How to break an addiction for cake (and pudding) (and whipped cream)

So as I mentioned earlier, I have somewhat of a problem with cake. Or so I thought - until I started compensating the forced lack of cake in my diet with pudding and whipped cream. This worked fine at first. I had one portion of pudding and a little whipped cream on it, once a day.

This was until today, when I binge ate the crap out of it. I had two portions of pudding, four times the usual amount of whipped cream, and an entire pint of Ben & Jerry's finest, cookie dough. I could try to justify this by referring to a thing called carb cycling but it would miss the point entirely - because the truth is that I have, once again, fallen to the sweet trap that made me denounce cake back in the day.

(Now, I must emphasize that this site isn't about weight loss or bodybuilding. It's about progress and personal development. And being addicted to sweets is something that's keeping me from progressing since I'm obviously not in complete control of my desires.)

Therefore I shall use the cold turkey method. For one week I shall eat nothing sweet. After one week I'll report the results and analyze the level of my cravings.

The cold turkey week works for other diet changes as well, for example in establishing a cleaner, whole food diet. Vegetables may taste blunt and even disgusting the first two days if you're used to eating junk food with transfats and processed corn syrup. But after a few days, and definitely after the entire week, your body will have adapted at least to the extent that you start to notice pleasurable flavors in things like broccoli. And boy, how good broccoli will taste like after you've fully established vegetables in your everyday diet. (Not to mention the smell of broccoli or cauliflower cooking in water. Or oven roasted! And all the creamy soups you can make...)

So when you want to get rid of a habit that you know isn't good for you, I recommend the seven-day cold turkey trial. Something is guaranteed to have changed after a week. Preferrably replace the negative habit with something you find positive, like vegetables, as in the case above. Or if you're trying to withdraw from TV or social media, replace the time you'd normally spend on those with reading or running or other activities you think will help you progress.

So good luck to you with your turkey - and to me with mine. We'll see in a week how my perception of cake & co. has changed.

RK