Sugary/unhealthy foods during celebrations....

sunsnstatheart

Um. Why wouldn't you eat the cake? The cake isn't going to suddenly put on 5 pounds. Celebrate life's moments, otherwise its all just one long boring walk to the grave.

Words to live by.
And let's not even get started on what merits "healthy" or "unhealthy food" here... :can of worms:

It is really not *necessary* to eat to celebrate. I think it's very telling of the unhealthy mindset that everyone here equates eating with celebrating. It is entirely possible to celebrate without eating anything at all.
As for what is healthy and unhealthy, there may well be grey area, but you have to be pretty deluded to come up with any system that lets you put birthday cake under 'healthy'. Doesn't mean you can't have it. Sure, there would be different ideas as to what level of unhealthy. but surely everyone has the sense to recognise that it simply isn't 'healthy'.

Unhealthy mindset? One piece of cake? Seriously?

Poor reading comprehension.
As I stated multiple times above, I see nothing wrong with eating one piece of cake if you want it.
The unhealthy mindset is not the idea that you can have one piece of cake. That's moderation.
The unhealthy mindset is that if you turn down the cake, you're turning down the whole celebration. The unhealthy mindset is the idea that you need to eat cake in order to have fun, and that choosing not to eat cake is a life of miserable deprivation.
I support the ability to have a piece of cake if you want it, but in this thread, I'm standing up for the ability to choose not to have a piece of cake without being socially pressured.

My reading comprehension is fine, quite good actually, but thank you for attempting to explain your way out of what your wrote. Enjoy your sugar free life. No judging here. I'll just let myself eat cake! :drinker:

SanteMulberry

"...If you don't like eating sugar and enjoy your body without it, that's fine! However, it's a fallacy to say it's the same as alcohol."


I did not say it is "the same as alcohol"--I said that it is metabolized in ways similar to alcohol--the fructose component of sucrose, that is.



"...by the way, alcohol and sugars ARE found naturally in your body, regardless of what you eat'


I have no problem with glucose or lactose---I eat one ounce of chocolate lightly sweetened with glucose almost every day before I lift weights. And I eat dairy products every day so, of course, I get lactose. I just do not eat sucrose or concentrated fructose. There's a reason for it but I don't want to bore you with bio-chem.


"...If a recovering alcoholic declines it, that's their prerogative, and also an anecdotal piece of evidence (particularly as the first thing that came to my mind was the prevalence of mixed drinks using fruit juices; perhaps they, or you, are misinterpreting their reluctance, but then that's just an observation..."



No, the person I'm thinking of was only ever a beer drinker. He used to drink a case of beer every evening. I thought it was peculiar when he said that eating sugar did some of the same things to him as alcohol---but I wasn't aware then of how addictive sucrose can be.

PikaKnight

I don't think this going back and forth is not helping the OP..who hasn't responded. So why not just drop it instead of making this about whether or not we should eat sugar.

I think we all get your point by now.

SanteMulberry

Um. Why wouldn't you eat the cake? The cake isn't going to suddenly put on 5 pounds. Celebrate life's moments, otherwise its all just one long boring walk to the grave.

If one needs cake to avoid boredom that is a problem bigger than the possibility of offending a hostess. Eating out of boredom is, at least partially, what got many of us having to be on fat loss programs to begin with. But *shrug* to each his or her own. What others put into their bodies, is their business---what I refrain from putting into my body, is mine.

... That's not at all what he was saying. He was saying limiting things you enjoy makes life a boring walk to a grave. Not that eating is to stem boredom...

But...I really don't enjoy eating sweets anymore, so why should I? I enjoy spinach now (with a bit of salt and lemon juice--yum!) as much as I ever enjoyed cake (probably more as I love the feeling I get when I do things to enhance my health). And now that I am free of all food addictions, life is infinitely MORE enjoyable.

SanteMulberry

I don't think this going back and forth is not helping the OP..who hasn't responded. So why not just drop it instead of making this about whether or not we should eat sugar.

I think we all get your point by now.

Well, I guess we can let the OP speak for herself. If she chooses not to that is her prerogative just as it is mine to respond to others who have chosen to criticize my view.

PikaKnight

I don't think this going back and forth is not helping the OP..who hasn't responded. So why not just drop it instead of making this about whether or not we should eat sugar.

I think we all get your point by now.

Well, I guess we can let the OP speak for herself. If she chooses not to that is her prerogative just as it is mine to respond to others who have chosen to criticize my view.

I'm out of this thread because having you continually hijack threads is just not cool. Have fun arguing with yourself.

SanteMulberry

I don't think this going back and forth is not helping the OP..who hasn't responded. So why not just drop it instead of making this about whether or not we should eat sugar.

I think we all get your point by now.

