Food Associations

Anyone that reads my blog is well aware  of my sugar addiction and my love of all things cake and biscuit related.

I love food in general but have a particular weakness when the C word is mentioned/offered/ sniffed.
Think Homer Simpson with doughnuts....

mmmmmmmm Cake

I used to have great will power and motivation. I would be so focused that I could say no to anything that was on offer and feel a little bit proud of myself for it.

But lately I can feel old habits slipping in. I can’t pass the cake shop in my local shopping center without thinking “will I” or “I’ll pick up a few for X/us as a treat” 

I am also very much an emotional eater, as in any excuse and I’m celebrating/ commiserating/ feeling happy/ sad/ bored/ cold/ bad day/ good day/ stressed

These would all be food associated feelings in my mind. Even if I’m not feeling any of the above and only popping to a friends house for a chat I stop at the shop for…. Yip you guessed it.. cake to go with the tea and chats…. (sure it would be rude to arrive empty handed)

I got so bad a couple of weeks ago that I realised that I had eaten cake at least once everyday!! I mean who eats cake EVERY SINGLE DAY? **raises hand** apparently I do!

Now that I've realised that I was doing this, I have been trying to avoid cake filled situations, this has meant less trips to the shops, supermarket (un-escorted), going to the shop hungry.

This hasn't been working out too well for me BUT I can say that I haven’t eaten cake EVERY day, but I've still been eating a lot of cake.

It’s the cake that catches me off guard that's a killer for me, why you ask? I can’t say no to it.. that’s where the problem for me lies at the moment.

When someone brings cake to the lunch room for morning tea (this seems to happen a lot lately) I take a little bit piece and say that it’ll do me, a little taste of the good stuff, but if I’m being honest, its never enough!! I’d probably eat it until a. it was gone or b. I was sick.. Whilst I walk away after having a small bit, it plays on my mind….

Its like its calling me from the kitchen and sometimes I’m  on a sweat about it.. tell myself that IF there's some still there after my lunch at 2, then I can have another piece! This is a little game that I play with myself.. Sometimes I’m relieved when I go to the kitchen and its all gone, but other times I’m disappointed because I wanted more!! It’s a vicious circle of mind games with myself!

Lately tho I've found that I’m back to associating having a cuppa with having something nice once again!! I had cut this habit out totally and used to see the cup of tea as my treat!! This isn't cutting it any more and now when I have a cuppa I feel the need to have “something”

So in the same way that people associate Saturday nights with a night on the town or a glass of wine. I associate having a cup of hot hot lovely tea with having something nice (preferably cake)

I have attempted to make the Slimming World healthy version cakes. I made the scan bran choc muffins, which were soggy bottomed and horrible and I attempted chocolate brownies, which I left in the oven for too long and became more like rocks than cake! But I will try others and hopefully find something that will help me along…

I am  trying to curb my tea and “something nice” issue at the moment (ahem, well the last 2 weeks), in that I bring my lunch and snacks to work and don’t venture outside, so its only when someone else brings a treat to work or there's a birthday in the office that there is “something nice” in the vicinity and I’m on a sweat.

It’s the evening time. I think my cuppa after my dinner is almost my favourite of the day..
I don’t have anything with this (except my daily fix of Home & Away) but this kick-starts the kettle being hit hourly until bed time if I’m not going out that evening and with that comes the voices in my head telling me to have a biscuit with my cuppa, and I do….. but then when its time for another cuppa, I’m thinking  mmmm those biscuits were nice, I think I’ll have another few…. Your seeing a pattern here aren't ya?

I’m usually the first to say, Brush your teeth, try the 20 mins rule, have fruit or yogurt instead, DON’T have another cuppa, go do something else….. But at the moment it’s a struggle and all of these ideas are good and WORK but not for me right now!!

Am I the only one who can’t take their own advise? Am I the only one who has these kind of first world problems?

I’m just a girl who can’t say no to cake even when the clothes are getting tight and the wobbly bits have extra wobble going on!!!!

Eeekkk

**Photos from Google**