Host: Do I have to turn down every piece of birthday cake?

Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak: No, I say let everyone eat cake and on a regular basis. Enjoy your food. The last thing that food should be is one additional stressor in your life. Hopefully, with these tips we can help you come up with some strategies. So birthday cake or your favorite appetizer, happy hour isn't a stressful eating occasion. You have already come up with a strategy to help you get through it. In my weight management practice, I think that I have seen about three different kinds of folks when it comes to these foods that we just really enjoy, we love having.

In the birthday cake scenario, there might be three different kinds of folks. The first person doesnt even need birthday cake, could care less, walks past it and just enjoys the social event. Second person, while trying to maintain a healthy diet will say can I have just a sliver, I love birthday cake. They are able to have the sliver and be done with it. This is the person that really has got that moderation thing down. Then there is the next person which if they had a slice of cake, it might as well be the whole sheet cake itself because they just can't stop after one potato chip or one slice of cake.

So, there is three different kinds of people that I have seen or three different kinds of behaviors, knowing who you are is a great way to come up with a strategy for that situation. If you just do not think that you can handle one piece of cake you can decide to go or not eat any cake at all or maybe come up with an alternative snack.

But what happens if you say, I just love this cake, this is my favorite one. I never get this, I am going to have it, and you feel like, Gosh! I have messed up. You have it, you have it all, you have a couple of things to think about. You haven't messed up at all, you have the next eating occasion, the next day to consider and it's brand new, you start fresh. The other thing you can do is just change what you do at dinner time let's say, if the cake, the birthday cake was in the afternoon just maybe have a salad for dinner instead of having a larger dinner. So you can all set the birthday cake scenario by either avoiding it altogether, choosing a different snack in place of the birthday cake or having your cake, eating it and then making a few changes later. The only thing you dont want to do is give up entirely and push off your goals till next month or next year.