Happy Valentine’s Day! A day to celebrate the ones you love and have lots of goodies in the office. Maintaining a healthy diet is all about balance. You need to behave at least 80% of the time to allow for the times you slip. Having a little wiggle room also let’s you indulge in a portion-controlled treat.
But if you are like me and can’t pass up free food, wine, or chocolate, here are a few tips to help you remain in control today.
1. Write down everything you eat today. You may not realize that every time you go to the copier you are picking up a cookie along the way. Writing a list of what and how much you eat will help you be conscious of your food intake of the good and bad.
2. Have a piece of fruit first. Fruit is naturally sweet and might satiate your craving. Plus you need at least 5 servings of fruit and veggies a day. If you are still ‘hungry’ after the fruit, have a small treat.
3. Occupy your hands. This might be tricky in the office, but at home you can knit, paint your nails, clean the bathroom, or play patty cake with your kids. You might distract yourself and allow the craving to pass. (I will feature another post on cravings in the future) At work you can type up an email you have been meaning to send, do push ups against your desk or the wall, or take a 10 minute walk outside.
4. Drink a glass of water. Similar to eating a piece of fruit, this technique helps fulfill your requirement of 64 oz of water a day, plus leaves you filling a little fuller. Sometimes when our body tells us we are hungry, it really is saying we are dehydrated.
5. Have a solid comeback. If your office mates are trying to peer pressure you into eating another candy bar, blame it on me. Say “My personal trainer will be disappointed if I eat two candy bars today” or “I am working towards a goal of living a healthier lifestyle so I am going to pass, thanks” or “Maybe later.” Then stick to your guns! The lovely members of the Slimpod Club (part of Thinking Slimmer benefits) also gave these retorts:
- My body, my life, my choices.
- I’ll do it my way, thanks.
- I’m not depriving myself, or using willpower to not choose something, it’s merely that I truly don’t want THIS, I want THAT.
- Say very politely “no thank you, I am not hungry and don’t need to eat anymore” and if they get pushy just laugh and add “feel free to eat mine too if you like.”
- Say “what I WANT (or don’t want) instead of what I CAN or cannot eat.” There should be less discussion about things you want, and there is a lot of discussion possible about things you can or cannot eat.
- Avoid referring to a diet or lifestyle change, just explain how you feel when you would eat something. For example, “I do not want bread/croissant/cheese because eating more makes me too full/sick/sleepy/irritable/sleep bad.”
- My heart and my health choices for a hopefully long life.
- I do not want any, thank you. I really don’t want any!
- You go ahead. You are allowed, but I’ve had enough thanks!
6. Bring in a healthy option to share. Take the lead by bringing in fruit salad, trail mix, granola bars, yogurt parfaits as a healthy alternative for your office mates. They will probably be grateful!
Do you have any other tips on how to control food consumption at holiday time at work?
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