Bakers Gonna Bake, But You Got Choices To Make: Cake Day Strategy
National Cake Day and tempting me
Arrggggh. Thanks a lot, Food Network, for creating National Cake Day and tempting me with photos of perfect three-layer creations and words like “moist”, decadent” and “very demure”, “very mindful” while indulging. (My self-control didn’t need that kind of stress test.) Today is a day where people are encouraged to celebrate the joy of baking and enjoying cakes. Do we have feelings about this? Of course we do, lots of them and they are mixed.
But don’t worry, this isn’t about shaming or banning cake – it’s about learning to outsmart it…or yourself, because cake has no smarts. Remember strategy is stronger than willpower. Let’s dive into a little history and some clever strategy so you can indulge if you are able, without losing sight of your health and weight goals using principles of behavioral nutrition.
Cake is synonymous with bringing joy to birthdays, weddings, anniversaries.
Cake from time immemorial is synonymous with bringing joy to birthdays, weddings, anniversaries. The word cake was derived from the Old Norse word “kaka”. Thank goodness for whichever culture supplanted the Viking Marketing Team. Over the course of time the shape and ingredients of cake evolved and by the renaissance, sponge cakes, made with beaten eggs, likely appeared in Spain, shaping the modern idea of cake. However, food historians place cake back even earlier in human history, however they were not the decadent, rich, moist deliciousness that it is today.
Question: What’s your favorite cake memory Or better yet what’s your favorite kind of cake? Share below with our community.
Behavioral Nutrition Tip #1: It’s Better to Buy Than to Bake
Baking a cake at home on a fall trending to winter day sounds so charming with the heavy delicious scents of vanilla, rising flour, banana, chocolate, carrot or whatever is your fantasy, until… you’re left with a full 12-inch magnum opus sitting on your kitchen counter making eye contact and whispering your name deliberately, soft and sultry, and pinching you each time you walk by.
One of the most effective behavioral nutrition strategies I tell my clients is to avoid desserts that require preparation, like CAKES, brownies and cookies. Why?
When does the temptation start?
When does the temptation start? Does it start at the kitchen counter with the whispering flirt? No, it starts way before the cake is even in the oven. You’re assaulted by packaging, by images and pictures in your imagination, the warm smell of the delicious flavors, the click of the pilot light turning on as the oven heats up. And let’s not start with the whisk and that big bowl of frosting, and the remainder dripping waiting for someone to lick it clean.
Opt for a single slice from a bakery or a grocery store. When it’s gone, it’s truly gone, there are no second servings lurking in your fridge like a creepy doll sitting inside a bookshelf…staring.
Break the gaze, if you go to a bakery to pick a dessert go at the right time, not late in the day when your blood sugar might be low and you might be tempted to buy multiple slices, or cakes plural. Whatever the occasion, using a little strategy will keep you from having to wear what you eat the next day.