Avoid Excess Eating At Work

Matthew Gates 4m 1,032 #eatingatwork

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

Eating At Work: Cupcakes, Bagels, Donuts? NO!

The following article is not meant to offend you, but only influence you to do something about your lifestyle. This article was not written with any intention to fat or obese shame. You may get offended by some of this material, but you can continue to live your life the way you want, or you can do something about it.  This article is meant to motivate you to do something about your current lifestyle. My words may seem harsh and you may not agree with me, but the truth is never easy to handle, and tough love usually always leads to good things.

Everyday there is something awesome going on in the office. Everyone is really friendly and by friendly, I mean, there are always people bringing in food to share for everyone. Bagels. Cupcakes. Donuts. Candy. Sweets. Bags of Potato Chips or Popcorn or Cheese Doodles. I bet you never go for that kind of stuff, right? Yeah, right. I believe you. Just a little handful won’t hurt, will it? What about taking more than one handful or a handful of something everyday? So what’s the issue? It’s causing you to gain weight, eat unhealthy foods, and not only do you notice, but other people are noticing you pack on the pounds. You have come across this article to figure out how to stop eating that food.

The easiest answer? Stop eating it. Seriously, think about food in this way: When was the last time you thought you were going to starve because there was no food around? Go on, I’ll wait.

That’s right. Food is everywhere. All hours of the day. On your way to and from work, there are literally a dozen places that have food. You probably have food packed in the top drawer of your desk at work too, I bet. And if you don’t have it, I guarantee if you said you were hungry at work and asked anyone if they had anything to eat, just to snack on to hold you over, someone would offer you some food to curb your hunger.

Food is prevalent and unless we are facing the apocalypse – which I’m not sure is coming any time soon, seeing that we have been waiting for it for about 2,000 or so years – you can safely assume there are not going to be any zombies or aliens coming to destroy us anytime soon. And the sun’s life expectancy? Another 4 billion years. You are going to be okay. Food is not going anywhere. Unless you are from a country where food is scarce, which is becoming less and less common, you have to get it into your head that food is always there.

Food has always been there since you were a baby. It has been there throughout your childhood, into your teenage years, young adulthood, and now that you are an adult, food is still there! Lovely precious food! Always there! If you run out of food, you can just run to the supermarket and get more food!

So now that you know food will be there tomorrow and the day after, you can train yourself to say no to food that you see at work. It is as simple as that. Stop eating food that is offered to you. If you know you are going to have trouble saying no, keep almonds in the top drawer of your desk at work, and grab about 5 to 10 almonds every time you think about going over to grab the crappy cakes or sweets that someone brought in.

While everyone is eating, go for a walk, or if you can learn to control yourself and want to socialize, grab a handful of almonds and go for a cup of coffee instead. If you really cannot control yourself, cut whatever you are about to eat in half and accept that is all you will have. If you are serious about losing weight, there is no reason to eat at work, other than a normal lunch or snack in order to keep you focused.

Work is not a restaurant, it is not a place for you to be snacking all day, it is a place for you to be working and doing your job. I worked in an office once, where I brought in a few jars of peanut butter and jelly, just for anyone who got hungry. They had to supply their own bread, but that helped for people who forgot their lunch, who didn’t have anything to snack on, and just needed a little push to get them through their day, and that seemed to work.

It is great that people are being so friendly by bringing in food to work and sharing it with everyone, but they are not doing you a favor. At my place of work, there are people who bring cupcakes or bagels in and put them right in front of me, and in my mind, I know I could go ahead and grab them and eat one but I make the conscious decision not to eat anything. I do grab that handful of almonds and then I load up on a whole bottle of water, and I feel good afterwards.

After all, I know that cupcake or bagel is just empty carbs. Sure, it will satisfy me in the moment, but I will probably be thinking about food in another hour, so what is the point of putting those empty calories inside of me while I sit on my butt and do nothing to actually work it off? Whenever it comes to anything someone brings in, I simply already have the answer in my head: NO TO FOOD.

Occasionally, someone will bring in something rare that I have never tasted before, and I will definitely try it, but as far as bagels, cupcakes, donuts — I already know those flavors, I already know what they taste like, and I already know the taste is always the same. So when it comes to thinking, should I grab one and eat it?

The answer is clear: NO.

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