I work in an Office, and losing weight is so hard!

firesweetheart

Don't worry too much about where you'll get your exercise(the above suggestions were great though). It's a relatively small factor in your quest to drop what amounts to the professional version of the "freshman 15". Your diet is far and away the most crucial thing to rein in.

My suggestion, cut out using the cafeteria. Plan out your work week breakfast, lunch and snacks on Saturday. Go to the store and buy things on Sunday, then cook it all up that day and separate it out into portions from the week. I bought a crock pot and just look for simple and healthy recipes online. Just throw everything in, come back a couple hours later (a downside to the crock pot is you end up eating the same thing for lunch for the week. But if you make something super tastey, shouldn't be a problem).

Also pick up some of those water flavoring drops (Mio, Dasani, etc.). I know I wasn't a huge fan of plain water, but with a bit of flavor it gets MUCH easier to drink up.

What you'll need:

1) 30 minutes on Saturday to plan
2) 2-3 hours on Sunday to shop and cook
3) A lunch bag/box to keep things cold/warm
4) Tupperware or other storage
5) A good water bottle you can easily carry
6) Scale to weigh out food/portions
7) Will power to change

You can also try only bringing $2 cash with you to work. Thus limiting your spending and snacking potential. So if you get the craving to snack/buy something... you can only buy $2 worth of snacks.

^^This is great advice. I also work in an office and sit in front of my computer screen all day :yawn: I highly advocate getting up and stretching, moving, just generally making your brain and body wake up.

I don't know your work environment but I recently found this video/routine for a 15 minute office workout (http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/videos-detail.asp?video=103) Incorporating elements of this has been a help for me, especially the stretches and subtle moves I can do without being obvious.

And OP, good for you for recognizing that something needs to change and for educating yourself!

CittiB

- I pack a lunch and take NO money with me so I can't buy snacks. If you don't have free coffee then bring exact change for one coffee.
- I also keep a litre bottle of water and a glass on my desk; if I'm hungry I drink a glass first.
- I eat something as soon as I get to work, usually greek yoghurt and a banana, that way I'm not starving by 11 and I can make it to lunch.
- I eat lunch with my co-workers so I'm not tempted to eat early.
- Cuppa-soups are more filling than you'd expect and not high in calories.
- Whenever I'm feeling a bit stiff I go for a 10 minute walk around the building - including up and down the stairs (I do a big circle).
- If you want you can also tell your co-workers you're trying to watch what you eat - tell them to tut if you suggest getting a brownie or something! (Just no secret eating instead!)
- When walking to work (short distance), I walk as fast as I can (without sweating - I'm in work clothes after all).
- Consider an exercise dvd at home. If you're too tired in the evenings to move then go for beginners yoga or something.

WBB55

- When walking to work (short distance), I walk as fast as I can (without sweating - I'm in work clothes after all).

I'm just gonna be a little nit picky here. You burn more calories walking at 2 mph than 3 mph, if you're going the same exact distance. Just FYI. http://walking.about.com/library/cal/uccalc1.htm

karlyack

I totally understand.. I recently graduated college and have a 9-5 job.. It's definitely hard to be active when you have to sit at a desk all day..
I have a drawer of nuts to snack on during the day and I make sure I pack lunch and fruit to eat throughout the day.. I have also found some short "desk yoga" videos on youtube I do when I need a little break..
I drink lots of water which makes me walk to the restroom often..

dmpizza

Originally from your area.
Anyway, I have worked in many offices and have seen that the frequency of eating is one of the biggest things that make people gain a lot of weight.
I also suggest you be honest about what you are eating for lunch and ALLOW yourself to feel a bit hungry before meals.

Also, as I said, I am originally from your area. There are few better places on the planet to walk and ride a bike. Move as much as you can.

Best of luck to you.

deadyankee

- When walking to work (short distance), I walk as fast as I can (without sweating - I'm in work clothes after all).

I'm just gonna be a little nit picky here. You burn more calories walking at 2 mph than 3 mph, if you're going the same exact distance. Just FYI. http://walking.about.com/library/cal/uccalc1.htm

Yes, but the extra calories arising from the slow walk are surely those used by your brain for thinking and your guts in digestion etc over a the longer time frame. You are going to burn those whether you were walking or not.

KANGOOJUMPS

stop whining...
get out there and work it off
now.

DavyGaga

Haha yes, it feels as I every week there is someone's birthday in my department, and everyone brings in cakes and cookies and overall very unhealthy food. I feel rude declining all the time, but yeah, a lot of the people in my building are very lax when it comes to healthy life styles (Since most of the people are women well past their prime and turning into the "let me fill the young people up with lots of food" grandma types )

DavyGaga

That's a really great idea too. Especially since the Café doesn't take cards, maybe limiting the amount of cash I bring could be a huge factor.

