WWYD - office lunch meeting

blewbell
blewbell Posts: 30 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I ordered a salad ahead of time for a lunch meeting, and a coworker took my salad. I was left with a white bread turkey sandwich, a bag of chips and a cookie. I am low-carb, and have found that carbs aggravate some other conditions I have. I ate half the sandwich because I was giving the presentation and needed some energy. What would you have done? I'm upset because I gained 3 lbs last week (period) and have only lost two of those. I really didn't need to cheat today. And the salad looked so good! What does everyone else do for setbacks such as this?

Replies

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    Punch the co-irker out and take back my salad. LOL

    Honestly, unless they were already eating on it, I would have said "That's what I ordered" and taken it. But I'm pushy like that.
  • KristenNagle1
    KristenNagle1 Posts: 83 Member
    Im wondering if there are that many more calories in half a turkey sandwich as there are in a salad (assume with dressing) I would not have considered what you did as cheating.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    I have (self-imposed) dietary restrictions. I always keep a decent snack at work (in my case, a protein bar) so I never have to skip a meal. I would try to figure out of if there was a way to keep this from happening in the future (not sure what your work situation is like, but I usually get my name written on the food that has been ordered especially for me).

    But once I made a plan for the future, I would just let it go. Half a sandwich isn't going to totally derail you. Get back on plan. :)
  • blewbell
    blewbell Posts: 30 Member
    Yeah they were already eating it as I was doing the handouts! I guess I need to not sweat the small stuff. Thanks for listening.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    edited April 2016
    What else could you have done? Other than punching out your coworker and taking your salad back. If there weren't other options available it sounds like you made the best of a bad situation. The only other thing I might do is make sure I have a supply of snacks/food I can eat in my desk that I can use during this type of situation.
  • Mentali
    Mentali Posts: 352 Member
    Be sad for a bit. :(

    Then think about the food in the long run - calorie-wise, half of a turkey sandwich would be what, 300 calories or so depending on size/what's on it? That's less than 0.1 lb. It's such a small setback that you won't even remember it by the time you hit maintenance, I would bet.

    And then go buy myself the thing that looked good for later! :D
  • blewbell
    blewbell Posts: 30 Member
    Yep @janejellyroll I need to have a backup snack. This meeting was outside of the office but I need to keep one in my purse or something. Good idea!
  • MommyL2015
    MommyL2015 Posts: 1,411 Member
    I'd be really ticked off, walk up and tell them how much they owe me for the salad and then I'd eat the sandwich. But there's nothing wrong with a good turkey sandwich.
  • blewbell
    blewbell Posts: 30 Member
    Yep I just feel bad that it was so carby! I haven't eaten a piece of bread/pasta/etc in over 3 months and I feel so much better. No flares in my condition at all. Hopefully this won't set it off.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    Take back the salad. You said you were doing the handouts, so if someone's to damned impatient to wait for food they ordered, they don't deserve what they took. I'd have accompanied my action with "If you wanted salad, you should've ordered it. Stop taking other people's food. It makes you look like a doorknob."

    Half-eaten salad wouldn't bother me.
  • Afura
    Afura Posts: 2,054 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    Punch the co-irker out and take back my salad. LOL

    Honestly, unless they were already eating on it, I would have said "That's what I ordered" and taken it. But I'm pushy like that.

    I agree, punch the coworker. To try and be fair, perhaps they didn't know/realize?
    I would have eaten the meat out of the sandwich scrounged for snacks (I keep some at my desk as well, fruit cups, bars, etc), and made mention to whomever arranged food that what you asked for was not set aside or labeled properly.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    salittle1 wrote: »
    So I ordered a salad ahead of time for a lunch meeting, and a coworker took my salad. I was left with a white bread turkey sandwich, a bag of chips and a cookie. I am low-carb, and have found that carbs aggravate some other conditions I have. I ate half the sandwich because I was giving the presentation and needed some energy. What would you have done? I'm upset because I gained 3 lbs last week (period) and have only lost two of those. I really didn't need to cheat today. And the salad looked so good! What does everyone else do for setbacks such as this?

    I stopped eating bread for a while since I don't really like most bread (and certainly don't find it worth the calories). When office lunch was sandwiches I'd sneakily remove the bread and eat the turkey. Usually from two sandwiches. We always have extra sandwiches. I don't eat chips because I don't like them much. I usually keep some kind of extra at the office (a protein bar or plain greek yogurt or fruit), so I would have that too. Of course, I'm lucky in that whatever we get there is generally a side salad.

