What to do when only food at full day workshop is terrible

RadishEater

Background: I am in grad school and attend career building/leadership workshops. Some are full-day workshops that start early and serve breakfast, have a break for lunch, end before dinner.

The breakfast are usually extra sugary scones, danishes, poptarts, or jumbo muffins. Rarely have I seen fruit.
Lunch the last time was cold salty chicken breast and a wilted salad with rolls. I hate lettuce and wilted lettuce is like the worst possible way to serve it. I've had better airplane food.

Really I could suck it up and eat what is given and try to log it. I am planning on eating breakfast before this starts so I don't end up eating 500 calories from a pastry. Would it be very strange if I just didn't eat lunch when everyone is sitting at tables together eating? Usually there is networking happening during lunch with professionals in my field otherwise I'd just pull out a protein bar and just eat it. Lastly usually the meat portion is quite small so I end up eating a bunch of rolls or the other option is dessert.

In summary, In past I end up unhappily eating food that taste bad and eating more calories that I need because carbs aren't filling for me, overall just resentful towards food in general.

quiksylver296

Nah. I pack my own food to those types of things all the time.

MelanieCN77

I'd take my own.

concordancia

As a grad student, I always took the free food for financial reasons. As someone who is financially stable, I pack a lunch if I know the offered food is going to be bad or at least a protein bar if I am not sure how the food is going to be.

MegaMooseEsq

Get an insulated lunch bag and ice pack and pack your own food. Your colleagues' looks will be envy, not judgment.

MerryMavis1

If it's food you'd enjoy eating then I'd eat it-it's one day and won't do anything harmful in the scheme of things. But, if it's crappy food then I'd just pack a lunch and eat breakfast before you go. No sense in wasting calories on sub-par food!

briscogun

I used to pack my lunch all the time for this kind of stuff. Some folks would look at me like, "Why are you bringing food when there is free food being provided?", other folks would be like, "Wow, someone is committed to the process...". I didn't really care, they were colleagues that I didn't see more than once a month at best and I could care less what they thought of me and my eating habits.

Other side of the coin: its one day one one meal. Even if you eat what's provided, it can't blow your day by more than what, 500 calories? No big deal in the grand scheme of things. I've been there and done that, too. Didn't like it, ate it so I wouldn't be Mr. Cranky Hangry Pants, and moved on.

jemhh

I'd pack my own food. I see nothing wrong or unprofessional about that.

RadishEater

Thanks for all the responses! I love to eat food. I love to cook and also I think I'm a pretty great cook, so I would much rather just bring my own food, so it sounds like that is the best way for me to go.

solieco1

I've run into this a lot over the years. The food is usually not even good so it's not like I really even want it. Take a bar or two and a couple of pieces of fruit. You can find time to take a short walk and down something healthy. Then if you need to sit with colleagues to network, just get a plate of anything and have a bite or two and leave the rest. No one notices and then it's not a topic of conversation

1BlueAurora

You could just eat breakfast at home, then pack a lunch and healthy snacks for the rest of the day. I'd also take a big water bottle so I didn't have to survive on their burnt old coffee.

kshama2001

Another vote for bringing your own food.

Leannep2201

I’ve brought my own food many times to training sessions, workshops and similar events where food is provided but I want to avoid the calorie bomb. People either don’t care (so many allergies these days that they probably just assume something like that), or if they do ask, they are usually pretty understanding about my reasons.
On these days, I also make sure I pack something super yummy that fits in my calorie goals- especially if I know that the catered food is going to be yummy- then I tend not to feel like I’m “missing out”.

apullum

Former grad student/current faculty here. You don’t have to eat what they serve. Only eat it if you want it or if you need some free food. Otherwise, bring your own.

veganbaum

As a vegan, there is almost always nothing that I would eat at such things. It became habit a long time ago to pack my own foods. I would certainly eat breakfast before I go. No big deal.

I've had people try to be very kind and arrange for a vegan meal. Half the time, it's not actually vegan and/or it's completely disgusting (for example a salad with some very pathetic soggy tofu and cheese). Even in those situations, I have learned to be kindly insistent that I will bring my own food or eat before I go. Sometimes it makes others uncomfortable, but if I'm never going to see them again I'm not going to worry about it and if it's people I will see regularly, they need to get used to it and I'm not going to worry about it. And they will get used to it and not think it's weird after a while.

lucerorojo

I also vote for bringing your own food. I like the idea of eating it somewhere and then coming back and joining the colleagues, avoiding any comments about it. Or I could see bringing my own food and if someone comments, just say "I'm on a special diet." And leave it at that. They don't have to know why. I had a colleague who was celiac and couldn't eat anything that was ever served at those things.

PokeyBug

lucerorojo wrote: »

I also vote for bringing your own food. I like the idea of eating it somewhere and then coming back and joining the colleagues, avoiding any comments about it. Or I could see bringing my own food and if someone comments, just say "I'm on a special diet." And leave it at that. They don't have to know why. I had a colleague who was celiac and couldn't eat anything that was ever served at those things.

I really like the idea of bringing some fruit and playing the celiac card. One of my daughter's friends is a 9 yo celiac with Type 1 diabetes. She has to bring her own food almost everywhere, except at my house, since I'm always sure to plan for her. Very few of her friends' moms are as brave as I am, lol. Just be sure to do some research on celiac, so if someone else wants to talk about it, you can answer a couple of questions intelligently.

jenilla1

PokeyBug wrote: »

lucerorojo wrote: »

I also vote for bringing your own food. I like the idea of eating it somewhere and then coming back and joining the colleagues, avoiding any comments about it. Or I could see bringing my own food and if someone comments, just say "I'm on a special diet." And leave it at that. They don't have to know why. I had a colleague who was celiac and couldn't eat anything that was ever served at those things.

