Scary encounter with a chocolate cake
CarvedTones
Posts: 2,340 Member
I had a very thin slice of triple chocolate cake. Under 100 calories; I just wanted to taste it. It was really good. The scary thing was that my binge craving kicked in. I resisted but I had to remind myself that I would absolutely be found out by my wife and kids. The craving was short lived; this morning I was up before anyone else and the cake has dwindled down to a size where no one would be very surprised if the rest, or at least a big chunk of it, were to disappear. But today I reacted to it the way I had expected to yesterday; it wasn't a strong temptation. Anyway, the intensity of the craving I had yesterday really spooked me. I had dared to hope I had exorcised that demon. Binges were my downfall in the past.
9
Replies
-
Carbs eaten cause you to crave more of them.
I have this all the time.
It is always more difficult to stop after you've had some. But you did it!!20 -
purplebobkat wrote: »Carbs eaten cause you to crave more of them.
I have this all the time.
It is always more difficult to stop after you've had some. But you did it!!
For me, eating anything delicious can sometimes trigger cravings. Yes, this includes carbohydrates -- but it can also be fat or even protein. Or foods that provide a mixture of the two. Chocolate cake is (usually) a mixture of carbohydrates and fat, so it isn't necessarily just a carbohydrate-related issue.12 -
Apparently when you eat something with equal carbs and fat ( like choc cake) you eat more of it. Whereas if you eat something with just fat or just carbs you only eat a little.
Anyone had this experience??13 -
I find that you being concerned over your wife and kids "finding out" you ate something more worrying than the craving.16
-
purplebobkat wrote: »Apparently when you eat something with equal carbs and fat ( like choc cake) you eat more of it. Whereas if you eat something with just fat or just carbs you only eat a little.
Anyone had this experience??
Chocolate cake typically doesn't have equal amounts of carbohydrates and fat, it just has some of both.
I don't know if there is a universal answer that would apply to everyone. I've known people (including myself) to have trouble moderating foods that are primary fat or primarily carbohydrates.
But many people do find that foods combining carbohydrates and fat are triggers for cravings and/or binges. Think chocolate cake, potato chips, french fries, donuts, etc. Often people discuss these foods as if the carbohydrates are the main issue, but I think that's over-simplifying it (for some, anyway).
Anyway, OP -- great job! I had a similar run-in with some pecan turtle bars this weekend. I managed to eat the serving I had planned and ignore the rest of them calling me from the Tupperware. I was very pleased.5 -
I used to do this with ice cream. I didn't want to completely give it up so I continued to work with it. It took a long time, but I can now keep ice cream in my house and have reasonable portions and not even everyday. Keep working with it, it's not a simple on-off switch, it's ingrained habits.3
-
I find that you being concerned over your wife and kids "finding out" you ate something more worrying than the craving.
Me too. I am not sure it counts as really beating the urge just for my own good. The embarrassment was the first thing that came to mind. It could be I subconsciously did a quick search for reasons not to give in to help me fight the urge. Just to be clear, I had the urge to binge eat the rest of the cake. There was no shame in taking the tiny piece.9 -
I'll never be one to say to "cut food items out", but sometimes it's better to just not have had any. I made Chocolate Chip Cookies this weekend for my BF (I'm a good baker, but I rarely do it because well, it's not that good for us). I told myself I could eat 1 from the batch (I mean, you have to at least taste test). Well, 1 turned into 2. After that I kindly asked for him to take said cookies to work and get them out of the house.
It's hard to have just "some" sometimes. Sometimes it's easier to just say "no".4 -
nutmegoreo wrote: »I used to do this with ice cream. I didn't want to completely give it up so I continued to work with it. It took a long time, but I can now keep ice cream in my house and have reasonable portions and not even everyday. Keep working with it, it's not a simple on-off switch, it's ingrained habits.
I have managed this with ice cream, but have only had vanilla on baked apples. Over the course of 4 days, 3 days I had a half of a baked Apple with candied pecans and a half cup of French vanilla ice cream on top and the other day I skipped the ice cream. But I still don't want chocolate moose tracks ice cream in the freezer; too much binge history.0 -
CarvedTones wrote: »I find that you being concerned over your wife and kids "finding out" you ate something more worrying than the craving.
Me too. I am not sure it counts as really beating the urge just for my own good. The embarrassment was the first thing that came to mind. It could be I subconsciously did a quick search for reasons not to give in to help me fight the urge. Just to be clear, I had the urge to binge eat the rest of the cake. There was no shame in taking the tiny piece.
Hey whatever works! You beat the craving and that's the important thing.3 -
Hi i just wanted to write and say I sympathise. There are certain a times whereby I think I will just have a small bit of cake and instead of it being satiating, I find it builds more of a craving.
You did really well to moderate your intake when feeling like that. It’s tough isn’t it because banning anything isn’t meant to be helpful, it creates the “it’s banned so I want it all” however, for me sometimes it’s easier to just say no0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »CarvedTones wrote: »I find that you being concerned over your wife and kids "finding out" you ate something more worrying than the craving.
