Trying To Avoid Cake

Damn cake.  I walked into my favorite coffee shop today for my favorite treat, a nonfat mocha latte – hold the whipped cream please, and there’s a cake sitting on the counter not more than 12 inches from where I have to stand to place my order.

My daughter and I had just gotten done with a bike ride and I was feeling pretty good about my activity level for the day and certainly wasn’t looking to shove copious amounts of sugar and fat into my mouth.

I hadn’t even given cake a passing thought today until I saw the damn thing sitting on the coffee shop counter.  Then it practically started calling out my name and saying “I’m delicious.  Eat me!”

It was the best kind of cake, marble with thick frosting, and it was free!  It was the coffee shop’s anniversary so of course they were celebrating by giving away free cake (why not free nonfat mocha lattes?)

I was fine for the first minute I stood there waiting for my coffee.  I kept reminding myself of how a piece of that stupid cake would undo all the calories I had just burned bike riding.

Then the second minute I was standing there waiting for my coffee, I started losing my resolve so I moved behind my daughter so it was harder to see the cake (but not hard enough).

But, then my daughter mentioned the cake and how she was trying to avoid it too!  Great- now we were talking about the delicious looking, calorie laden, free cake out loud.

Then another person came up, took a piece of cake, and before he walked two steps, took a huge bite of it.  I swear I could smell the frosting as he walked by (and of course it was a guy – not skinny – who was eating the cake without any obvious feelings of guilt).

By the third minute of waiting for my latte (of course it had to be really busy at the coffee shop!), I was thinking that maybe my daughter and I could share a piece of the cake.  Then I’d get a taste of it without eating too many calories.  I even looked over all the pieces and had found the smallest one and was picturing how I would carefully break it in half and make sure my daughter got the larger half.

Finally, my latte was ready (but of course my daughter’s wasn’t done yet).  She suggested I take a sip of my drink to help me resist the cake.  Good idea.  Too bad it didn’t work.  I still wanted the stupid cake (but the latte was really tasty)!

After what seemed like forever (actually less than 5 minutes from when we walked in the door), we both had our drinks in hand and we walked out of the coffee shop, cake free. Whew!  Crisis averted.

Tonight I started thinking about how much power that cake had over me.  I nearly broke out on a cold sweat while trying to resist it.  And you know what?  Cake isn’t even my favorite dessert!  It’s not even in my top 5 (but start talking about creme brulee and you’ll get my attention), yet I had to work hard to not pick up a piece and plop it in my mouth.

Yes, I was starting to get hungry (I had just gone on a bike ride!).  But lunch was less than an hour away and I had my latte, which I truly consider a wonderful treat, to tide me over.

Why do I let food, especially high calorie food, have so much power over me?

I know I resisted the cake and I’m glad I did.  But I’m appalled at the effort I had to put into that resistance.