Chocolate Cake and Gluttony

Let me just tell you that the cake I made over the weekend was good. Really, really good! We'll talk about my gluttony in a minute, but here's the recipe for all of you who are steering clear of dairy and want some chocolate cake. The name is disgusting, but try the cake....

Chocolate Oil Cake

INGREDIENTS
2 cups white sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups water
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* Optional: I added semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter and then as soon as it came out of the oven, I broke chunks of semi-sweet baking chocolate over the top of the cake. After melting, I smeared the baking chunks around. mmmmmmmmmmmm.

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a large bowl, mix sugar, flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa.
Add water, vegetable oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Beat by hand until smooth.
Pour into a 9x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

Ok, now for the gluttony. I'm not on Nutrisystem anymore, but I know how to count calories and watch what I eat. I've still been losing a bit and am very happy about where I am health-wise. Until this weekend. I ate chocolate cake every meal and because I was having so many calories, I skimped on other good foods. The result was ... Oh, wait, I forgot to tell you that I did a similar thing last weekend, too, so this is two weekends of gluttony to talk about. So, where was I? Oh yeah, the result of this cake eating-counting calories-gluttony madness is that I felt lethargic by the end of the weekend and to top it off, I started having Hyper episodes from all the chocolate I consumed! Last night I started having episodes and it was like I was caught in a meat grinder. I couldn't get away from one episode before I got slammed with another one. As I lay there in bed going over my last 36 hours of activities and food to try to figure out where these episodes were coming from, I thought, "Oh, good grief! The chocolate!!"

Today I have been a good girl and have been drinking lots of water and am sufficiently throttled for my stupidity. It was a great way for God to get my attention though. I'll never be sad that I ate that cake, but I am sad that I chose legalism over grace. There is nothing wrong with cake or counting calories, but when I chose selfishness and gluttony over living in grace ... that was my downfall. Counting calories is accountability for me. It helps me keep track of where I've been and where I am going each day in my eating. My mistake over the weekend was choosing myself first and then squeezing in the necessities later. When I think of the panorama of life and how harmful these choices are that I made, I shake my head. The great thing is that I can still choose to live and walk in grace. I can repent of my selfishness and gluttony and go back to great living right now. I'm so glad I'm redeemed and have hope. What a great God we serve. And how wonderful that He made cocoa beans!!