Food at the office - HELP

Imagine it covered in mold ..... or maggots ..... you get the idea

I'm fortunate currently to be in an office where they DON'T do that...but believe me, I've been there a million times.

My best advice is to be strict about your everyday habits. Some people like to snack, which is great and in that case I'd say bring your own snacks and stick to them. I am more of a "3 meals a day" person so I really don't eat at the office, period. I eat breakfast before work, lunch away from the office, and dinner after work. I know it's not that simple for everyone due to preferences, schedules, commutes, etc. But it helps me.

Another thing I do is have a few "exceptions". For example, at Christmas my office does get a lot of gifts sent over like chocolates, caramel apples, etc. Mostly from vendors. I don't partake of these with 2 exceptions...a family member of my boss makes homemade caramels, and I "allow" myself 1 per day because they're seriously amazing and I fit them into my calorie total for the day...and See's dark chocolate nuts & chews, which I'll allow myself 1-2 per week when they're available...limiting that to when I'm feeling low energy in the afternoon and enjoy it with a cup of hot tea. But if it's anything else, I avoid it. I try to decide what is truly "worth it to me" and stick to those things ONLY.

Work some into your calories budget or ignore it. Another option is to keep a few of those 100-200 calorie cakes or brownies in your desk for the times you really want some.

It's all about control and moderation. One won't hurt, but one every hour will.

Sometimes I choose to eat a little and log it into my day.

But it's usually not as tasty as you think it will be and I'd rather save my calories for ice cream. So I avoid it most of the time. Just think about someone sneezing all over it or the office nose picker touching them all while selecting their piece, if that helps.

Weird method: Wait til you get sick.
Naw, seriously, enough people touch that crap that gets left out in break rooms. All it took was me getting a nasty stomach bug, along with a couple other people in the company, that now I'm happily terrified of touching the stuff anybody else brings. Not worth throwing up.

seltzermint wrote: »

My best advice is to be strict about your everyday habits. Some people like to snack, which is great and in that case I'd say bring your own snacks and stick to them. I am more of a "3 meals a day" person so I really don't eat at the office, period. I eat breakfast before work, lunch away from the office, and dinner after work. I know it's not that simple for everyone due to preferences, schedules, commutes, etc. But it helps me.

This is great advice. I typically eat 3 meals, so mostly don't think about the office food. Sometimes, for something really special, I might make an exception. For a while I was doing a snack in the late afternoon, so I'd bring something. Not thinking about whatever it is as a possible food source for me makes it a lot easier.

The hardest times for me--consistent with this--is when I'm here all day on a weekend or expectedly at night well past when I want to eat dinner, and am tempted to just eat whatever is around (and want to justify it as a tradeoff for having to be at work then). I am dealing with that by making sure I have some "just in case" foods available at the office that I will also look forward to.

SergeantSausage wrote: »

Obesity is a choice.

Choose otherwise ... or don't.

It's completely up to you.

I didn't choose to be obese. Medications and other metabolic disorders did that for me.

OP: Yes. I work at a private school and there are goodies everywhere… Break rooms, classrooms, etc.

If I am unable to fit the goodies at work into my calorie goals/macros, I eat my own snacks that I bring from home.

Giving up office goodies was one of the first things I did because it was so obvious they didn't fit (and they generally weren't actually that good anyway). I found that the first time saying "no" was the hardest, but it only took a few goes to develop the habit of not having them, and every single time I say "no" I'm empowering myself even more.

I used to feel like I *had* to eat all the office goodies. I'd grab a chocolate or two from the basket every time I walked by. I'd have a big piece of cake every time it was someone's birthday. I'd eat all the baked goodies that people brought in, and I'd sample all the stuff that suppliers would send over at Christmastime. It was like, free food = I'm in.

Now I no longer look at it as free. All this food has a cost: it "costs" calories, of which I have a limited number to spend. It's much easier to pass up the cupcakes that my colleagues brought in when I know I have a nice dinner planned that I want to be able to eat later.

One of the first things that I learned when I started counting calories is still one of the most important-- some things are worth making room in your calories, but most things people bring to the office are not. If it's one of the few things that's worth the calories to me, like my boss's homemade cake, then I shift things around, go for an extra walk, or borrow calories from another day. If it's one of the many many things that just aren't very good I don't have any trouble passing it up.

furioushummingbird wrote: »

Just don't eat it.

It's that simple.

and if someone forces it on you, take it, wrap it in a napkin "for later"...and throw it away.