DavyGaga

First off i must say this is a very good forum topic that you started and im 100% certain that this is a majority issue with alot of MFP people today.

I am in the same situation and im just like you, always active, needing to move and that helps control my weight. Sitting around is not my strongest skillset ( even when i play video games i do pushups and situps to stay active)

To counter the many hours of mandatory sitting of a 9-5 desk job, i have dramatically changed my eating habits.

I would say of all things this is VERY key and the first thing you should adjust time NOW!

You can use my food journal logs as a reference if needed but like stated before change your snacking throughtout your ENTIRE workday.

This is actually the prime time for you also to get your water intake up for one of many reasons. First is that it gets your daily water intake number EASY and also it will force you to get up constantly to go to the restroom which is walking calories, running sometimes depending on how far the restroom is and how hard the runs hit you hahahaha

Make sure you use a 16.9 oz water bottle for this, reason for this is because it also forces you to constantly get up to refill your water bottle as well.

Now for the filler details as i like to call them. Snacking: make sure to bring a small yet active workday snack. For me its either sunflower seeds or pecans (you could even try light butter or no butter popcorn). This can also be fruit but you want to be careful because of the sugar that is in fruit. I would limit this if possible.

Sparatic workouts during the day: I dont know how your work place is set up but try sneaking in 10-15 pushups or crunches just to keep the body alive while you are sitting around all day. It will seem weird but trust you will look past it heck some people might get motivated by seeing you do that and join! (personal experience lol)

Lunchtime: Keep your lunchtime meal intake as light as possible especially since you can't get to a gym during or after work because of the distance. For example, turkey sandwhich with 100 calorie soup or homemade grilled chicken tenders with 1 minute brown rice.

I really hope this information helps out for you and if you need any other help or tips, just pop me a friend request and msg me away. I will be happy to help assist!!!!

This is actually very helpful! I've always been a bit afraid to use the Message Boards (why I do not know) but you guys are really giving me tons of great ideas I can't wait to try this week! Thank you all so much.

SassyCalyGirl

you can always find a million excuses!

Either you want it or you dont!

_HeartsOnFire_

I work in an office. I've managed to lose weight. So have many other people.

Track your calories. Eat at a moderate deficit. Exercise at home. There are plenty of exercise videos online - youtube, amazon, etc are your friend. Buy some dvds if you want. Get outside and go for a walk or run.

You can either make excuses for your situation or you can find the best solution and work at it.

I think you're being unnecessarily harsh here. It's obvious this person has a professional office job for the first time, and getting used to that scene takes some time. If the OP is asking because she doesn't know, why is that making excuses?

Not harsh, it's called the truth. Honesty/Truth =/= harsh or rude or nasty or whatever you want to say it is.

We've all been there, and we've all made excuses. NONE of us actually started until we stopped making excuses. Which I read her post, it's full of them. I can't walk there, I don't know how to drive...Are there not busses? Friends/family who might help?

dopeysmelly

Just trying to think of things that have worked for my coworkers.. (I work from home now, so I have different things to deal with!)

- Having soup for lunch (all that water)
- Taking own lunch (all measured out)
- Having snacks
- Eating no snacks
- Joining/setting up Weight Watchers group
- Walking up and down stairs at lunch time (one lady I know does all 22 floors about 5 times - she started out doing 1 floor once)
- Forming a lunchtime walking group (great way to make friends on a new job as well)
- Forming lunchtime running group (ditto)
- Drinking copious amounts of water (plain, with flavoring or as weak tea)
- Tracking every morsel that passes your lips
- Getting tons of exercise at the weekend

I second the snow shoveling bit mentioned earlier when the weather sucks.

Nerdycurls

I work in an office. I've managed to lose weight. So have many other people.

Track your calories. Eat at a moderate deficit. Exercise at home. There are plenty of exercise videos online - youtube, amazon, etc are your friend. Buy some dvds if you want. Get outside and go for a walk or run.

You can either make excuses for your situation or you can find the best solution and work at it.

I think you're being unnecessarily harsh here. It's obvious this person has a professional office job for the first time, and getting used to that scene takes some time. If the OP is asking because she doesn't know, why is that making excuses?

Not harsh, it's called the truth. Honesty/Truth =/= harsh or rude or nasty or whatever you want to say it is.

We've all been there, and we've all made excuses. NONE of us actually started until we stopped making excuses. Which I read her post, it's full of them. I can't walk there, I don't know how to drive...Are there not busses? Friends/family who might help?

