Can you go to a restaurant and split a chocolate dessert with your hubby?
Here's a chocolate dessert, not a cake, technically a crustless pie, but it's one of my favorite chocolate desserts:
1 stick of butter
2 and 1/2 squares unsweetened chocolate
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 inch pie pan. Melt the butter with the chocolate (I use the microwave or you can use a double boiler). Let cool slightly. Beat the eggs with the sugar and flour, and mix into the chocolate. Pour into the pie pan and bake for 30 min.
I calculated the calories myself and came out with:
total for the whole pie - 2084
cut into eigth servings - 261
cut into six servings - 347
Now, if you really don't want to give in, here's something that I learned from Paul McKenna (author of I can make you thin).
Get a mental picture of the cake in your head and think of how yummy it looks, how it would taste, etc. Now, imagine the grossest thing you can think of (bugs, worms, spit, poop, etc) on top of the cake. Might help you to get the craving out of your head-?? Good luck
At the risk of receiving a little bit of negative feedback....
Just eat some cake!
But here's why I say that.. first, let me ask you this...can you say, for certain, that you will never again eat a piece of that cake (or something equally unhealthy) in your life? I doubt you can honestly say yes to that.
When we diet, we should be making life-altering choices that will stick with us forever. Sure, we're trying to meet goals here and do it the right way, but we're also trying to make healthy habits that are actually do-able. For me, there's a mexican restaurant close to my house that I LOVE. There's one dish that I love a whole lot. And about once a month, that's where I have dinner and I eat my dish (but not all of it) and I go home. And I'm happy lol I work out extra the next day and I don't use that as an excuse to "indulge" for a week.
Maybe you should eat a few bites, and then switch to a low-calorie desert to finish it off, or just stop after a few bites.
The point is that you should not punish yourself. Dieting is not supposed to be awful. This is different than an impulse at a restaurant... you've thought about it all week! Reward yourself and thank yourself, but then work hard to make sure it doesn't hurt you.
Try one of those Betty Crocker Desserts--I can't remember what they're called but the ones that are in a single cup and add water and microwave. They have 100 cal ones.
I made a no sugar added cake with sugar free icing before...it's a mix. I added fiber powder too.
I have been lovin Nutella on Goya Maria Cookies. I use 3 cookies and 1 tsp total of Nutella...yum and only 2 ww pts.
Buy the cake and split it with your boyfriend. If he's not around when you get it, immediately throw half of it away and enjoy the rest. You can also eat that half as your "breakfast" and you probably won't even go above your calorie count for the day.
If the craving is that bad, I doubt that anything other than the real thing will satisfy you. Also, I respectfully disagree with suggestions to make a cake at home. Then, you'll have to resist the WHOLE cake rather than just buying and eating that one slice.
The girls at work have made these flourless brownies, and they use beans in them. Honestly they are the most rich-tasting brownies ever. I was amazed!
15 oz Beans, Black
3 eggs
1/3 cup Butter or Subsitute
1/4 cup Dutch Cocoa Powder
1/2 cup Cane Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/8 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Toll House Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
120 cals/serving
Total Fat 6.73g
Saturated Fat 3.13g
Cholesterol 40.31mg
Sodium 97.18mg
Total Carbohydrate 13.72g
Dietary Fiber 0.4g
Sugars 10.15g
Protein 2.18g
I too have struggled with the chocolate cake craving. I have found that you can't really find a substitute for real decadent chocolate cake so here is what I've found that squelches the craving without adding too many calories to the daily alotment.
Betty Crocker makes these amazing little single serving cake things called Warm Delights. You have to mixk up the batter, just add water, and pop it in the microwave. They are single serving so it's like a slice of cake but without the rest of the yummy cake looking at you when you've finished your first piece. The mini version of the Warm Delights come in a two pack and have only 150 calories per cake. I'm telling you, this works for me EVERY time. It's spot on fudgey cake goodness.
Check them out at the Betty website. It's a serious lifesaver. Much better than eating around the craving.
I was just going to recommend the Betty crocker warm delights, even if you added 1 tsp of caramel to it, you would be way under the 600 calorie slice of cake and yet you would have a rich tasting chocolate cake.
I also find that getting a rich cupcake and removing all the junk icing can also be a rich treat at around 200-300 calories. I prefer to bake my own cakes and then giveaway most of it, thus I know what I put in there and I do not have any left over to splurge on. Sharing is all the easier when you are on the diets, for sure, my diet has sure made me kinder with my treats! lol
I found some receipes, some with reviews online.A slice of these cakes 1/12th of a slice is about 200 calories some even have marshmallow frosting and some use boxed cake mix with subsititutions for eggs and oils.
Deep Chocolate Vitatop. Open the end of the packet and put in microwave, 30 seconds, and let set in the packet for another 20 seconds or so. It comes out like a super moist, very chocolaty, warm cake. 100 calories plus lots of vitamins and fiber.
This always works for me with some FF cool whip on top!
Thanks everyone!! I haven't tried VitaTops, but I've heard great things. I also found a copycat recipe for them at dashingdish.com that I want to try out. I really didn't like the Warm Delights, they just didn't come even close enough to a yummy dessert.
My craving has subsided, for now. I've decided I'm going to make that cake a reward. Yes, a food reward for losing weight, which I know isn't a good idea. I desperately want to be out of the 200's, so when I do get there, I'm going to treat myself to share a slice of that cake with my hubby. Then it will also encourage me to really stay OP the rest of the week so I don't get back into the 200's!!
Thanks for all the advice and input, I appreciate all the ideas!!
