What's your biggest diet challenge at work?

[Ali from The Office Diet]

I've been running The Office Diet for a couple of months now, and still have plenty of ideas for articles!

But I wondered about others trying to eat healthily at work -- what are your biggest challenges? Is it the cookies your colleagues keep offering round? Or the uninspiring lunches? The difficulty of finding time to cook dinner in the evening?

Or something else entirely?

If you've got a problem you'd like to see covered on The Office Diet just post and let me know :-)

Best,

Ali

[silicon toad2000]

time for a decent breakfast to keep the metabolism going.
the horror of running out of supplies
meetings running over time, missing a meal and letting the metabolism drop

[WanderingOak]

Back when I was doing the office 9-5, it wasn't necessarily my diet that was the problem. I always brown-bagged leftovers for lunch, and had a big pot of something-or-other sitting in the fridge at home. For a while there, I had an office-mate who had a big bowl of gourmet chocolates on her desk, and I admit to scarfing quite a few, but then everybody else did as well.

Anyhow, back then, my biggest problem was the fact that I was sitting behind a desk all day long. That combined with an hour commute each way, meant that I was pretty much inactive for close to 10 hours straight. That was killing me. I mean, I could have been consuming nothing but raw vegan smoothies all day long, and I would probably still have gained weight, just from lack of activity.

Now, I'm self-supporting (for now, at least), and spend a majority of my time fixing up a 150 year old house, which definitely gives me a bit of a workout. I don't snack at all, but I do have a habit of working through lunch, and having a crash in the late afternoon, when I barely have the energy to fix a tuna-salad sandwich. Then again, until last night, I didn't have a mess-o-pottage in the 'fridge either, so that will help now, as well.

[Ali from The Office Diet]

Originally Posted by silicon toad2000

time for a decent breakfast to keep the metabolism going.
the horror of running out of supplies
meetings running over time, missing a meal and letting the metabolism drop

Regarding breakfast, I coincidentally wrote an article on that before actually reading your post! -- The Office Diet » How to find time to eat breakfast every day

In terms of supplies, I have enough cereal bars stacked in my desk drawer to feed the entire office Anything dried and long-lasting works well.

Not sure what to suggest on the meetings one (sneaking in your own food is probably a no-no?)

Ali

[Jennihul]

My biggest diet challenge at work is that I have a mouth.

Jennifer

[Jonathan Mead]

I think my biggest challenge for keeping my diet on track at work is planning my meals. I have a hard time staying on track without a plan and lacking the motivation to create a plan and stick with it. It always seems too boring for me to create the motivation to do it. =/

[Bodhi]

People bringing in dessert, donuts, and other sweets. This morning a sales representative brought in a hugh assortment of pastries. I didn't have any. Then after lunch our supervisor had a large assortment of pies brought in. I gave in and have part of an apple pie after coworkers repeatively came by munching on pie and telling me that I needed to go get some. It was delicious. So peer pressure to eat "normally" at work and free treats are the down fall for me at work.

[Ali from The Office Diet]

Me too, Bodhi! I managed to resist the cake brought in by one of our partners today (vanilla sponge cake just doesn't do it for me) but I did snaffle a chocolate ...

Ali

[FoodforThought]

The most difficult temptation is the candy jar. Someone always seems to fill it up.. especially during holidays (this month = lovely jelly beans!).

I think lunches are also very difficult. I tend to go home for lunch (I am lucky enough to have a small commute to work). This leaves a lot of room for snacking....especially when you are starving. So lately I have been trying to cut down my trips home at lunch time.

[Matthew Shea]

I work in a big skyscraper complex with a huge food court. McDonalds, Burger King, coney, Arby's, Subway, ice cream and pizza are all easily available. Plus we have 2 Starbucks, a Coffee Beanery, two party stores and a CVS. It's enough to keep you fat for eternity. It's all I can do to stay away from all the junk food I can get so easily.