For some people "it's the little things" that have lasting effects, and for Demi Lovato [1], it was one thing: birthday cake. During her appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show [2] on Thursday, the singer revealed the extremely unhealthy measures her former management team would take to keep sugar and certain foods out of her sight, despite her struggles with disordered eating [3]. "I lived a life for the past six years that I felt like wasn't my own because I struggled really hard with an eating disorder, but my life I felt was so controlled by so many people around me."

Demi and Ellen both just found out that the people on her team would ask Ellen's staff to get rid of all the sugar in her dressing room [4] for her previous appearances on the show . . . and that's just the half of it. "If I was in my hotel room at night, they would take the phone out of the room so I couldn't call room service. If there was fruit in my room, they took it out because that's extra sugar," she said. "Like, we're not talking about brownies, and cookies, and candy, it was fruit."

She added, "For many years I didn't even have a birthday cake, I had a watermelon cake. I just really wanted birthday cake." And birthday cake she got! For her 27th birthday, Demi's new manager, Scooter Braun, got her a delicious cake, which she enjoyed with Ariana Grande and friends [5]. She said that it brought her to tears knowing that she's loved and respected by her new team.

Watch Demi's inspiring conversation with Ellen above and prepare to applaud when you hear her self-love motto [6]: "You are completely whole as you are without anybody, without substances. You are good, girl."