Who's the Cake's Boss?

I really like cake.  All kinds of cake- coffee cake, pound cake, bundt cake, upside down cake, cup cakes- you get my point.   I probably like cake a little too much and the scale attested to this a few weeks ago.  So, I decided if it had gone up, that it must come down.  I joined Weight Watchers and began to count my points, watching what I ate very carefully. If someone put cake in front of me right now, I would really have to think about not eating that cake.  I could rationalize it.  Since I get a budgeted amount of points per day, I could use them now and just not eat later.  Or I could go to the gym and earn the necessary points.  I would seriously think hard and maybe even be a little perturbed at the person who put the cake in front of me.  Despite my deep longing to just sample the cake, I might find the strength to walk away.  Inevitably, the next day, I would reflect on my good decision and tell myself that was really no big deal to not eat cake.  I should not eat cake more often!  But somehow, the longing is just as strong the next time we meet.

This type of longing or craving is very indicative of the nature of pain caused by discomfort.   The intensity of pain in a moment sways us towards the decision that will relieve the pain.  Usually, these decisions are destructive in nature to what we were working so hard to build in our life and relationships. But after the moment has passed, we barely remember the pain, yet we are still living out the consequences of our decision made in the pain.  In the years of struggling to get out of debt, build a business, fight for my marriage, bring children into this world, I have cried so many tears.  But quite honestly I do not remember what I was crying about, not specifically.  I remember trials that we had to work through, but I can't remember exact dates and details of tearful nights.  I know through those years I picked up some bad habits that I had to battle my way out of-- my addiction to TV, junk food joys, shutting down emotionally towards my husband.   I also have done some things right because we did get out of debt, build a business, strengthen our marriage and somehow manage to start the process of our two "off-shoots".

Some of you are desperately fighting for things to change in your own life.  You're tired of the heavy weight of debt, unsettling anxiety or dissatisfaction in your relationships; and if I can encourage you at all, it is to remind you that you will most likely not remember the tears you are crying today.  But you will remember clearly and vividly the day you overcome.  The day you pay off the last credit card.  The day you enter a room of strangers with less anxiety.  The day you reach your weight goal.  These victories are vivid and worth building monuments to revisit over and over again.  Don't let pain lie to you in the moment (like me rationalizing eating cake) and rob you of these life changing events.

Not pretty...eating cake rarely is!

This life tool is not don't eat cake :)!  I put a picture here to go ahead and stop the paparazzi when you see me eating cake.  My affection for cake doesn't nullify the point.  But I do need to remain the cake's "boss" to keep its effect on my scale to a minimum.



This life tool is to not allow pain to keep you from making the right decisions.  The pain will move on.  It's one of life's greatest graces.

Check out this link for a little something extra.  Trust me, its worth a couple minutes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SLJ5X5hsHs&feature=related