Free food at work not letting me lose weight

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  • GymPoet
    GymPoet Posts: 107 Member
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    I had to re-frame my thinking. STRONGLY tell myself that certain foods at work are NOT free. That they are not mine. Believing the foods belonged to someone else helps rally your inner resistance. You can even make up an ominous Department, eg the Food Police, that will cause you trouble if you partake. Come up w a mind game like this to create mental barriers until your real inner strength gets stronger.
  • 1LoveChips
    1LoveChips Posts: 260 Member
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    Can I have a job at your place :)
  • SuperCrsa
    SuperCrsa Posts: 790 Member
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    Just going to have to decide what's important to you?
    If you cant get it into your calories don't eat it.

    I had the same situation where my boss gave out free pizza as a reward. I just didn't eat it.
    I was grumpy and pissed that he decided to reward us with food! But to this day I am proud that I did not eat that pizza.
    Made me say no a lot easier after that.
  • LuLuChick78
    LuLuChick78 Posts: 439 Member
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    1. Log accurately and stick to your goals.
    2. Stop making excuses.
    3. Exercise more if you require more calories allowed in your day.
    4. Stop making excuses.
  • bridgie101
    bridgie101 Posts: 817 Member
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    I am hoping this will peter out and the food, no longer novel, won't attract you so violently any more. Until that time, exercise, exercise, exercise! :D
  • alisonlynn1976
    alisonlynn1976 Posts: 929 Member
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    The food isn't "making" you do anything, it's your choice. Personally, I do eat the food on social occasions, then if I eat too much, I eat less than usual or exercise more than usual to make up for it the next day. Free food just sitting in the break room when it's not a social occasion, I skip. If you feel like you have to eat it when you look at it, don't look at it. Don't go in there.
  • elyelyse
    elyelyse Posts: 1,454 Member
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    If someone brings in cakes to work, I make sure I have a piece (rude not to :D) I will then go to the gym and hit the treadmill.
    I will never again allow myself to feel pressured to eat something just to make someone else feel good. If someone feels bad, or wants to make me feel guilty because I'm deciding against calories that aren't worth it to me...they are the rude ones. If someone can't understand that I'm making choices for my own physical and mental health, and it has nothing to do with them...well, then I don't so much care what they think, it's not like they have my best interest in mind.
  • Rai007
    Rai007 Posts: 387 Member
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    1) take a break from diet plus exercise and enjoy for a few weeks
    2) When you will be tempted to move the scale then start with the programme.
  • curtissoph
    curtissoph Posts: 64 Member
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    Man, where are all you guys working that you get all this free food? I feel like I'm in the wrong profession...
  • kazhowe
    kazhowe Posts: 340 Member
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    I get my lunch at work which is provided free of charge to me - it is up to me what I choose to eat - so for the most part I make healthy choices - salads with no dressings etc. To have extra treats I go to the gym here every day and run and exercise. There will always be temptations no matter where we are and the whole point of this process we are going through is to learn how to handle the temptations successfully. Just determine in your self that you will only be making wise choices with your food, and that you will work off any 'treat' you decide to have .
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    work the free work food into your eating plan, e.g. have it as a planned snack, and either eat less at some other time of the day, or do more exercise so you can use your exercise calories to eat the extra food at work

    also, recalculate your calories, because sometimes excessive hunger is due to not eating enough generally, and people can get into a cycle between eating too little and uncontrolled overeating. Eating more, i.e. making your goal a bit higher, can help with this, i.e. you eat more, feel more satisfied, and are less likely to be tempted to snack. Personally, when my diet is perfect, i.e. enough calories, hitting my macros, including lots of veggies etc for micronutrients, I'm not tempted at all by snack foods. On the other hand, if I'm not getting enough of something, then I want to eat all the snack foods and then some.
  • misschoppo
    misschoppo Posts: 463 Member
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    Just say no.

    I work at a food testing facility and my entire day revolves around food, I photograph it, I write about it, I cook it & at times I have to eat it as although I'm not a full time food taster, I am trained to test & on occasions when a full time taster if off work I will have to fill in for them and I have to eat whatever it is they are testing that day. I gained a stone in 9months working here as there is constantly snacks & leftovers literally everywhere and we can eat as much as we like all for free.

    One day I decided to just stop eating it & now I plan my meals and snacks the day before & bring all my own food in from home, all weighed out accurately. No matter what is on offer here I just don't eat it..I have just sat and watched 2 colleagues tucking into full cooked breakfasts whcih I love and didn't feel the need to join in and didn't feel like I was missing out because I no longer feel the need to eat food just because it is there and its free. Nowdays, I will take the free food we get home which we are allowed to do so then if I want to eat it I can weigh it out at home and factor it into my planned meals.

