Day 12 & 13 -- Cakes, Donuts Muffins

Well, I'm still on track. Taking a carafe of coffee to work every day, drinking lots of water. And I repeated my strategy from last Saturday to avoid my fast food sandwich and chocolate coke today. I didn't leave the house until about 2:00 pm to run my errands.  It works.  Tonight while grocery shopping I stocked up on apples and veggies.  Looks like I'm prepared for the next week.


So let's look at the next rule:  NO CAKE, DONUT, MUFFIN

No cake:  I haven't had an issue with this. I'm not a big dessert person. We had cake for Chris' birthday - I only ate two very small bites.  But you ask why is cake bad for you?  Well, obviously because of the sugar.  Cakes are full of calories, fat and sugar. Did you know that one serving (1/12 of an 8 inch cake) has 248 calories without frosting?  Did you also know that the recommended calories for a woman are 2000 per day? I remember that my dad's favorite snack was to take yellow cake and put butter on it. Did I say he put butter on it? He actually slathered butter on his cake.  He loved this. It did taste good - especially hot from the oven. Hate to think how many calories we consumed with that . It definitely wasn't a 1/12 of an 8 inch cake.

If you are someone who still wants cake but still wants to watch what you eat there are some substitutions that will make that cake a little bit healthier for  you.  As long as the cake isn't a white cake, make half the flour wheat flour.  Decrease the amount of sugar by one third and use cinnamon or vanilla to bring out the sweetness. And use pureed fruits or vegetables to replace up to one half the fat in the recipe. Ideas are applesauce, pumpkin puree or pureed beans.  Now if it was me I think I would stick with applesauce.

No donut:  Doesn't that look like one of those yummy Krispy Kreme donuts?  Man those are good!  We have a Krispy Kreme here in town. Fortunately for me it is on the opposite end of town from where we live. It's on 71st street - an area we tend to try to avoid just because it's always so busy. But every so often we are down that way and sometimes that hot light is on at Krispy Kreme.  There is nothing like hot Krispy Kreme donuts!!  They melt in your mouth!  It's like not eating anything - they are just gone before you know it!

Let me give you a few reasons why we shouldn't eat donuts.  It can lead to dental problems, cause weight gain, is bad for your mental health and can lead to diabetes.  Yep - those things are loaded with sugar!!  Glad we leave at the other end of town away from Krispy Kreme.

No muffins:  Well, typically if you are buying muffins you are getting them at the store. This means they are full of preservatives and processed sugars.  Were you aware that most muffins have at least 655 calories in them?  Even the so-called good for you muffins (zucchini walnut) still have 485 calories. That's a lot of calories.  And in case you didn't know it - a muffin is just a little cake.  It just sounds different if you call it a muffin and makes it seem okay to eat it for breakfast.

Yep, I think I'll continue to pass these up. While reviewing all these rules it's becoming obvious that these junk foods are full of sugar. Yes, I already knew this and I'm sure you did too. I think having this in moderation is fine (like my two bites of cake) but if you don't know when to stop is when it becomes an issue.  Like when you get those hot Krispy Kreme donuts that melt in your mouth and before you know it half a dozen of them are gone!  You didn't even eat them - they just melted in your mouth.

I have eight more days to go on the challenge.  I feel pretty confident about finishing strong.  And I'm planning on trying to continue on with it as well as I can. It will pretty much be a habit at that time for me so I will just need to continue the new healthy habit.