Compulsive eating at new desk job

dancinqueen91

Hi everyone, I don't usually post much in these forums but I am looking for some help!

I lost about 10 pounds and felt really good about my health and my self esteem. However, since starting a new desk job, I have quickly put the weight back on, and, surprisingly, my activity level is not to blame! I have kept up my workout routine, consistently walk and stand throughout the day, and move as much as possible with a desk job. Food has been my problem. I eat very healthy meals throughout the day, but during the afternoon, I cannot stop snacking. I sneak into the break room to eat whatever goodies are in there, as well as the healthy snacks I bring from home. Even though I track my food, I am overeating and can't seem to stop or say no. I know what I *should* be doing, and I have been successful in the past, but something is different this time.

I think this is partially emotional eating and partially adjusting to a new lifestyle. But it has been more than 6 months and I am sick of it! Any words of advice or just "tough love" would be greatly appreciated.

Happy Easter!

RodaRose

If you log everything that you eat for the whole day including what comes from the break room, you will stop the damage. The diary tells the story for us. Then make a positive sign for youself and put it in a nice picture frame or on the wall so you can see it -- something positive and meaningful like "I am Happy When I Stick to My Goals."
Pre-plan your food the night before. Commit to sticking to the plan.
Stay away or walk in a different direction to avoid that room. Keep your own snacks in your own bag. Distract yourself by getting busy by organizing desk or an similar task. Take a walk. Listen to music.
Find a way to reward your resistance at the end of the day by doing a little dance, giving yourself gold sticky stars, saying "Good Job". . ..
Practice eating all your meals mindfully so that grabbing stuff will feel odd / wrong to you.
(Geneen Roth has lots of great books on this.)
Practice deep breathing techniques at home and at work. Each time you do the breathing, it becomes more effective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd94Gh4lKOA&index=3&list=PLhiNtEBsgk1SYY72OgPH1THLzRMZaGTyX

Sued0nim

Bring your own counted snacks

Keep a drink on your desk

Avoid the break room

Split your lunch into something you can graze on all afternoon

Increase the proteins and fats in your lunch for increased satiety

Open MFP on your PC at work

Strengthen your resolve

punkuate

I just don't eat at all at work. I know if I start eating the lovely things people offer me I'd put on all the weight I've lost. This week I've been offered Pringles, muffins, cookies, cake and been given an easter egg. I'd rather just have a nice dinner.

darrensurrey

dancinqueen91 wrote: »

I eat very healthy meals throughout the day, but during the afternoon, I cannot stop snacking. I sneak into the break room to eat whatever goodies are in there, as well as the healthy snacks I bring from home.

I'd do the same. Start by not bringing "healthy" snacks in from home. That'll mean you eat less. Ultimately, you need to be more disciplined if there are always free goodies in the break room.

markiend

You can't run from the food all your life, it's going to need you to get the will power and to stop making excuses

It's not meant to be harsh, you are always going to be tempted and you need to deal with that and conquer it without running or hiding from it

ereck44

okay, temptations at work are my weakness. Here goes. Pre-plan your day and pack your lunch. During the afternoon, eat something that YOU packed that may be a "treat" food that you plan for yourself anyway. Then get a giant cup of ice and start eating the ice...you will get a feeling of satiation from putting something crunchy in your mouth. I discovered this by accident after eating ice at work for an aching tooth. You might still eat food from work. I snatched a cookie on my way home from work, but it should be a lot less. Most importantly, log everything.

kindrabbit

RodaRose wrote: »

If you log everything that you eat for the whole day including what comes from the break room, you will stop the damage. The diary tells the story for us. Then make a positive sign for youself and put it in a nice picture frame or on the wall so you can see it -- something positive and meaningful like "I am Happy When I Stick to My Goals."
Pre-plan your food the night before. Commit to sticking to the plan.
Stay away or walk in a different direction to avoid that room. Keep your own snacks in your own bag. Distract yourself by getting busy by organizing desk or an similar task. Take a walk. Listen to music.
Find a way to reward your resistance at the end of the day by doing a little dance, giving yourself gold sticky stars, saying "Good Job". . ..
Practice eating all your meals mindfully so that grabbing stuff will feel odd / wrong to you.
(Geneen Roth has lots of great books on this.)
Practice deep breathing techniques at home and at work. Each time you do the breathing, it becomes more effective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd94Gh4lKOA&index=3&list=PLhiNtEBsgk1SYY72OgPH1THLzRMZaGTyX

This is great advice. I am working the 4 day bank holiday (14 hour days.) I have pre weighed and packed all my food but there are krispy creme donuts in our break room . My solution so far is to not look directly at them!

Pootler74

It takes practice to avoid those sort of temptations, but it is possible. I've learned some tricks along the way, from lots of sources, that seem to have finally clicked and have really helped me this time round. Amazingly, I can now walk past a cookie without it jumping into my mouth.

