a blog for ages! I guess I better start writing then! I have by no means failed, let’s just make that clear. I’m still going strong, it’s been 238 days and I’ve got 128 days to go. It’s almost time for the 100 day countdown and in a couple of days time, I’ll have completed 8 months and will be two thirds done!

'I'm just going to town now' Mum shouted up the stairs. 'See you later then' I replied. As soon as the door slammed behind her, I raced out of my bedroom. I grabbed the orange stool from the cupboard, opened Mum's wardrobe and climbed on the stool. A little rummage later and there they were - jewellery, make up, clothes, DVDs, CDs and more. All my christmas presents, handily unwrapped so nothing could me left to my imagination**. Just needed to work on my surprised face for Christmas Day now.

Well, 9 days in to #nochocsjuly and I'm still not sure whether people think my year long challenge is stupidly easily or ridiculously hard. Some people have long fallen by the wayside while others are even considering carrying on with no chocolate for August. Some people aren't happy with the people who talk about it all the time, while others seems to prefer talking about it as it makes them more determined.

Whether you're doing #nochocsjuly, started off with the best of intentions or just following everyone's journey, I thought I'd let you see some of the hilarious comments i've had from two individuals in the run up to #nochocsjuly and during the first week - enjoy!

Well, the response to my No Chocolate July appeal has been overwhelming. In less than 36 hours, 101 people have agreed to give it a go. Fantastic. With this response, we’ll probably be able to put Nestle and Cadbury’s out of business!

Comments from people have been really interesting with most people checking what they’ll be able to get away with! Can they still have biscuits that have chocolate chips in? Does hot chocolate count as chocolate? Can I still have my chocolate flavoured cereal bars? My response to these people is to just start off on the 1st of July and see what they can cope with. If you really can’t survive without any chocolate at all, I’m not going to think you’re a complete failure if you succumb to a hot chocolate or two. Just give it a go, it might be easier than you think.