Me too. I am not sure it counts as really beating the urge just for my own good. The embarrassment was the first thing that came to mind. It could be I subconsciously did a quick search for reasons not to give in to help me fight the urge. Just to be clear, I had the urge to binge eat the rest of the cake. There was no shame in taking the tiny piece.
Hey whatever works! You beat the craving and that's the important thing.
No. Connecting food to shame and embarrassment is not a good thing at all. It is a gateway to an eating disorder.10 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »CarvedTones wrote: »I find that you being concerned over your wife and kids "finding out" you ate something more worrying than the craving.
Me too. I am not sure it counts as really beating the urge just for my own good. The embarrassment was the first thing that came to mind. It could be I subconsciously did a quick search for reasons not to give in to help me fight the urge. Just to be clear, I had the urge to binge eat the rest of the cake. There was no shame in taking the tiny piece.
Hey whatever works! You beat the craving and that's the important thing.
No. Connecting food to shame and embarrassment is not a good thing at all. It is a gateway to an eating disorder.
Maybe it can be, but it most certainly is not always a gateway to an eating disorder.4 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »CarvedTones wrote: »I find that you being concerned over your wife and kids "finding out" you ate something more worrying than the craving.
Me too. I am not sure it counts as really beating the urge just for my own good. The embarrassment was the first thing that came to mind. It could be I subconsciously did a quick search for reasons not to give in to help me fight the urge. Just to be clear, I had the urge to binge eat the rest of the cake. There was no shame in taking the tiny piece.
Hey whatever works! You beat the craving and that's the important thing.
No. Connecting food to shame and embarrassment is not a good thing at all. It is a gateway to an eating disorder.
Id say for this case thats a slight over reaction anyway. Whatever excuse he had to scrounge up in the heat of the moment to get himself to not binge. Sounding like it was more of just an excuse to self vs an actual problem thought. Though if you actually feel true shame from eating to much cake and your family finding out, Thatd be an issue.
But yeah just sounds like he used it as an excuse with minimal actual true shame.5 -
I struggle when it comes to ice cream but I help myself by buying individual sized portions, like the tiny containers of ben & jerrys with only one serving in them. For me it was easy to keep eating an entire tub but now my amount is limited.0
-
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »CarvedTones wrote: »I find that you being concerned over your wife and kids "finding out" you ate something more worrying than the craving.
Me too. I am not sure it counts as really beating the urge just for my own good. The embarrassment was the first thing that came to mind. It could be I subconsciously did a quick search for reasons not to give in to help me fight the urge. Just to be clear, I had the urge to binge eat the rest of the cake. There was no shame in taking the tiny piece.
Hey whatever works! You beat the craving and that's the important thing.
No. Connecting food to shame and embarrassment is not a good thing at all. It is a gateway to an eating disorder.
The embarrassment would be about an eating disorder. I don't know anyone who binges and isn't ashamed of it.4 -
CarvedTones wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »CarvedTones wrote: »I find that you being concerned over your wife and kids "finding out" you ate something more worrying than the craving.
Me too. I am not sure it counts as really beating the urge just for my own good. The embarrassment was the first thing that came to mind. It could be I subconsciously did a quick search for reasons not to give in to help me fight the urge. Just to be clear, I had the urge to binge eat the rest of the cake. There was no shame in taking the tiny piece.
Hey whatever works! You beat the craving and that's the important thing.
No. Connecting food to shame and embarrassment is not a good thing at all. It is a gateway to an eating disorder.
The embarrassment would be about an eating disorder. I don't know anyone who binges and isn't ashamed of it.
I think I understand what you meant.
I haven't binged for a while (knock on wood!), but I still feel a flush of shame and anxiety when my husband will ask where a food is or comment that we ran out of something really quickly, even though me eating it had nothing to do with a binge (the anxiety is something that I'm working on).
My shame about eating didn't *cause* my binges, but it was certainly part of the terrible feelings afterward. I think it's perfectly understandable that it's a thought you had when thinking about eating more of the cake.
If you've binged and struggled with either hiding it from your family or disclosing to them, it's hard to imagine being at a place where you can be like "Haha, I actually ate all the cake!" or have it be no big deal. Imagining how people will respond or what they would do when they noticed is part of the whole thing.3 -
You overcame the need to not eat more of the cake; a great success. Right now I don't think I can keep food I love in the house for fear of eating more than one portion. You have worked hard and maybe you would feel your wife and kids would be disappointed in you. On the other note, I never feel ashamed about my binging. I mean that I understand that sometimes the binge eating feels so out of our control, whether you think of it as a drug/alcohol. And there are so many factors/reasons to feel the need to binge. I do though would hide my food so I guess I am embarrassed what others would say. Idk. But congrats for another step in crushing that binge.0
-
I think the problem here is.. in the attempt to just want a taste that a taste just wasn't enough. And I don't mean that in a binge sort of way but visually if I was to see this 100 calorie thin slice of cake I would automatically feel deprived and disappointment. Like really.. is that it?
I find my will power is stronger if I haven't tasted it yet. I know I love chocolate cake but I can walk away from it temporarily if the flavor hasn't touched my taste buds yet. (When I'm in control of my B.E.D of course)
I would save calories tomorrow for a more visually satisfying piece. If it's a rich cake it may help keep you to one slice since you've eaten more of it in one serving.