    I think you need to decide which is more important, eating because its free and its tempting or exercising your self control and sticking to your calorie goals. The food very well may be there to eat if you want it but the only person stopping you from losing weight is yourself, nobody is forcing you to eat it.
  • CherylP67
    CherylP67 Posts: 772 Member
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    You have to realize something big that nobody has mentioned.

    Food is fuel.

    Food is fuel for your body, look at food as fuel.

    From the title of your post, it appears that food is very psychological to you, you are giving it human qualities (it's not letting you lose weight). Unless you're hunting for your food, it's an inanimate object. You are a person, complex and intelligent. Food is an inanimate object.

    I'm a work in progress, I still have issues with sweets sometimes, but I know I'm responsible for what I fuel my body with. I'm working hard to break the psychological side of my weight/food problem. I used to eat when I was bored, happy, sad, mad, stressed, content, celebrating, and the list goes on.

    I'm learning that food is fuel. Eat what you need and leave the rest. There will be more food tomorrow. A bite sized portion tastes exactly the same as an entire cake .
  • Deipneus
    Deipneus Posts: 1,862 Member
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    The problem is I am not losing weight anymore. Eventhough I don't eat as much as I want to, still the food is so tempting that sometimes I can't avoid.
    This is the central problem for everyone who is trying to eat less, or quit smoking or quit... whatever. The way I fought temptation was to fight temptation. I know of no magic bullet.
  • eksero2k
    eksero2k Posts: 83 Member
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    I get free food at work as well, you just need some self control and avoid all the unhealthy food/snacks and you're good :)
  • SuperCrsa
    SuperCrsa Posts: 790 Member
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    1. Log accurately and stick to your goals.
    2. Stop making excuses.
    3. Exercise more if you require more calories allowed in your day.
    4. Stop making excuses.

    This! Excellent advise. :)
  • ktaylormusic
    ktaylormusic Posts: 151 Member
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    some suggestions that have worked for me -

    first, just learning to PAUSE and be aware of my whole body before taking and eating free food (or any food). Just enough to think. This is way harder than one would think. But it works.

    second, if there's, say a round of brie and crackers sitting there, I remind myself -okay, I know what that tastes like, I don't need to find out. The crackers are actually boring crackers, and it's not like I'm never going to get brie in my life again. I'll just have it on purpose when I do and fully enjoy it.

    third, if there's something really unusual and delicious, just pick the one incredible thing and have some and love it. Add some exercise to your day to compensate, but know the calories you're working with.

    I guess it's simply to accept that there's all this food there, and be choose to be deliberate about it rather than impulsive.

    You can do it; you make the choices!
  • TwinnX
    TwinnX Posts: 1
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    I found that keeping a water bottle with me helps to bolster my low will power. If I walk by the box of donuts I take a sip or gulp of water. It satisfies the immediate sense of the hand to mouth reaction and puts something in my stomach. A friend of mine who was stopping smoking told me to try this and used the same exact method and worked well for him. He didn't gain a single pound and reduced his cravings. Monitor this as well since too much water is not healthy.
  • kohnda34
    kohnda34 Posts: 3 Member
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    I know how you feel.. I work at a school and the teacher lounge is filled with muffins, sweets, breads, etc. It's like walking into a bakery on steroids. I just avoid the room at all causes. What's even worse is you have random teachers asking "Hey, did you get a piece of the cake, it's so goooood!" I just hear Peter Griffin's voice saying "Ah crap".
  • conniemaxwell5
    conniemaxwell5 Posts: 943 Member
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    Think about why you want to eat. Are you truly hungry or are you afraid you're going to miss out on something you'll like if you don't eat it? I used to do that. If there were treats at home or work, I had to eat 2-3 of them because if I didn't the next time I walked by they might be all gone. It was a mental / emotional thing I had to break. I had to realize that even if I did miss a treat, or didn't get another one before they were all gone, it didn't matter. I had to make my weight loss a bigger priority than eating the treats.

    Your subject line says 'free food at work NOT LETTING ME lose weight.' That is a false statement. The food can't make you or let you do anything. YOU are the only one not letting you lose weight. Make good choices and get back to your calorie budget and stick to it. Either bring your own food and stay away from the food that's provided altogether or make good choices about the food. Either way it's YOUR choice.

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