Sometimes Its Just Easier to Eat the Cake!

Did ya miss me?

I told myself that I would post every day to keep myself focused, but somehow these last few days got away from me. And, coincidentally, so did my focus.

I had a trifecta of diet sabotage bombard me this weekend: My birthday, a chest cold, and a surprise visit from my Mom. I mean, really, need I even say more?

I went into the weekend strong and confident. I managed to stay within my allotted calories during a night out with friends at a favorite restaurant. (Of course this meant not eating anything all day....and then consuming 1300 calories in one meal....but, technically, still on track!) I grocery shopped for healthy treats, I printed out recipes for healthy appetizers to enjoy during my birthday celebration, and I spent hours preparing a spread I could be proud of.

Then in walks Mom.

Now I love my Mom. And some of you may think its a little strange that I'm sharing these details with perfect strangers and not my own flesh and blood. But I'm just not ready for my eating habits and running ambition to be the topic of every single conversation. Not just between her and I. But also between her and every other person she talks to in the course of the day. So I've chosen to keep much of my kinfolk in the dark on this.

At least for now.

My Mom lives six hours away. She decides she wants to spend my birthday with me and shows up bearing gifts and calorie-dense treats. So much for the cucumber sammies. Instead she unloads enough cookies for a small nation, a 13x9 chocolate cake, a stoneware dish of homemade mac & cheese (with three kinds of cheese I might add), homemade Italian beef complete with french bread and five pounds of mozzarella cheese, a BIG box of truffles from Harry and David, and countless other delicacies on which to gorge. Did I mention that I already had a spread of food? And did I mention that there were exactly four of us?.....including my kids who are scrawny little things.

I did my best to forgo too much of the evil food and munched on the healthy stuff. But, like your Mom, mine is seriously offended if you don't eat a little of everything.

I even made a low-calorie version of carrot cake for myself. It was really quite good. It had only egg whites in there - no yolks, applesauce and crushed pineapple for sweetener, there was very little sugar in there too, and whole wheat flour. I used non-fat cream cheese in the frosting. And, surprisingly, I was impressed with the taste of it. Very moist. My son has been munching on it since Sunday, so it even gets the teenage boy seal of approval.

Of course there was also the decadent chocolate little number staring at me. I easily could've resisted the stinkin' cake. I couldn't, however, deal with the guilt-inducing gaze of my Mom and her comments how no one liked her cake. For some reason, my Mom believes that the amount of food you consume is a direct relation as to how much you love her. So I decided it was easier to just partake in a slice for the sake of harmony.

Sometimes its just easier to eat the darn cake!

So I've decided that my birthday will not count toward my little Lent challenge. Thankfully the scale is still moving in the right direction (albeit at a much slower pace) and I haven't completely undone all my hard work.

But after these last few days I'm just thankful I don't look like my Mii on the Wii Fit!