a moment to refocusonlife - just say no?

Happy Beautiful Fall Tuesday everyone!
For those of you that do not know, "a moment to refocusonlife" was inspired by my good friend Donna Rauschenberg. In conjunction with a wellness program she was doing in our office, she asked me to send out a weekly "inspirational" blurb to everyone at the office. At the time, I had just begun writing about my own personal journey in this blog, so I just decided to combine the two ideas and write about my journey once a week while sharing an inspirational message at the same time.

Now that you know the history, let's talk about the present. I'm not sure that Donna would want me to share this or not, but she and I have had many conversations over the past month or so in regards to her weakness for cake. There's a wonderful group of restaurants at the Forest City mall (Cafe at the Mall) that have beautiful cakes, pastries, and cookies along with an awesome menu that you would expect to find in Charlotte rather than Forest City. But, alas, there that place sits smack dab in the middle of a dead mall in Forest City tempting people on a daily basis. Donna has succumbed to that temptation on several occasions.

Evilness wrapped in a pretty pink bow...

I'm a foodie, but I definitely do NOT get tempted by cake, or at least I thought I did not until this past weekend. I had not eaten an entire piece of cake for over a year (at minimum since July 8, 2012). Do you see that past tense I'm using? I HAD not eaten...
Well, this past weekend, I went to a Christening and Adoption party for some dear friends of mine. (Congrats to their entire family!) At the party, they had an amazing professionally decorated cake. At first, I had resolved, "no cake for me". Then Maggie started talking about one layer of the cake being rainbow swirl and the other layer being strawberry. I admit, I was intrigued. With that intrigue over the rainbow swirl came the thought, "I'll just see what it tastes like."

As I walked up to get my piece of cake from the serving station, I thought, "if I'm going to eat cake, eat the whole slice!" And, I actually told Maggie, "if I'm going to screw up, I'm going to do it right!" So, I walked away with a small piece of cake that had been cut for me and a medium sized piece of cake that I asked to be cut for me. It was delicious. Then, like I was on the cast of the Walking Dead, I walked up and got a piece of the Strawberry cake! I went from not eating any cake to eating 3 pieces of cake. And, the night before, at another event, I had eaten cheesecake. Shame on me!

When I left the Adoption party, I decided Mark needed some cake (he had to work homecoming and sadly did not get to the adoption party), so I grabbed a plate with two pieces of cake to take home. Mark did great. He ate the smaller strawberry piece and tasted the rainbow swirl, but left most of it on the plate. I packed it up and left it in the fridge.

That night, I had a serious headache and my blood sugar was up at both of my next two readings. Lesson learned, right? Nope, I got up on Sunday morning and immediately thought of that cake. Thankfully, I was able to say no on Sunday. I made Lauren eat the cake before I was tempted further.

Donna, I owe you an apology because I did not know how difficult it actually was to avoid cake. The point here is twofold;

• Food can be an addiction and like any addition, difficult to break.
• Never under value the struggles others are facing. It may seem trivial to you, but monumental to them! 

So, with that said, I'm back "on the wagon" and thankfully my wagon is cake free! 

Enjoy this beautiful Fall weather! Get outside, exercise, and remember to refocusonlife without too much pastry...