OK, enough with the office potlucks and birthday treats!!

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bacardigirl
bacardigirl Posts: 17 Member
in Motivation and Support
I work in an office of 90% women and they celebrate EVERYTHING with food...birthdays, babies, weddings, etc...for every major meeting we hold, there is also a potluck that goes along with it. At first, it was easy to 'pass' on the treats by politely saying no thank you, but now many of the ladies get offended if you don't 'take a piece of cake' or eat a cookie. Potlucks are the worst...no one brings anything healthy...I've often been tempted to bring my own lunch on those days, but I don't want to appear rude. Any advice on the office pitfalls?????

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  • Melis25Fit
    Melis25Fit Posts: 811 Member
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    Just say no thank you.. Thats what I do. I was at a potluck, and they just gave me a dessert.. without asking. So one of my office friends knows my eating habits, and took it away so I wouldn't be tempted.

    Will power needs to be stronger than ever! Bring your own or say you're not hungry. They can't force feed ya! :laugh:
  • treasurep
    treasurep Posts: 88 Member
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    Bring something you like that is on your ok to eat menu. Then fill your plate up with that on put 1 or 2 bites of everything else you want to sample on your plate. That's what I do here at work.
  • baker_c
    baker_c Posts: 251 Member
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    Oh, I had the same problem here. People would actually beg me to take a slice cake or goodies and if I didn't it was the 20 questions: why, are you on a diet, you can't even have 1 piece, are you sure.....

    Finally - I told them I can't have a piece of cake because it would raise my blood sugar. That solved everything. Now if I have a piece of cake, they cut me a small piece. And if I chose not to have a piece of cake, no one says anything and doesn't push the issue. Once, I even went to take a small piece of mini chocolate and one of my caring co-worked asked me if I really needed that piece of chocolate......Granted, everyone thinks I'm diabetic....but at least is solved my issue.

    Good Luck!!
  • ProTFitness
    ProTFitness Posts: 1,379 Member
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    Bring your own lunch and I agree that is rediculious to celebrate everything with food. It is a Joke
  • DeserveVictory
    DeserveVictory Posts: 133 Member
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    Have you brought it up with the other ladies? We do the celebrations too. But finally (after being forced to eat birthday cake too often at 9am!) one of the ladies mentioned that its too much sugar so early, and then a whole bunch joined in. Now we encourage fruit trays for birthdays. And potlucks have turned into a 50/50 of healthy and unhealthy. And we finally convinced the boss to order Subway instead of pizza for our Appreciation lunches.

    I find it just takes someone to speak up and then you will find that there are others who feel the same way but don't want to say anything.

    Good Luck!
  • WhiskeyBravo
    WhiskeyBravo Posts: 92
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    I totally get it....but the ladies in your office do not have the same fitness goals as you do. They may get offended but should you really sacrifice your health to spare a co-workers feelings? After a while, the people in my office expect me to pass and just say " I know your gunna say no, but I still want to offer sooooo, do you want a donut?" I smile and say no thank you and they always say something like...wow, I wish I could be like you :) ...another thing you can do is tell them about MFP, but what really helped is when my co-workers and I did our own version of the biggest loser for 8 weeks....the potlucks came to a complete stop :) good luck sister
  • TheNewJessieMae
    TheNewJessieMae Posts: 767
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    I smile and say no thank you and they always say something like...wow, I wish I could be like you :)


    AMEN!!!
  • Lily_Rose
    Lily_Rose Posts: 38 Member
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    I have the same problem at work. Honestly, I've gotten to a point that I don't care if they think I'm rude or are offended with me. Once it gets through to them that you are serious, they will stop bothering you about it.
  • melodyg
    melodyg Posts: 1,423 Member
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    I don't have office potlucks anymore (thank goodness!) but I do go to a potluck for a group at church every single week. I usually just try to eat light the rest of the day and bring something healthier for whatever I bring. I agree with the advice to just bring something that you can eat (and share) and get a lot of that and a little of the other. I will say that when I did work in an office, we did a weight loss thing once and it was amazing how the rest of the office jumped in to provide healthier options for us at potlucks. You could always be the one to provide the fruit tray for breakfast potlucks... or the healthier breakfast casserole. Or for lunch a good salad or something like that.
  • hotter2010
    hotter2010 Posts: 3
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    I have the same issue here. But it comes down to your health and your goals. Your coworkers usually aren't concerned with that aspect of your life. Bring an apple or if you can run some noon time errands about the time the pot luck begins.

    Good luck.
  • Natural
    Natural Posts: 461 Member
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    take the cake and dump it in the trash. okay maybe that's not nice. tell them for health reasons you can't have it or just say no and they will have to get over it.
  • Iwillxceed
    Iwillxceed Posts: 20 Member
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    You should post a large sign by the food and write in BIG RED BOLD LETTERS, all of the horrible calories that the junk they are bringing in is full of., that will stop their behinds!!.....JUST KIDDING!!.....our office does the same thing but we put a stop to the pot luck mess, by actively joining together and signing up for fitnesspal.com......now instead of pot lucks we are asking each other for recipes and what types of exercises we can try.....yeah some people still bring in junk but we will eat the good stuff and leave the junk to the ones that don't care about eating healthy. Last year we had our own biggest loser and we all put money in the pot, the person who lost the most won all of the money. That really had all of us working really hard to maintain our goals.
  • bacardigirl
    bacardigirl Posts: 17 Member
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    Well, I 'survived' today's office potluck...loaded up on fruits, veggies and had small portions of deli turkey and pasta salads. For a sweet treat, I ate 5 M&Ms...all in all, not bad!
  • rfialkiewicz
    rfialkiewicz Posts: 183 Member
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    Even if you are not diabetic or hypoglycemic, consuming high sugar foods will still raise your blood sugar giving you a 'sugar high' which will lead to a 'sugar crash'. Neither one is healthy. This is a perfectly good excuse.
  • hkystar
    hkystar Posts: 1,290 Member
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    I actually am the office cake baker. I make a lower calorie WW cake that everyone loves. The other peeps can eat as big a slice as they want and I dont feel guilty about having my small piece. Plus everyone in my office knows about my eating and is very supportive. No one thinks anything of it when I show up at the pizza parties with my own salad.
  • KarenBorter
    KarenBorter Posts: 1,157 Member
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    I think what one of the other people said here is a great idea ... make something healthy for you and contribute it to the pot luck. That way you KNOW you can eat healthy for that day and not have to insult them or feel like you aren't participating. When desert time comes around just decline or take a sliver. I personally think it's bad luck to not eat cake at weddings, birthdays etc. where cake is offered so I just have a very tiny slice.

    Have you told your coworkers about this site? Or your fitness goals? I bet they would be super supportive and you wouldn't have to make up excuses about being diabetic ;)
  • Mamasota
    Mamasota Posts: 144
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    Fill your plate with vegetables

    Take one bite and toss the rest

    Just tell them you are on a nutrition plan and will enjoy their company but you have your own food

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