😫 10 Days of Epic Fail 😫

MsCzar

OK, I keep telling myself it's only 10 days and completely reversible. Being back to location work completely undoes me and I could use some help getting my head back in the game.

I don't need to hear 'keep logging and measuring' but rather advice on how to keep my eyes on the prize and maintain focus on my weight loss goals. I know that there are oodles of people who work busy stressful jobs, attend food-filled social gatherings and manage their diet and fitness goals quite brilliantly. I want to be one of those people! I am (was!) just a little more than 1 stone away from my goal and am now in danger of some serious backsliding. Help!

MaltedTea

What are the challenges, as you see them to keeping your eyes on the prize and maintaining focus on your weight loss goals?

And, how can they be leveraged into easier opportunities?

MsCzar

MaltedTea wrote: »

What are the challenges, as you see them to keeping your eyes on the prize and maintaining focus on your weight loss goals?
And, how can they be leveraged into easier opportunities?

Ah, I've been puzzling about that. When I am home, I carefully plan my meals and spend a good bit of time thinking about my weight loss and fitness goals. It all seems so effortless and I enjoy working towards those goals and clocking my achievements.

Then I switch into work mode where my mind is 100% on the fast-paced stressful job at hand. Food (incredibly abundant and delicious food!) appears and all thoughts of 'diet me' instantly disintegrate à la Dr. Jekyll and Fat Ol' Ms. Hyde. I can't seem to reconcile the two.

MaltedTea

Reconciling makes me thing of accounting and its ledger system.

If you've already experienced, to use your words again, enjoyment working towards those goals and clocking achievements then...

What can you take from the home side of the ledger and apply to the work side?

The idea is to look for balance somewhere.

MsCzar

Yup! That's the conundrum I'm wrestling with. After 10 days, I already can feel the consequences. I had to unbutton my trousers for a more comfortable commute home last night and one would THINK that would be more than enough to set me back on track. Ha!

MaltedTea

Without knowing the exact circumstances of your home environment versus your work environment, what I do know for sure is that there is a way to "balance the ledger" (without needing to "write off" your work calories...can we tell I really like the accounting analogy?)

I hope that there are some other people who can come up with ideas for you.

Ultimately, though, you have the best plan, strategies and tactics to get to the goal within you already. It's a matter of surfacing them from our mischievous brains lol

girlwithcurls2

I think as some of us return to the work environment, it's helpful to begin a new routine. I CANNOT have the snacks that are readily available there. They're not part of my plan. Can you log your food ahead of time? Bring what you're going to eat? Once I packed food and decided to eat it when I wanted (as opposed to "It's breakfast time. It's lunch time. This is my snack." and just ate what I wanted when I wanted it, I felt a lot freer. I had logged everything I brought with me, so it didn't matter what I pulled out and ate, or when I ate it.

I feel your pain. And part of the issue with tighter trousers might be just an off day from water retention adding to some overages. I can do the work, but still wake up and think, "Why don't these fit like usual??"

You can do this. Arrest the slide!!

MargaretYakoda

This may not apply.
However, what has worked for me in my ability to resist the things my body has decided to react to (allergies of very common things like black pepper, for example) gluten intolerance, and now the diabetes?

I use a lot of self talk. Not as much as I did in the beginning.. but still, I do tell myself things like “that will hurt me” if I see a favorite like a gingerbread cake or something in the store.
Maybe something similar can work for you?

Perhaps take a look at the tasty tasty things being offered and say to yourself “This will derail my plan for the day, which is not what I want”
Or whatever other self talk will work for you.

Just a thought

MargaretYakoda

I also find it helpful to have treats I can have constantly on me.
Sugar free licorice pastilles. Hard sugar free ginger candies, etc.

So I still have a treat. Just not one that will mess with my plan.

88olds

Seems like deja vu all over again.

A couple of thoughts- as I explained before I got away from the office food when I became a germaphobe. I understand that doesn’t work for you. As noted above some people focus on the fact that they are blowing up their plans. I think the key is negative thinking. Can you find a negative thought about the office food that rings true for you? You keep talking about how yummy it is. You’re making it hard on yourself like that. I used to eat lunch at McDs because it was convenient and cheap. But I had to stick to the salads. To keep away from the fries while I was in line I would look at the deep fryer. I think it looks disgusting. So I would be sure to get a good look and dwell on how disgusting it looked. Fried food lost its appeal

Another thing is how aggressive is your deficit? 14 lbs to go is not a lot. Your calorie deficit should be pretty close to maintenance. Is there a way to work enough indulgence into your plan that you can get away from feeling deprived? Actually I eat ice cream nearly every day. Have for years. It helps me avoid other treats I encounter during the day. I’m satisfied with the planned portion. When I’m turning down the birthday cake, I’m not thinking I’m getting no cake, I’m thinking I get ice cream instead.