    All that aside, I wouldn't fret about the weight -- eating a little bread won't make a difference and water weight (which is what this is) doesn't matter.
  • HealthierRayne
    HealthierRayne Posts: 268 Member
    I find a lot of people at my office "forget" what they order and get grabby when something more appealing is presented - annoying!!

    I am vegan so it doesn't work for me to eat something else, I make a point to say something if someone snags my very carefully made menu selection. I am like the other posters and pack food for myself - it's kind of laughable but I always have my own food since going vegan just in case there are no options or a thief presents themselves.
  • SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage
    SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage Posts: 2,668 Member
    We have a few dietary restrictions here in our office, so we ask the caterer to label the "special" orders with the person they belong to. Problem solved for next time.

    Meantime as for today's incident, I would wander around the office for the rest of the day and passive-aggressively whine that I was going to pass out from hunger because some jerk stole my salad. :wink:
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    At a former workplace of mine people would apparently steal other people's food out of the refrigerator. Well, I know they did in NYC, since someone there sent an all-firm email complaining about it and demanding to know who had stolen it. Endless "funny" emails from people in Chicago and SF and LA and the rest of the offices proclaiming their obvious innocence.

    I don't really recommend sending the outraged all-employee email complaining about it.
  • blues4miles
    blues4miles Posts: 1,481 Member
    I think you should be proud of how you handled it. A lot of people would have just eaten the chips and the cookie anyways, and you did not. I don't think a half a sandwich is "cheating" and probably not that many more calories than your salad to be honest (fast food salads tend to be high, even ones without dressing).
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    salittle1 wrote: »
    So I ordered a salad ahead of time for a lunch meeting, and a coworker took my salad. I was left with a white bread turkey sandwich, a bag of chips and a cookie. I am low-carb, and have found that carbs aggravate some other conditions I have. I ate half the sandwich because I was giving the presentation and needed some energy. What would you have done? I'm upset because I gained 3 lbs last week (period) and have only lost two of those. I really didn't need to cheat today. And the salad looked so good! What does everyone else do for setbacks such as this?

    Declined the meeting, if it wasn't mandatory. If it was, attend, but skip eating, then go to lunch after (or before). That's how I handle this.
  • enterdanger
    enterdanger Posts: 2,447 Member
    In for punching your coworker. Taking some one else's food is just rude.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    salittle1 wrote: »
    So I ordered a salad ahead of time for a lunch meeting, and a coworker took my salad. I was left with a white bread turkey sandwich, a bag of chips and a cookie. I am low-carb, and have found that carbs aggravate some other conditions I have. I ate half the sandwich because I was giving the presentation and needed some energy. What would you have done? I'm upset because I gained 3 lbs last week (period) and have only lost two of those. I really didn't need to cheat today. And the salad looked so good! What does everyone else do for setbacks such as this?

    I would have eaten the food and not considered it a set back or cheating. It would be annoying but not that big of a deal.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage wrote: »
    We have a few dietary restrictions here in our office, so we ask the caterer to label the "special" orders with the person they belong to. Problem solved for next time.

    Meantime as for today's incident, I would wander around the office for the rest of the day and passive-aggressively whine that I was going to pass out from hunger because some jerk stole my salad. :wink:

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  • chulipa
    chulipa Posts: 650 Member
    Just eat the meat and not the bread use the lettus on it as the bread then i would have later told that person in privet that they ate your salad
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    salittle1 wrote: »
    So I ordered a salad ahead of time for a lunch meeting, and a coworker took my salad. I was left with a white bread turkey sandwich, a bag of chips and a cookie. I am low-carb, and have found that carbs aggravate some other conditions I have. I ate half the sandwich because I was giving the presentation and needed some energy. What would you have done? I'm upset because I gained 3 lbs last week (period) and have only lost two of those. I really didn't need to cheat today. And the salad looked so good! What does everyone else do for setbacks such as this?

    Declined the meeting, if it wasn't mandatory. If it was, attend, but skip eating, then go to lunch after (or before). That's how I handle this.

    Alas, as the OP was giving the presentation, her presence was indeed mandatory.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage wrote: »
    We have a few dietary restrictions here in our office, so we ask the caterer to label the "special" orders with the person they belong to. Problem solved for next time.

    Meantime as for today's incident, I would wander around the office for the rest of the day and passive-aggressively whine that I was going to pass out from hunger because some jerk stole my salad. :wink:

    I like the bolded for next time.

    I used to randomly get stuck working later than expected, so I always had some snacks on hand - nuts in my desk, cheese and baby carrots in the frig, etc.

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