Free Food is Not FREE! =]

lanaholt

My friend and my husband reminded me of this! Free samples at the store, buy one get one free specials at restaurants and stores, buffets (okay, that's not free), office treats.. Aaaaaahhhhhh! The list goes on. It's so easy to make an exception this one time. This one time? Let's really look at how many times that will be. This is a good time of year to think about that. What's coming up? Halloween, Thanksgiving, and lots of wonderful seasonal holidays are right around the corner. What will we be bombarded with? Free food. Free brownies, fudge, cookies, treats galore! I want them all! But, I can't.

I'm sure we can think of lots of ways to prepare ourselves in advance for this free food onslaught. Share your ideas. Here are a few of mine:

- Bring your own healthy treats to share.
- Use the spoonful method. Break off a bite of the treat instead of the whole thing.
- If you can get away with it abstain.
- Avoid the area where the food is being displayed.
- Take the entire months of October, November and December off from work.. Ha ha ahahahahahaha! =]

it_be_asin

We have free food at work all the time. Abstaining really is the only option

sc1572

Gah...I'm alreadyyyy dreading the holiday food. I love it, of course, but hate is SO much because it's hard to say no. However, this year I have MFP!

sister_bear

I think I gained weight reading this post. :laugh: I just say no, but I never deprive. Holidays are special and I enjoy myself. I've learned that enjoying myself doesn't mean gorging myself.

RMinVA

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got, and that I find especially helpful around the holidays, is skip the stuff you can eat year round. So if you want some of your mom's extra special pie that she only makes around the holidays, splurge on that instead of a generic chocolate chip cookie. Unless of course the chocolate chip cookies are the ones that your mom only makes at that time of year too :-)

You get the idea....

cheerwinechic

ooouch! that one hits close to home! :-)
hard to get rid of that starving college kid mentality of take what's free, regardless.
i have sat right next to a break room for 5 straight years in an office with like 60 people... its hard to avoid the food table.
it's nice when you can celebrate the victory of saying "no" though.

i've always wanted to, and sometimes have, kept a calorie counter of the foods i DIDN'T eat... then look back over the course of the week and think about the weight and the gross feelings i avoided by not eating those calories... maybe it's time to do that again!

HMonsterX

I was always "lucky" when it came to free food at work, especially on night shifts or hard days, the management would bring in like 15 pizzas. "Luckily" for me i hate pizza!

Xmas is worrying me though. I always save up my Sainsburys reward points through the year, and normally have like £40-£50, and that always went on treats.

....i dont want a bazillion treats lying around now. What else can i do with that money though?!

manjingirl

I was always "lucky" when it came to free food at work, especially on night shifts or hard days, the management would bring in like 15 pizzas. "Luckily" for me i hate pizza!

Xmas is worrying me though. I always save up my Sainsburys reward points through the year, and normally have like £40-£50, and that always went on treats.

....i dont want a bazillion treats lying around now. What else can i do with that money though?!

Do Sainsburys have non-food treats? Or maybe you could get some super expensive little food treat?

lbgano

I used to work as a receptionist and the owner of the company would always buy a big bucket of jelly bellies from Costco and put them on my desk for people to munch on. I had the WORST time not eating them all day. I mentioned it to my boss and she said "you know those guys who keep sticking their hands in the jelly bean jar? you REALLY think they all wash their hands after they pee?"

So that cured my jelly belly problem.

So I guess my advice is, find something gross about the free food. It's not too hard. Think of all the little kid hands that touch free samples, and think about EVERYTHING else a little kid touches during the day...that is what you are eating. :frown:

skinnyhopes

Free food is my weakness.
My friend gave me a brownieand a cupcake today.
When I logged, it turned put to be around 500 calories!!!

Bakins929

If going to parties where there will be munchies, I try to eat something before I go, like a big salad or something with fiber/protein to keep me full, and I can control the calories and nutritional content. Plus, if there is drinking, it always helps to have some food on your stomach.