Well, I guess we can let the OP speak for herself. If she chooses not to that is her prerogative just as it is mine to respond to others who have chosen to criticize my view.

I'm out of this thread because having you continually hijack threads is just not cool. Have fun arguing with yourself.

Have fun running the world.

RandiLandCHANGED

I just eat it and eat less later or the following day. Sometimes I have a few off days and then I go by my weekly calories.

kairisika

And even though now there will be the inevitable, "Excuse you, going off sugar can result in withdrawal symptoms" or "I have a food addiction/ED/etc. etc.," no, offering a piece of cake to someone on a diet is NOT the same as offering a drink to a recovering alcoholic. Alcohol is a drug with very real, very dangerous issues of withdrawal, relapse, etc. You DO need food to live, regardless of its quality, and it has tens of thousands of years of being a communal ritual for homo sapiens.

There's nothing wrong with offering a piece of cake to someone on a diet.
There *is* something wrong with pressuring a person (whether on a diet or not) to eat a piece of cake, and indicating that they're not partaking in the celebration, or being social, or whatnot if they choose not to eat it.

And the OP can just say No. It's not that hard. if they really really want to say no, then people usually get the point and back off. This isn't a big deal, honestly. If they don't want cake, then don't have cake. If they feel confident in their choices and control and choose to have the cake, then that's fine too.

ETA: I can understand the OP's apprehension....like I said in a previous post, I used to be scared to eat and scared of food because of the "all or nothing" attitude I had taken to "dieting". Once I stopped this..I gained a lot of confidence in myself because I realized there was nothing to be scared of, nothing wrong with eating that sugar....and that I am a lot stronger then I ever gave myself credit for.

Yeah, I know, that's a lot to figure out from just being able to know that I can eat what I want..but it is true. Knowing I have that freedom and that ability to really control my intake and keep things in moderation - that was definitely a confidence booster

I'm with you on that. Heck, if they plan to stay fit in this world, I think people need to learn how to say no, even in the face of food pressure from others. But I think it's quite unfortunate that so many people, even on this forum full of others who should be more likely to understand, seem to have a problem with a person choosing not to eat something.

kairisika

Um. Why wouldn't you eat the cake? The cake isn't going to suddenly put on 5 pounds. Celebrate life's moments, otherwise its all just one long boring walk to the grave.

Words to live by.
And let's not even get started on what merits "healthy" or "unhealthy food" here... :can of worms:

It is really not *necessary* to eat to celebrate. I think it's very telling of the unhealthy mindset that everyone here equates eating with celebrating. It is entirely possible to celebrate without eating anything at all.
As for what is healthy and unhealthy, there may well be grey area, but you have to be pretty deluded to come up with any system that lets you put birthday cake under 'healthy'. Doesn't mean you can't have it. Sure, there would be different ideas as to what level of unhealthy. but surely everyone has the sense to recognise that it simply isn't 'healthy'.

Unhealthy mindset? One piece of cake? Seriously?

Poor reading comprehension.
As I stated multiple times above, I see nothing wrong with eating one piece of cake if you want it.
The unhealthy mindset is not the idea that you can have one piece of cake. That's moderation.
The unhealthy mindset is that if you turn down the cake, you're turning down the whole celebration. The unhealthy mindset is the idea that you need to eat cake in order to have fun, and that choosing not to eat cake is a life of miserable deprivation.
I support the ability to have a piece of cake if you want it, but in this thread, I'm standing up for the ability to choose not to have a piece of cake without being socially pressured.

My reading comprehension is fine, quite good actually, but thank you for attempting to explain your way out of what your wrote. Enjoy your sugar free life. No judging here. I'll just let myself eat cake! :drinker:

Given that I'd stated my support for eating cake if one wants well before that one, if you can only get out of my statement that I think no-one should eat sugar, you really can't read.
"unhealthy mindset that everyone here equates eating with celebrating"
the sentence clearly states that the issue is with the eating=celebrating. Otherwise I'd have said that it was indicative of the unhealthy mindset that people eat cake.

binknbaby

Personally, being gluten-free (and knowing what happens to my body when I do have gluten) keeps me from most things. But in general, I think a little cake won't kill your progress. I mean, ultimately, it depends on how you view the food, what your personal needs are, and where you are mentally with your weight loss. Maybe you are in a place where you need to be "all or nothing" so that you don't fall into bad habits again. But then again, maybe you've been at it for a while and know your threshold, and are able to enjoy things in moderation. If you're having serious challenges with sugar (candida, diabetes, etc), maybe it's not such a good idea. But only you can make that determination.

One trick that I do at my work (gourmet food company) when we are given samples of a product, I will have just a bite so that I can experience it without overdoing it on the sugar/starch. So maybe that is something to keep in your back pocket.