This is her first post about it too, but what I see are people making a lot of assumptions. We don't know what her situation is and she's even trying to figure it out. What I see are a lot of people who are getting high and mighty and think they are above the situation the OP is in.

Polarpaly05

I'm pretty sure the OP is a guy for those referring to him as a she

Also OP, the biggest hurdle you'll have is feeling silly or something in front of your coworkers. Get over that, quickly. And you won't hurt anybodies feelings by not having cake/cookies/donut. If all else fails, keep a stash of paper towels at your desk and then throw whatever they give you away and put a paper towel over it.

hasta_la_vista_belly

So here's an idea. See if there's a YMCA or some kind of gym a few blocks from your work. I had no idea I had one a few blocks from my work for years and did go there for a little while once I found out. Go during your lunch hour or right after work.

If not, then get away from your desk periodically and walk around the office or your floor at least. If you can get out of the office for a 10-15 minute break, walk to a destination and back. Walk with a brisk pace as opposed to a leisurely one.

Take 20 minutes away from playing video games and do some simple exercises at home after work that don't require equipment. Maybe buy some dumbbells that you can use at home.

Instead of going out and having a burger with fries for lunch, eat some healthier foods. Buy a food scale to accurately log what you do eat at home. Bring lunch/snacks to work as opposed to going out. Also, stop eating when you feel full. I never did this, but one of my coworkers would eat half of his lunch whenever we went out to a restaurant and take the other half with him for dinner or tomorrow's lunch. He realized he wasn't really hungry after eating half of it.

As an office worker myself, these sort of things have helped immensely.

DavyGaga

I'm pretty sure the OP is a guy for those referring to him as a she

Also OP, the biggest hurdle you'll have is feeling silly or something in front of your coworkers. Get over that, quickly. And you won't hurt anybodies feelings by not having cake/cookies/donut. If all else fails, keep a stash of paper towels at your desk and then throw whatever they give you away and put a paper towel over it.

Haha yes I am a guy, but I didn't want to correct anyone or make them feel bad. But either way all the responses are helpful (some a little more blunt than others, but whatever) I was in a meeting earlier and all I was doing instead of taking notes, was making a shopping list!

Nerdycurls

I admit that I often eat to pass time, so I often catch myself getting a muffin or grabbing a tuna salad just to kill time.

I think the eating is only part of your problem here. Is there a way to make your job more challenging so you aren't as focused on eating when you're bored?

DesDawn24

I also work in an office, and have shed nearly 70 pounds so far, and I haven't made any drastic changes. Here are some of the things I do:

- Spend at least part of my breaks walking, whether it's around the office or to nearby stores.
- Instead of calling/emailing my coworkers when I need to talk to them, I walk to wherever they are and talk to them face to face. It adds up quite a bit over the course of the day!
- Find other fitness/health-oriented individuals and set up a challenge. There are 6 of us at my work that do what we call our "Fab Fit" challenge. We set goals for ourselves based on what we want to achieve individually, put a friendly wager on it and set a time frame. Our current challenge is 8 weeks long, and each week we do mini challenges (ex. 250 crunches in a week). It keeps things fun and interesting, and the competition keeps us motivated!
- Most importantly, log everything that goes in your mouth! Once you've done it for awhile it becomes habit, and you may find you're eating more than you think you are. Once you have that data you can adjust accordingly.

Hope this helps, good luck with your journey!

_HeartsOnFire_

I work in an office. I've managed to lose weight. So have many other people.

Track your calories. Eat at a moderate deficit. Exercise at home. There are plenty of exercise videos online - youtube, amazon, etc are your friend. Buy some dvds if you want. Get outside and go for a walk or run.

You can either make excuses for your situation or you can find the best solution and work at it.

I think you're being unnecessarily harsh here. It's obvious this person has a professional office job for the first time, and getting used to that scene takes some time. If the OP is asking because she doesn't know, why is that making excuses?

Not harsh, it's called the truth. Honesty/Truth =/= harsh or rude or nasty or whatever you want to say it is.

We've all been there, and we've all made excuses. NONE of us actually started until we stopped making excuses. Which I read her post, it's full of them. I can't walk there, I don't know how to drive...Are there not busses? Friends/family who might help?

This is her first post about it too, but what I see are people making a lot of assumptions. We don't know what her situation is and she's even trying to figure it out. What I see are a lot of people who are getting high and mighty and think they are above the situation the OP is in.

That is your assumption/perception. I've read the same responses you have, and I do not see them coming across like that. They come across as people being honest. People aren't here to sugar coat anything and things may not come across all touchy feely. In the end, it's all about ones perception about the words they read on the thread.