My birthday is quickly approaching. Only two days away. I
have told family members that I do not want a birthday cake this year.
My reasoning is this-
1. My birthday is going to happen whether or not there is a
birthday cake.
2. If I had a cake, not all the pieces will be eaten at
once, so I would have leftovers. At some point, the leftovers would have to be
eaten and I don’t want the temptation of having a half-eaten pan of birthday
cake in the frig staring at me.
3. I could make a "healthier" cake, but again there
will still be leftovers.
4. I have a difficult time avoiding having a 2nd,
3rd or 4th piece of cake, if they are available, and I DON'T need or want any temptations.
5. I love cake, cookies and all desserts, but the only
reason that I can think of to have a birthday cake is because it’s tradition.
That’s not a good enough excuse for me (anymore).
I started the tradition of not having a birthday cake last
year. Last year, I was out of the house the majority of the day. When I
returned home it was about 9:30 at night and that is way too late for me to eat
anything, let alone cut into a birthday cake. I started a new tradition instead
of eating cake, we take a family walk. Instead of eating, we continue to
celebrate my birthday by all breaking a sweat together. I hope to continue this
new tradition this year, even if it’s raining.
My birthdays have really evolved the past few years. Two
years ago, I bought myself a cookie cookbook for my birthday. That day, that
only thing I wanted to do was bake cookies. If you didn’t know this before, I
loved cookies. I made over a dozen cookie recipes. Each recipe made a dozen or
more cookies, so I had a whole bunch. I have cookies stacked on top of cookies
all over the countertops in the kitchen. The freezer was just filled with bags of homemade cookies. And yes, I continued to snack on them, because they were available.
So to go from baking dozen upon dozen of cookies, literally
all day long, to the next year of eliminating my birthday cake and
incorporating a family walk, my birthdays have definitely evolved with my
healthier lifestyle.
Traditions don’t have to be broken to stick with a healthier
lifestyle. I have learned that I need to take control of the situation and
reduce, and sometimes, eliminate my temptations all together. The positive side of breaking a tradition is creating new ones. A birthday walk is now my new birthday tradition!