As you can see I work hard at avoiding “just say no” situations. Lost 100 lbs. coming up on 15 years maintaining. Keep trying.

MsCzar

Apologies for the deja vu. It's just that this is THE major issue standing between me and a healthier future. Without resolving it, there will be no lasting progress. It isn't the mere temptation of the food itself and therefore clever little tricks don't come into play... although I'm not adverse to trying them. It's more about learning to carry the easy mastery I feel at home into the workplace.

I sometimes think of it as the difference between enjoying keeping your car clean and shiny but not particularly caring about any of it when driving through a bad storm or dangerous conditions. Suddenly a splash of mud is no longer top of mind.

thisvickyruns

MsCzar wrote: »

Apologies for the deja vu. It's just that this is THE major issue standing between me and a healthier future. Without resolving it, there will be no lasting progress. It isn't the mere temptation of the food itself and therefore clever little tricks don't come into play... although I'm not adverse to trying them. It's more about learning to carry the easy mastery I feel at home into the workplace.

I sometimes think of it as the difference between enjoying keeping your car clean and shiny but not particularly caring about any of it when driving through a bad storm or dangerous conditions. Suddenly a splash of mud is no longer top of mind.

you say you don't want the advice of 'keep logging and measuring' but that is literally the best advice there is....

For me the car analogy you use is making eating work food into a bigger deal than it needs to be. you obviously know what's an appropriate amount and type of food to eat to fit your calories, as you do it at home and do it well... so why does that breakdown just because you're in a meeting or a corporate lunch or the boss brings in doughnuts? (you don't need to answer that here, but its the question you need to answer for yourself)

goal06082021

I think I remember another thread you made a while back talking about the availability of food at work - if I'm remembering that thread correctly, you're in a broadcasting/entertainment type industry, right? Which means busy days with poorly-defined breaktimes and abundant snacks near to hand, giving you a "better grab this and jam it into my facehole right now because I don't know when I'll get another opportunity to do so" kind of timbre to your day. I think you also said bringing your own food wasn't feasible, but if that's not the case and you could pack a lunch, that would be my first suggestion - pack a lunch, include snacks, ignore the free food at work. It's not for you. You have your own food that you already paid for and spent time preparing.

If bringing your own ISN'T feasible for you, and you do have to rely on the food provided at work...Surely it's not 100% new and different stuff all the time, and surely your craft services isn't run by some avant-garde auteur chef constantly experimenting on you all. Surely some of it is prepackaged (and therefore easy to log and count); surely the menu repeats occasionally. There's not a lot you can do about your industry's resistance to consistent schedules with included breaks, but what if you had a "short list" of, say, 10-15 things that are always/most of the time available and that you know the calorie counts of, so you know it's "safe" to grab (for example) a turkey wrap and a strawberry Nutri-Grain bar off the craft table, and you know that's 450 calories for lunch (or whatever). It may take some work on your part to develop that list, but it's worth doing - do something like take a picture of the food every day for a week, or write down a list of what's there; you'll get an idea of what's always there if you haven't paid that much attention to it so far.

Also, in the same vein of "idk when I'll get a chance to eat again so I better eat all of this right now," I think I remember you mentioning that sometimes there's one-offs or "special" foods that aren't always on offer, and you struggled with the FOMO of not eating the chicken pesto panini (or whatever) because who knows when they'll have those again? Best thing to do for that is probably just work on being okay with missing out. You won't die if you don't have a panini today.

88olds

Maybe with time you can find easy mastery, but first you have to get through one day. Can you visualize yourself successfully getting past the food at work? How did you do it?

If this is what’s standing between you and goal weight keep trying. Weight loss is mostly about problem solving and persistence.

I didn’t understand that car and mud thing at all. What’s the storm? What’s the mud?

Don’t the spreads at work have anything to eat that’s plan friendly?