Thursday, April 5, 2012

Cravings - Give In or Ignore?

I am being plagued with a crazy, unrelenting craving!  I wake up thinking about it, go to sleep thinking about it.  It pops into my head on a near constant basis during the day.  It's even crept into my dreams recently.  A constant craving can be a source of unending misery. What is this craving?

CUPCAKES!!!!  

Yes, I know, it's insane, but I can't stop thinking about all those wonderfully delicious, sinfully fattening little pieces of heaven!  Am I exaggerating a bit?  Maybe, maybe not.  I dreamt the other night that a bus-sized cupcake chased me down the street. 

I began my cupcake craze around the same time that all the cupcake bakeries started opening up a dozen years ago or so.  In NYC, I probably visited every cupcake establishment that cropped up:  Cupcake Cafe, Magnolia Bakery, Crumbs, Billy's Bakery, Buttercup Bake ShopEleni's, my all-time favorite Empire (f/k/a Lulu's) ... and the list goes on and on.  I've even had the cupcakes that Starbucks features occasionally.  Yum!!  It's a sickness I know. Here in Newburyport, there're a limited number of bakeries selling cupcakes - Eat Cake!  and Sweet Flour Bakery - and while both are good, the cupcakes are really, really fancy.  Sometimes I just want a simple vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting and I can't seem to find one in Newburyport.  

Now I have an additional problem which is that a month ago I went back to eating healthy in an attempt to lose the 35 pounds I've gained over the past year.  Ergo all bakery visits are out and where the cravings come into play.  And even though there is a low fat cupcake that I've made, they are not quite up to snuff with my elitist cupcake tastes.  But what happens if I give into the craving?  My fear is that even one cupcake indulgence ends up being slippery slope into overindulging - a problem that I have.  So what's the answer here? How do I handle the cravings?  Anyone have some solid advice on handling cravings? Because clearly ignoring them isn't doing the trick.  Although being chased by a bus-sized cupcake is really, really funny.

Don't these look lovely??  <sigh>


3 comments:

Kim said...

How about making mini cupcakes? I find I can sometimes kill a craving better with a smaller amount of the good stuff than a larger helping of a healthier knockoff.

http://bakingbites.com/2011/03/how-to-turn-cupcakes-into-mini-cupcakes/

paige said...

buy cute cupcake. cut into 1/2's or 1/4's. before eating any of the pieces, pack away the other portions in gladware, tape lids closed. place in fridge or freezer.
eat small remaining portion.
next time you have a craving, defrost next piece, or pull out of fridge.
un tape, enjoy. feed the craving, just portion control it. I find that pre-portioning makes all the difference.

Sandi said...

Both are excellent ideas, gals. Thanks. I'll try these ideas.