The free food at work problem :/

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  • thenewkayla
    thenewkayla Posts: 313 Member
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    My co worker always has a bag of candy at our desk! I have to stare at his big bag of candy all day... every now and then I ll have a few bites. .but I feel your pain
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,134 Member
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    Send it to me.
  • Hollywood_Porky
    Hollywood_Porky Posts: 491 Member
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    I take a look at all the bodies who are eating the foods they bring in - then I tell myself "I never want to be like that again" and I ignore it all.
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
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    Just because it is there does not mean you have to eat it. Or you can eat a little, log it and enjoy. Yesterday someone brought in some Peanut butter fudge cupcakes. I went on MFP looked up the calorie total, decided I could afford to enjoy half of one and logged it. It was yummy.

    One day last week someone brought in Pizza and offered me a slice. I decided I didn't want to spend my calories on that, that day. However this week we had pizza at a monthly meeting. I knew ahead it was happening. Planed for it. Enjoyed it very much and went on with my life.

    Really you are going to run into food everywhere you go. The world won't stop offering temptations just because you are dieting. Might as well just decide to be responsible about whether or not you make the choice to put it in your mouth.

  • melissaw78
    melissaw78 Posts: 214 Member
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    I give myself permission to have any of those things that I want....AFTER I have my water and whatever I packed for the day. Most of the time, the problem has resolved itself by that time, either it's all gone by then, I'm too full, or I really am that hungry and I have some. Maybe it puts me over my daily goal, but if I stay under my TDEE, I still win.
  • MacMadame
    MacMadame Posts: 1,893 Member
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    I work at a start-up in Silicon Valley. It's part of the culture to have the job provide food. We make regular Costco runs and Google Express is always delivering.

    One advantage is that it's not random crap that people bring in. We can get whatever we want so I make sure there is always nuts, Greek yogurt, beef jerky, fruit, hummus, carrots, and other food with less sugar. But the guys are making sure there is plenty of candy and ice cream.

    So whenever I open the cabinets to get my PM snack of nuts, there are the M+Ms staring me in the face. And I know there are Haagen Dazs bars sitting in the fridge.

    What has helped me is knowing how our brains are wired. They are wired to want food if they see it and they are wired to be attracted to free food. Knowing this, I am constantly putting the jars of candy behind the jars of nuts and I also have trained myself not to open the cabinets if I'm just in the kitchen to get a drink. If I can't see it, that helps a lot.

    After that I just have rules about how much of this stuff I'm allowed under what circumstances.

    Finally, I have a picture in my mind of how I want to look and how well I want to perform at my big race in Sept.

    If none of that works, I log it and move one.
  • dutchandkiwi
    dutchandkiwi Posts: 1,389 Member
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    We bring in chocolate every time we have been to an international meeting (which happens a lot) I still buy it for others but do not touch the stuff myself. It has taken a fair bit of sefl control as my desk overlooks the sweets cabinet area. These days it is easier as I just tell myself that it is not worth me feeling bad afterward and that when I eat it is not as nice as my mind tells me it should be
  • auntyp147
    auntyp147 Posts: 38 Member
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    :s I work for a govt dept. We get nothing!! You are all sooo lucky. I really need to find another job! :'(
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Candy and cookies at work - at a regular basis? What??
    Sure this isn't kindergarten?
  • loribethrice
    loribethrice Posts: 620 Member
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    ziggh wrote: »
    Im pretty good at buying healthy food at the grocery store and bringing healthy lunches at work, but it's impossible to avoid all the candy/cookies/sodas that other people bring to share or are brought in for meetings. How do you guys deal with this?

