freakin cake

Just gotta vent, please, please bear with me.

At the moment, I am silently cursing a coworker who bought a cake for another's birthday, and I feel horrible about it. She's trying to be nice. I know she is. But there's this huge cake sitting there for 5 people who all claim to be on diets. I'm actually the only one simply maintaining and not trying to shed pounds! Un-freakin-believable!

I know it sounds silly, but I am going to be OBLIGATED to eat a piece and I really just wish I had never been presented with the situation. Cards and flowers don't make everyone involved feel guilty!

Is it wrong that this is going to put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day?

Nooo not at all. I'd be pretty aggravated too.

Can't you take a pie back to your desk and not end up eating it?

What's the set-up?

I once had to do that b/c people put in the effort to bring what they thought was Kosher food for something at work but I couldn't eat it so... I brought it to my office & disposed of it.

People care too much.  That is, if they think you are rude for refusing to do something you don't want to do, then let them, unless you really really care about their opinion.  Would it be right to think badly about someone if they don't behave in a way I EXPECT them to behave?

I hate this situation, and normally declining with a polite 'I'm sorry, I'm on a diet' or the huge lie 'I don't care for sweets' doesn't raise any eyebrows.  I have felt obligated before, and I ended up picking at the piece for the meeting and then quietly trashing it at my desk.

It's not a very fair situation but no one is out to get you.  :-(

It's shaping up to be an awkward social situation. The workplace is in a bit of a flux at the moment, lots of tension and me sort of in the middle trying to smooth it all out.

People do care too much. I fall victim to it too.

I'll probably just anxiously play with the frosting for an hour. ; ) I guess I just wish I didn't have to. Thanks all!!

on to the *party*...

The cake part itself isn't terribly high in calories, just avoid the frosting :3 tell them too much sugar gives you a headache or something, or you gave it up for lent?

I'd just eat a piece of cake. . . preferably a small one. . . and try to go easy on the cals the rest of the day.   If you just sit there staring at the cake, trying not to eat it, the cake will usually win in the end, nd you'll often end up eating more of it than if you'd just given in to the small piece in the first place.

I agree with Das, and Pooh's idea isn't a bad one. I really can't believe ANYBODY would feel obligated to participate. That's just crazy. If someone gets mad that you don't eat cake, then that's on THEM. At my job people would come in for the "party" (cake time), and whoever wanted to eat cake did and those who didn't want any didn't have any! NOBODY cared. There's always SOMEBODY that WANTS some, so it's not a big deal if you don't want. If NOBODY ate any, then I would probably take a piece to my office and dispose of it, just so the whole thing wasn't a bust.

Also, when I knew people were really trying to avoid the sweets, I would bring in something healthier, like a bag of apples or some small bagels. You should never do something you don't want to do because that puts someone else in control of you. That's just not right.

One time my boss bought me a cake for my birthday. I was in high school and on a diet, one in which I shed about 25 pounds. I was not only obligated to take a piece at the office, but also to take the remainder of the cake home, where 3 other people were also dieting. It wasn't even a type of cake that I liked, but what do you do when your BOSS buys it for you?