I really like the idea of bringing some fruit and playing the celiac card. One of my daughter's friends is a 9 yo celiac with Type 1 diabetes. She has to bring her own food almost everywhere, except at my house, since I'm always sure to plan for her. Very few of her friends' moms are as brave as I am, lol. Just be sure to do some research on celiac, so if someone else wants to talk about it, you can answer a couple of questions intelligently.

I guess so, but do you want to have to be a pretend celiac all the time? Or will you just use it as an excuse when the need arises? Because people will notice if you're an "on-again, off-again" celiac. If you lie about having a disorder but then don't really know what you're talking about, you just make other people with that disorder look bad. People start to doubt real celiacs when normal people "play the celiac card" but can't "pull it off" correctly. And, if you get called on it, maybe by a real celiac or someone who knows one, you end up looking like the liar you are. I would just say I was on a special diet for health reasons and leave it at that. It's none of their business to inquire further, and if they do, "it's kind of personal" is a good enough answer. And then you don't have to keep up a charade.

Running_and_Coffee

I am in this situation often at work. I eat my own breakfast, bring small portable snacks I can have mid-morning like a hard boiled egg, a few nuts or jerky or a cheese stick, and I reach out to the admin ordering lunch and ask for a salad with just grilled chicken and dressing on the side. (I can throw the nuts I packed or the cheese on top of I did not eat them.) if that isn’t possible, I pack a protein bar. But I have plenty of water bottl s, tea and cofffee from what is provided.

I don’t mind enjoying a treat every now and then but never really enjoyed food during working lunches anyway, because it was hard to focus on the taste of what I was eating while working.

Oh, and Inhave no qualms anymore with telling people I don’t eat carbs/sweets and won’t eat what was provided. No one cares, and if they judge me for being uptight about food, I honestly don’t care.

AprilRN10

I am also in grad school and I have the same functions. I bring my own, and no one even blinks.

crb426

Instead of pretending to have a food allergy or other lie, I'd just straight up be like, "I'm sorry, but this food has been pretty disappointing lately and I packed a very tasty lunch just in case this one met those same standards."

And of course people can judge as soon as they hear "diet" or "calorie counting", but usually I put it out there in a relate-able way, "I'm trying to get healthy and I don't want to waste my calories on something that's really not worth it."

veganbaum

jenilla1 wrote: »

PokeyBug wrote: »

lucerorojo wrote: »

I also vote for bringing your own food. I like the idea of eating it somewhere and then coming back and joining the colleagues, avoiding any comments about it. Or I could see bringing my own food and if someone comments, just say "I'm on a special diet." And leave it at that. They don't have to know why. I had a colleague who was celiac and couldn't eat anything that was ever served at those things.

I really like the idea of bringing some fruit and playing the celiac card. One of my daughter's friends is a 9 yo celiac with Type 1 diabetes. She has to bring her own food almost everywhere, except at my house, since I'm always sure to plan for her. Very few of her friends' moms are as brave as I am, lol. Just be sure to do some research on celiac, so if someone else wants to talk about it, you can answer a couple of questions intelligently.

I guess so, but do you want to have to be a pretend celiac all the time? Or will you just use it as an excuse when the need arises? Because people will notice if you're an "on-again, off-again" celiac. If you lie about having a disorder but then don't really know what you're talking about, you just make other people with that disorder look bad. People start to doubt real celiacs when normal people "play the celiac card" but can't "pull it off" correctly. And, if you get called on it, maybe by a real celiac or someone who knows one, you end up looking like the liar you are. I would just say I was on a special diet for health reasons and leave it at that. It's none of their business to inquire further, and if they do, "it's kind of personal" is a good enough answer. And then you don't have to keep up a charade.

I completely agree. Why create a lie about what you eat? People can be uncomfortable around vegans, but I'm not going to create some false food issues just to make it easier. I think that's absurd. People who are actually celiacs can obviously have severe reactions if they eat the wrong foods, and as jenilla1 said, pretending to be one can make them look bad and make others doubt whether someone is actually celiac, which could have serious consequences. While I won't have food reactions if I eat something with animal products in it, it can be very frustrating and make vegans look bad when there are people who say they are vegan (when often they mean plant-based anyway) and then eat some cheese because they're going to "cheat" or whatever. Just be up front.

Lounmoun

Just pack a lunch and eat food you like.
I don't think you need to lie and claim an allergy or something. If someone asks just say you didn't like the food before so decided to just bring something.

TonyB0588

I've been to sessions where I actually left the venue to eat and return afterwards. Of course that makes it difficult if networking over lunch is the intention, but there has to be exceptions to every rule, and respect for differences of any sort. Just do what is best for you.

SilverRose89

PokeyBug wrote: »

I really like the idea of bringing some fruit and playing the celiac card. One of my daughter's friends is a 9 yo celiac with Type 1 diabetes. She has to bring her own food almost everywhere, except at my house, since I'm always sure to plan for her. Very few of her friends' moms are as brave as I am, lol. Just be sure to do some research on celiac, so if someone else wants to talk about it, you can answer a couple of questions intelligently.

I really wouldn't do this.

There is nothing weird about wanting to eat your own preferred food at events, for whatever reason. But people will find it pretty weird when they realise you're pretending to have celiac disease.