One tactic is to very loudly (inside your head) say NO! when you reach for food that you don't need and don't really want. This calls attention to what you're doing and can stop a lot of the mindless snacking. Often you'll be so caught up in the impulse of cookie lust that you'll forget to do this most of the time, but you'll remember afterwards, and in time, it could become a habit.

Walk away. Just for now. One of the things I've found really helpful is the realisation that the cookie will still be there in ten minutes if you want it. And that there will no doubt be something equally delicious there tomorrow. THE WORLD IS NOT GOING TO RUN OUT OF YUMMY FOOD. (This was a revelation to me, having gone hungry through poverty more than once in my life.) You can have it any time you want it. But you'll enjoy it more if you really want it, need it, and it fits into your day. So, walk away. Come back in ten minutes. Do something distracting in the meantime. Often the urge will pass. Not always. But often. If you still want it ten minutes later, have it. This is a great tactic for all-you-can eat buffets too, I've found. So they have two of my favourites: lemon meringue pie and a chocolate fountain. But hey that chocolate fountain will totally be there next time too. So today I'll have one portion of lemon meringue pie and next time, I'll have chocolate instead.

Sometimes you just want the taste of something but end up eating a heap of it. So, try just breaking off a little bit of cookie, and leaving the rest. Walk away. You can come back for more later.

Is the cookie what you really want? Is there something more delicious that you actually want, but isn't available, or you're denying yourself because it's a 'bad' food? Have you ever done that thing where you want the chocolate ice cream in the freezer but decide to have frozen grapes instead? And then a small piece of chocolate. And then a cereal bar. And then eat the ice cream anyway, thereby ingesting more calories than you would if you'd just had what you really wanted in the first place? Sometimes it's best to just have the damn cookie if that's what's going to hit the spot right now.

Occupy your mouth. Coffee works for me. It takes the edge off my hunger and I make it with a little milk and sweeteners, so it's a good distraction from other rich, sweet things. But diet cola, gum and other sweet things work too. I'm a bit orally fixated (stop sniggering at the back!) - sometimes I just need to give my mouth something to do.

Recognise that you can have what you want whenever you want. You just can't have everything you want all the time. If you're going to eat the cookie, but there's no room in your calorie allowance (and by the way, is this generous enough to include treats? If not, slow your goals, and make room for yummy things) then you're going to have to make room for it at some point if you want to lose weight. Try to catch yourself and consider the value of the cookie before you eat it. Is it so yummy that it's worth giving up some dinner calories for? Worth an extra half hour on the treadmill? Go ahead. Sometimes, afterwards, you will realise that it actually wasn't worth it and will curse yourself as you sweat your butt off long after it has stopped being fun, or you're eating yucky zero noodles for dinner again. Make a mental note of how not worth it it was.

Take your own pre-logged portions of yummy things. My diet would probably fall down without low calorie ice cream lollies and low calorie protein bars. But I take other snacks with me too, generally sweet or fatty things, because a carrot baton is never going to replace a butter cookie. Melon, grapes, string cheese, Babybel, nuts, 100 cal snack packs of sweets or biscuits, cereal bars, protein bars... but they have to be things I enjoy as well as fitting into my calories.

Before you grab the cookie, do a little internal investigation. What's really going on here? Are you bored? Tired? Stressed? Hungry? Thirsty? Angry? Sad? Often it's not the cookie we want. Sometimes the cookie is the best tool available for dealing with whatever is bugging us. But it's good to be aware, as much as you can be, of what's going on inside that triggered the cookie lust. It's not an instant fix. But if you remember to do this, either before or after you eat the cookie, you'll be come much more aware of things you might have missed before, and therefore able to deal with them in a way that doesn't involve food.

All of these tactics work best if done with self love and self respect rather than guilt or admonishment.

I really, really recommend books by Geneen Roth for learning how to control your compulsiveness around food. When You Eat At The Refrigerator Pull Up A Chair is a quick, fun read that I think you'll find really helpful.

RoxieDawn

All of the tips above are good ones. You have a new job and you have picked up some new habits that are causing you gain back weight? ? ? I am tough loving it right now.. LOL

How is it that you lost weight and go to a new "desk" job and gain weight? Think about this question...

Is this job stressful? Is there something in this environment or the work load or type of work causing you to eat and not do the work? etc.. You did say it is "compulsive" so there in that word alone is a problem.

This involves some self reflection and determine where these new habits or new relationship to food comes from (if it is new)

If you want to loose the pounds again, then diagnosing what the problem here is will fix it.

wizzybeth

This is great. Substitute the fear of being buried alive in a box with the habit of overeating. Believe it or not... it works.
https://youtu.be/LhQGzeiYS_Q

dancinqueen91

Wow, thank you all for your advice! I will take it all into consideration as I make my plan for the week. Slowly but surely, I can do this!