From Cake to Cupcakes – How Did That Happen?

When we were little, cupcakes were special. You brought them to school to celebrate your birthday with your classmates. Or you had them when your Mom baked them as a special treat. Now cupcakes are sold at the mall for multiple dollars each. They come in all sorts of flavor combinations and with any decoration imagineable. We have had two or three weddings in our family that served cupcakes instead of cake. I found these in the display case of a hotel dining area, and they were available for sale or delivery to your room. 

Someone figured out that people will eat multiple cupcakes instead of eating only one slice of cake. People want the smaller size with all sorts of delectable flavors and icing options. When people buy cupcakes they don’t feel like they are eating as badly, it’s only a small cupcake. It’s brilliant! We eat more and feel like we are eating less…how did that happen? It’s magic, it’s marketing. It leads us to belive we are consuming less when we end up consuming more…it’s all in how you sell it. It’s the little lie we tell ourselves that makes what we do acceptable. 

What lies have you told yourself that you now buy as a better decision? The problem is you have told yourself these lies for so long that they have become the truth in your reality. You truly believe that eating a couple of cupcakes is a better decisions than one piece of cake. We think we are being smart when we have not weighed all the facts. We tell ourselves a version of the truth to make our reality seem not so bad. 

Sometimes the lies we tell protect us from a painful fact or event. We alter the details to make the story more bearable, more digestible, more of something that we can live with. We excuse people’s behavior otherwise we would have to deal with the conflict of telling the truth. We diffuse the annoying to prevent having to provide insights that may make the other person unhappy. We believe we will change eventhough time has proven that untrue.  No matter why we do it, we tell ourselves lies to get through the day. 

So cake or cupcakes, either way we are telling ourselves things to make our decision one we can digest. Instead of lying just eat what you want and live with the truth of it all. Put the marketing aside and live with what you really want without guilt or dishonesty. Set yourself free and eat with joy…then lick the fork for that last remnant of icing and savor every moment.