Let Them Eat Cake

Admit it. This is every woman’s dream.

You’re in the grocery store, shopping for your diet for the next upcoming week. You’ve already hit up the produce section and picked out some really green foods to throw into your cart. You turn the corner and make your way towards the seafood section…you decide that tomorrow night you’ll cook some fish with vegetables. Yea…that’ll be healthy. While walking to the fish department you pass the bakery. Giant puffy cinnamon rolls are sitting behind a glass window and plastic boxes of thick chocolate cakes sit on tables. You try not to look, but you do. And then you cave. You buy a bag of cookies, 3 pieces of cake, a brownie and the discounted chocolate muffins and down half of each while sitting your car before leaving the parking lot. It was sooo good, right?! And then within seconds your smile fades to a frown. You aren’t happy anymore, but guilty and depressed. You sit there staring at the empty cake box and think, “I’m screwed.”

But you aren’t! Because Miss Strong says, LET THEM EAT CAKE! 

We’ve written articles on cheat meals and why they can be beneficial before, and even gave you permission to eat some chocolate and enjoy life in our article on Kallari chocolate. But ladies still don’t understand. They still feel guilty whenever they eat a dessert or treat themselves to something off their “diet” and that feeling in truth defeats the entire purpose of having a dessert in the first place! The series of thoughts, criticisms, depression and guilt ridden feelings you have after eating a dessert…or two, is in fact more damaging to your mind and overall health than the piece of dessert was to your body!

Why is Miss Strong telling you to eat cake? Ok well, don’t go crazy now…there are limits, you know, and you do need to control them and set boundaries for yourself. I understand firsthand how tough that is. I eat incredibly clean (especially right now since I am training and prepping for a bikini bodybuilding show) and I have a huge sweet tooth…when a cheat/treat meal arrives every couple weeks in my diet schedule, I promise myself I’ll have a brownie, or maybe a small slice of cake. And I don’t. I have 10. No lies, no pretending I don’t….athletes, bodybuilders, fitness company owners, writers, models, trainers…ladies alike across the world, involved in the fitness lifestyle or not, give in and cave. Resisting cravings can be hard because even if you have a little taste of chocolate…YOU WANT MORE. So you get the point, that eating something like a cake or brownie treat once in awhile keeps you sane, relieved, on track and provides you with a jolt of surplus calories and energy…but how can you control how much actually goes into your body?

Miss Strong’s Advice For Controlling How Much Cake You Eat:

1. Plan. You decide that tomorrow, after dinner you will have a treat…cake, a brownie…maybe you’re craving a homemade cookie. Plan exactly what you want, and when you will be eating it. Who will you be eating it with?

2. Buy ONLY that planned amount. You want a brownie? Don’t go into the grocery store and pick up the carton of stacked bakery brownies. How many are in that box…like 10? Chances are later that night, you’ll be sitting there with 10 brownies chilling with you. You take a bite of one, and then are down to none. You just ate 10 instead of 1, because they were sitting around, you were bored, tempted, and probably told yourself in your head that “I have to eat all these tonight so I can start eating better tomorrow and don’t have dessert lying around my house.” You aren’t a trash can, so don’t throw all the food you can into your body in order to get rid of it.

Ok settle down now….pace yourself, and have some limits

3. Have a craving back up. It’s called sugar free gum (there are many new dessert flavors!) something like 100% natural stevia sweetened soda (Zevia ginger ale is perfect) or something like frozen fruit. There are so many tricks and options of foods you can make to curb cravings and save calories. If you need/want dessert, freeze up some fruit like sliced bananas and top it with a dollop of frozen cool whip. Flavored carbonated drinks are great for curbing sugar cravings, but I always make sure they are natural and don’t contain ingredients like high fructose corn syrup. A Coke or Pepsi is NOT the same thing as a natural carbonated beverage. Once again, please don’t put low quality products into your body. Freeze a cup of greek yogurt and top it with some raisins and cranberries…use your protein powder and make a miss strong protein recipe! Protein pancakes satisfy simple carb cravings…or make some protein pudding and ice cream with chocolate whey protein powder. Sometimes, adding a splash of coffee to a protein or blended drink can wipe any dessert cravings out as well.

4. Brush those pearly whites! Sometimes brushing your teeth makes you feel like you’re done eating…or prevents you from eating more and more right after.

Cake and other dessert is not BAD. When you start thinking that a food is “bad for you” and consider it a “cheat” that you can really never have on your “diet” you will deprive yourself for so long physically and mentally, and end up binging on cake for days to no end. Why would I even know that? BECAUSE IT’S HAPPENED TO ME. When you follow a hardcore diet and cut out all treats, sweets and indulgences for long periods of time, you will feel like you have to make up for it later…and you will make up for it later, by overcompensating to the point of what will feel like no return. Take my advice….it is better to allow yourself some chocolate here and there and feel like it is ok to enjoy little amounts of cake and treats than it is to deprive yourself, start seeing great results, and then cave in after several weeks. This will create a cycle of deprivation, restriction, and binging over and over again. Live a healthy life. Eat some cake. Watch a movie with some friends. Why? Because no matter what you look like or how in shape you are, or what you expect out of yourself, the purpose of life is to have fun and enjoy.

ENJOY IT, WITH A SLICE OF WARM CAKE. (and maybe a glass of milk too…and remember that if you drink milk, make it whole, and not artificially fat-free)

-Miss Strong