Have your Cake and Eat it too!

It’s my birthday month and I’m going all in (as usual)!

I planned a party for myself and I delegated food groups to my friends to balance out the shared meal!   Think that’s bossy?  It’s my party and I’ll do what I want to.

Obviously cake is going to be at the dinner and birthdays only come once a year so of course I’ll have my cake and eat it too.  Although, just 5 days ago, I indulged with candy apples and of course a few fun size Halloween candies, so should I still have birthday cake?  Like I counsel my clients, I look at my diet as a checkbook and tally added sugars, fats and other  food groups on a daily and weekly basis.   By the way, the ADDED sugar in a candy apple is 9 teaspoons, the same as a 12oz. soda, and fun size M & M’s are only 3 teaspoons.  Too much sugar increases the triglycerides(dangerous sticky fat in your arteries), and when triglycerides are elevated, your risk for heart disease increases.   6 teaspoons of added sugar is recommended for women and 9 teaspoons per day for men to decrease our risk for heart disease.  What does that mean and how do you read a food label?  The new food label will be easier to read but we still need to know that 4 grams of sugar equals 1 teaspoon, there you have it…do not talk yourself into being afraid of math.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/05/20/478837157/the-added-sugar-label-is-coming-to-a-packaged-food-near-you

Getting back to the birthday cake…people in the mediterranean celebrate their birthdays  too; however, my very sweet friend lived in Italy for many years and on birthdays she said ‘we celebrate with artfully crafted sweets, such as pastries and complicated confections and NO Frosting’.

The mediterranean sweet treat will frequently have fruit on top adding color and sweetness…portions are smaller too.

My mother usually made me chocolate cake with homemade white frosting, sometimes I requested angel cake with thin white frosting that dripped down the sides but now I am open to anything…my tastebuds are very sophisticated(61 years old))and I really enjoy eating and trying new recipes…most of the time anyway.

By the way, did you know there’s a brilliant researcher in my tiny state of Rhode Island named Mary Flynn whose most recent book, The Pink Ribbon Diet is a perfect guide for health and weight/waist loss for an adult woman.  Additionally, Mary’s previous book titled Low Fat Lies, High Fat Fraud crosses the gender gap and reaches any man also wanting to improve their health by following the same basic tenets of a mediterranean diet!   The meal plan is EASY to learn and satisfies the mind/body with practice.

https://nutritionfacts.org/2017/01/19/four-ways-to-improve-on-the-mediterranean-diet/

https://www.dietsinreview.com/diets/the-pink-ribbon-diet/

It’s all about accounting…so the day of my party, here’s my plan; 1 teaspoon of honey in my coffee as always and the other 5 teaspoons I’ll save for my birthday cake and try not to eat all of the frosting!  Enjoy your food, whatever you choose and sit down while you slowly eat to savor every bite.

Follow your big meals with bitters(coffee or dandelion tea) for improving digestion and visualize you’re vacationing in the mediterranean…don’t forget to walk around the neighborhood too.