How do I stop eating cakes

I do so agree with you jeanie99. I'm afraid I have no advice as I need help too. Just learnt how to make a chocolate cake in a mug in the microwave . It only takes 3 minutes to cook and about 2 minutes to mix in the mug. Fatal !!!

I have the same problem in the evenings I just have to have something sweet.. could you replace the cake with a jaffa cake eaten very slowly they don't actually have that many calories...
I wish I could take my own advice

1. Don't buy them
2. Don't bake them
3. Don't eat them

I find the above works!

I'll join in this cry for help. I have tried to do without but it doesn't work!
Sugar is addictive, and I have very little motivation to make me stop.

I find that I can go for a long time with no chocolate, cakes or sweets then suddenly - for what seems to me no apparent reason- I get this craving for sweet or chocolate. Sometimes I am lucky and once I have eaten some am fine for ages but other times I 'need' it for a while.

preventing this

If its not just a matter of looking better, but a warning from your GP, then perhaps reading the above might motivate you.

I love cake and agree with aka about 1 and 2. Don't have any in the house. If you tend to buy shop cake, only go in food shops when you are NOT feeling hungry, peckish or cakeish. Avoid those aisles.
My rule when having coffee out is: Only eat cake if it is really fresh and really good quality. Never settle for anything less. If it is a big cake in a cafe and is 2/3 gone, then it is probably not today's. Not good enough. If it does not look moist, hand made and gorgeous then it is a waste of calories - and will be a disappointment.
All that bog standard stuff in Costa etc does not come up to my high standard.
This rule seems to cut me down to about one slice a week. Sometimes instead of lunch.
Also maybe avoid NT cafes... which nearly always have the good stuff.

Bez If you're normally someone that doesn't eat cakes and sweet things and then suddenly craves them, I think your body probably needs them. Anyway, I don't think giving in to temptation once in a while is a big deal.

Jess I had a slice of cake in a cafe the other day. It looked delicious but it was horrible - and expensive. I should have known better - most bought cakes these days are a big disappointment.

Thanks for the article Aka.I have always found knitting therapeutic and wondered why. The article explains why and compares it to yoga in some respects. So get out those knitting needles !

I go with AKA's very succinct advice. Or have the for a treat once a week.
I do not have a particularly sweet tooth though. Give me a good piece of fruit cake any day to a sticky gateau or a butter cream loaded cup cake.

I don't know how many less calories a fruit cake might have to a sticky chocolate cake though.

Eat a banana - slowly.

I think you are all totally lacking in self-restraint! I can quite easily not eat cakes or biscuits - although if you stand between me and a packet of crisps you are putting yourself in danger

Butty I do try to substitute fruit for cake/biscuits and sometimes often it works

Follow an intermittent fasting diet, so that you can eat what you like on most days. Lots of people follow this regime for health reasons rather than weight loss. It seems that your cholesterol level will improve as well as blood pressure, blood suger etc. I am finding it wonderful to enjoy eating well without guilt, for the first time in many years.

I find I can usually restrict cake eating to weekends only. It's a start. And then it must only be homemade as you burn the calories beforehand in the actual making of the cake. (I'm right with that aren't' I? )

I can totally sympathise jeanie99 but feel that Aka is right and its the only way forward. Having said that being married to a man who can eat for England and never gain an ounce, it's simply not fair !

The problem is that sugar is very addictive. I can resist cakes and biscuits and even puddings but cannot suppress my intense craving for sweets. One or two won't do either - the whole packet soon disappears.

I put this down to post-war rationing and being the fourth of five children. Competition for any sweets (never many around!) was intense in our family and I and my little brother usually lost out to our much older siblings.

Self-control is needed I know and going to clean my teeth when the desire strikes! (It's a good tip for any food urges!)

The only time I have cakes, puds, biscuits are when I have visitors or when I am at someone else's house. I can quite easily scoff a packet of jaffa cakes whilst cooking the tea, and then eat a good meal! After the visitors have gone, I give any leftovers to my neighbours and their kids. I have no willpower at all. I admire those who can confine themselves to 2 squares of chocolate a day, but the whole bar would be gone in an evening.

I'm doing quite well at keeping the cakes and sweets stuff's at bay,I did have a major slip up last week when a bar of chocolate found it's way into my fridge and just disappeared over night When I feel the urge to buy a cake or chocolate I now steer my trolly to the fruit section and think of the lovely suit I have paid a Kings ransom for to wear at "The wedding of the Year" in September.

The question is, should I eat a third (home-made, ginger, v nice) biscuit or stick at two?

<reaches for thrid>

I've discovered that if I dunk them they disappear get eaten faster.

<resolves to bite and chew>

My dgd 19 mths caught me dunking a biscuit and insisied on doing the same, which resulted in me covered in soggy biscuits serves me right

ella . It's lovely being covered in soggy biscuit by a grandchild.

Life has to have some pleasures, so....... don't stop eating it, just eat half as much and at half the speed. And after a month of that, reduce it a bit further.

It is the fact of denial that makes up want something even more - so don't deny yourself totally and it becomes less of an elephant in the room.