    I work in an ER and there is CONSTANTLY cake, candy, and cookies here. I have learned to just bring my own lunch every night and when I see the free food I just walk past it. If I know I have a cushion in my calories then I will allow myself one cookie or one piece of candy or a small sliver of cake just so I don't feel bad, but otherwise I just drink a lot of water, chew gum, and try my best to ignore the food.
  • MrsMizart
    MrsMizart Posts: 1,275 Member
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    Ignore it. My clients are used to me not having anything. If on the odd occasion I do want some, I'll work it into my day's calories. I've also started taking in healthy stuff to share with them. Everything is left on a table and people can help themselves.
  • dopeysmelly
    dopeysmelly Posts: 1,390 Member
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    I decided to just say no to it all. It's always store-bought stuff at my office which isn't very nice anyway, and certainly isn't worth the calories to me. Once I decided to say no, it became MUCH easier with practice to say no every time, and after a few months it didn't enter my head to have any. People stop offering eventually if you just keep saying "no thank you". They aren't really offended generally, they just care about you and want you to enjoy what's there.

    I found it helped to think about the "value" of the food in terms of calories, nutrients and what extra activity I'd have to do to compensate, rather than the monetary price of the food (which is usually ridiculously low in the US). And proactively deciding to skip it all honestly takes away that choice from me, which means I'm not sitting there agonizing over whether I should have some, if I have some how big a piece etc. etc. I've made my choice already, so I don't mind if it just sits there.

    If having it close by (within reach) bothers you, I honestly would ask colleagues really politely if they wouldn't mind moving it so it's not so close to me. I don't think people would mind. When I was losing, I would just have said something like "the smell is really tempting and I'm trying very hard to lose weight/get healthy". Now that I'm maintaining, I would probably say something like "it took a lot of effort to lose the weight, and I don't want to undo all that hard work, and having donuts/cakes right next to me, doesn't seem very fair"
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    edited May 2015
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    dopeysmelly wrote: »
    I decided to just say no to it all. It's always store-bought stuff at my office which isn't very nice anyway, and certainly isn't worth the calories to me. Once I decided to say no, it became MUCH easier with practice to say no every time, and after a few months it didn't enter my head to have any. People stop offering eventually if you just keep saying "no thank you". They aren't really offended generally, they just care about you and want you to enjoy what's there. I found it helped to think about the "value" of the food in terms of calories, nutrients and what extra activity I'd have to do to compensate, rather than the monetary price of the food (which is usually ridiculously low in the US).

    I use that strategy too :D

    And proactively deciding to skip it all honestly takes away that choice from me, which means I'm not sitting there agonizing over whether I should have some, if I have some how big a piece etc. etc. I've made my choice already, so I don't mind if it just sits there.

    You are utilizing what is known by the fancy name of "pre-commitment". I think that's clever :)

    If having it close by (within reach) bothers you, I honestly would ask colleagues really politely if they wouldn't mind moving it so it's not so close to me. I don't think people would mind. When I was losing, I would just have said something like "the smell is really tempting and I'm trying very hard to lose weight/get healthy". Now that I'm maintaining, I would probably say something like "it took a lot of effort to lose the weight, and I don't want to undo all that hard work, and having donuts/cakes right next to me, doesn't seem very fair"

    That's something many people would find difficult to do. Power to you!
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,683 Member
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    My old desk location was like this. We had cake and doughnuts in the office to mark almost any occasion. Birthdays, birthdays of offspring, going on vacation, returning from leave, promotion, work anniversary, good weather, project completed on time, even resignations.

    Moving the treats so that they are out of your direct line of sight helps. In instances where I did succumb, my strategy was to break off a tiny bite size serving. This would force me to think whether it was really worth having that second or third bite.

    Having a high protein savory snack such as jerky on hand also helped me keep away from the sweets.
  • KingoftheLilies
    KingoftheLilies Posts: 71 Member
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    I go out for lunch, if possible, to eat my own food. Even just to sit outside the building. Removes the temptation completely, and if you're not there to offer it to, nobody is going to be perpetually offended you don't want cake every day of the week.
  • ScrAgnX
    ScrAgnX Posts: 368 Member
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    For me the first few months were the hardest to resist the siren call of free sweets at work.

    Eventually, as others have said, it became more important for me to be healthy and I stopped feeling the draw of the ever present sugar.
  • harpsdesire
    harpsdesire Posts: 190 Member
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    I work in a place that is constantly stocked with soda, chips, cookies, pretzels, candy, dried fruit, etc. We have a gumball machine in the kitchen that doesn't require quarters.

    I just pack my lunch and try not to think about it!

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