Like going to a restaurant. If you order dessert usually that's enough at least for a little while. If you eat the cake closer to bed time you could be asleep before a re-craving happens.
Sometimes people with binge eating tendencies just need to plan ahead by recognizing their own patterns and putting those plans into practice.
You could also try eating some salty deli meats. It might remove the taste from your mouth and allow you a little more will power for few calories.1 -
A Buddhist approach would be to allow those feelings to wash over you without judgement. You can give the feeling a non scary name like “the wantsies”, and the next time it comes calling, let it float on by. “Ah, the wantsies came by and I didn’t answer the door.”5
-
I heard an interesting suggestion the other day.
If you're craving something try to delay eating it till tomorrow. Then if you still must have it have it.
Not sure how this would work for everyone.... But i find it hel as I'm not denying myself, just delaying it till tomorrow. Then if you don't need to eat it tomorrow you don't have it.
Anyone else tried this??5 -
purplebobkat wrote: »I heard an interesting suggestion the other day.
If you're craving something try to delay eating it till tomorrow. Then if you still must have it have it.
Not sure how this would work for everyone.... But i find it hel as I'm not denying myself, just delaying it till tomorrow. Then if you don't need to eat it tomorrow you don't have it.
Anyone else tried this??
That would have worked really well in this case. I have 4 kids. The cake was gone by last night. When I had the desire to binge on it Sunday, there was still over half of it left. That would have been some serious calories. Last night I had a sliver of Dutch apple pie. It was good, but I did not feel the desire to binge like I did with the cake.
I think @HellYeahItsKriss is on to something about eating such a small amount being a trigger. It was just registering with me how really good it was as I finished it. Here is an interesting add on to that thought - it might not have been as "amazing, to die for" as I think if I had a few more bites; it was definitely good but it became legendary in my mind from a sample that was gone before my taste buds got the full effect.1 -
purplebobkat wrote: »I heard an interesting suggestion the other day.
If you're craving something try to delay eating it till tomorrow. Then if you still must have it have it.
Not sure how this would work for everyone.... But i find it hel as I'm not denying myself, just delaying it till tomorrow. Then if you don't need to eat it tomorrow you don't have it.
Anyone else tried this??
yes! I do this all the time. Especially at night, if i really want to eat cookies or something, i'll tell myself, if I really want it that bad, i will save it for breakfast. Then I don't feel like i'm depriving myself. Of course when morning comes, i only want to eat my usual breakfast, not cookies or cake. My willpower is definitely stronger in the morning.
Another trick I use is to make ahead sugar free jello cups. Those are only 10-20 cal or so per cup. I know they are not very healthy due to the fake sugar but better eat that than a 100 cal desert and the jello really fills me up for some reason.1 -
Following- lots of good advice0
-
I think I now have two known triggers:
https://www.pepperidgefarm.com/product/chocolate-fudge-layer-cake/
http://petdairy.com/products/ice-cream/ice-cream-cartons/pet-chocolate-moose-tracks
I like chocolate fudge.
There are a bunch of other things I have binged on, but the urge came first and then I found something. But those two items have both caused me to want to finish off the entire cake/package after having a small amount. Defeating temptations is all well and good, but I think I should not eat these foods ever again or at the very least not before I get below goal and maintain it for quite some time.1 -
I do better when I save calories for larger portions of some things that are trigger items for me, like breakfast cereal.
Other items, I do okay with moderating single serving packaging.
The biggest key for me has been not having an over aggressive deficit and doing weekend maintenance days, which allow me room in my calorie budge for those larger portion indulgences.
I just wanted to add that food items I've eaten with abandon over my life run the spectrum, macro-wise. I've gone to town on everything from cookies to cottage cheese to nuts to peanut butter.1 -
This happens to me almost exclusively with sweets. (I'm also unable to control myself with rotisserie chicken, but I tend to feel much better after a protein binge.)
I did really well after forcing myself to give up sugary foods for a few weeks. I stopped craving them completely. On Thanksgiving I ate dessert not because I really wanted it, but because it was tradition and my hubby and I had a bit of a competition going with what we prepared. I ended up eating a fair amount, and of course we had tons of leftovers the next day, so I ate a bit more. Then we went out to celebrate our anniversary, and we had more sweets. By Sunday when we got back, I was reaching for some Oreos before I knew it. (I use them as marathon fuel, otherwise those little devils wouldn't be anywhere near my house.) I realized the sugar addiction had kicked in again, and my best defense was to put back the cookies and practice reaching for healthier options.
Some people do really well with the "I'll just have a small portion" practice, and others don't. Maybe over time you can teach yourself to consistently resist the cravings or to be satisfied with a normal portion, and maybe you'll find it's easier to just avoid the trigger foods. Just know that you're not alone, and you're perfectly normal.
I like the other person's comment about just letting the feeling wash over you and observing it objectively. I'm going to try that.0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.7K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.3K Health and Weight Loss
- 176K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.6K Fitness and Exercise
- 431 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8.1K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.4K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.8K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 1.2K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions