Tricks for Resisting the Vending Machine @ work/ Curing a Sugar Addiction
I'm what some call a desk jockey...how ever I have the distinct pleasure of having a cube near the vending machine. I've been trying to bring healthy snacks with me to work, but for some reason my will power is null in comparison to how good the peanut butter cups or fritos look.
What have you all been able to use as a trick to defeat the temptations of the vending machines?
The second part to this question is what have you done to be able to resist your sweet tooth? I seem to have an uncureable sweet tooth/sugar addiction. One would think that I have good willpower but I just can't seem to defeat it. Any suggestions on how to bolster my resolve/break the addiction?
Leave your money at home. Seriously - every morning I empty my purse of loose change and $1 bills. The only thing in my wallet are $5 bills and larger. If I then want something from the vending machine I have to go across the street and break a $5 before I can buy something.
Breaking an addiction is hard. For some people planning a sweet snack helps - instead of totally depriving yourself, you can allow yourself one treat a day. If you think you'll be unable to stop, then the answer might be cutting out anything sugary or sweet completely - at least for a while until you feel more in control.
For me the very very best thing to do is to eat no sweets at all! The more I have the more I want. If I don't eat it, then it seems the craving lessens to the extent that I can manage it. Leaving your change and small bills at home sounds like a good idea. Unless you vending machine is one of the ones that takes all denominations of bills.
My second best strategy is to have a protien bar that involves a little sugar/chocolate. I use Clif Builder's. They are sweet, but are also filling and, sort of, a meal replacement as well. I take one of those when we go out where I know there will be candybars/pop and I have it instead of a chocolate bar and a pop. It works for me.
The less sugar I eat, the less I crave it...but when I really want sweet I have a cup of hot, sweetened (with sweet and low) tea. It actually hits the spot!
Is there any way you could either relocate or set yourself up so that you can't see the machine? I am very visually stimulated...we have a machine in the break room downstairs...I avoid looking at it at all costs for that reason.
I like the idea of allowing yourself one small treat a day... as long as you are able to stop at one. A way to make this happen is to just not bring or buy any more than one treat
I agree that Clif bars are good, but my favorite nutrition/protein/chocolate-y bar is the MetRx Protein Plus chocolate fudge. It has 19 grams of protein, 180 calories, and only 3 grams "net" carbs. I think Clif bars taste better, but that one has the most nutrition for the least calories while still tasting pretty good.
Other things you can eat for snacks:
Fresh fruit - I really like apples with peanut butter
A cup of lowfat or nonfat yogurt
Beef jerky (yes, it is high in sodium, but reasonably low in fat, calories, and carbs. As long as you drink plenty of water, it isn't unhealthy at all)
AND... one trick that has always worked for me is just to close your eyes and think about how HOT you will look when you are at your goal weight. Start thinking about how you will be able to shop almost anywhere and pick most clothes off the rack without having to worry about whether they will make you look fat.
There is the old saying that you are what you eat. And no one got thin by eating Resees cups or Fritos (UNLESS they were ALREADY thin... those b@stards!! )
They do have some healthy choices in there. We do have a program at our company called Lean You! which is supposed to help promote healthy eating and lifestyles, however they still continue to put the bad stuff in there too right with the good. Oy vey! Talk about temptation!
The Clif bars are a good idea. I've had them before and found them to be really good!
For those of you who have dealt with sugar addiction. How have you been able to resist the temptation.
It's funny, I quit smoking after 3 years of it, cold turkey and haven't looked back since, but when it comes to sugar, I get the cravings. I think the most I've been able to go without caving into it is a weekend? Bad I know! Any ways to distract yourself from it or do sugar free candies help? Someone told me that sucking on sugar-free peppermints had helped in the past?
Last edited by PackersBearFan; 11-05-2008 at 02:28 PM.
Why don't you bring something sweet with you, for the time when you have the craving. But it has to be "healthy sweet". For example, fruit. I eat almost every day what I call "my cheesecake". It consist from 1/2 cup of Fibre One cereal, 1/3 cup of cottage cheese and some fruit on top - I prefer blueberries and raspberries. You need some protein to counterbalance the carbs (hence the cottage cheese). Sometimes, like today, I have just the cottage cheese with pineapple and raspberries; no cereal.
Believe me, to me it tastes sweet enough to pass for a dessert. Typically, this is my midafternoon snack.
We have a vending machine at work but I am completely uninterested. Once a month or so I buy a small package of the Flat Earth (is this how it's called? with the winged piggy) chips - they are less "bad" than the traditional chips.
Put a piggy bank on you desk. Every time you want to use the vending machine put the amount you would be spending into the piggy bank INSTEAD of the machine. When the bank is full, and you are thin, use the saved money for some awesome new jeans, or shoes.
To curb yourself of a sugar addiction, abstinence is the the best remedy in my oppenion. Seriously, just like with a alcoholic, substitutions are not the answer. I quit drinking whiskey several years ago because I was drinking too much. I decided to only drink beer & wine. Well, I just drank 10X more beer and wine (and gained 100 pounds). Look back at our ancestors. Sugar was very hard to come by, especially white cane sugar (The root of most obesity imo along with refined flour) . Sugar was a major treat, a sweet tooth was cured by fresh or dried fruit back then. Molasses or maple syrup was also frequently used, but in their natural state, much "less" sweet than cane sugar. Sometimes our ancestors knew more than us modern civilized folk. Pies and cakes had much less sugar than today. I was looking at an old recipe book of my husbands grandmothers. An apple pie recipe called for 1/4 cup of sugar. I got out one of my new modern cookbooks and an apple pie called for 1 1/2 cups sugar.
Sometimes our ancestors knew more than us modern civilized folk. Pies and cakes had much less sugar than today. I was looking at an old recipe book of my husbands grandmothers. An apple pie recipe called for 1/4 cup of sugar. I got out one of my new modern cookbooks and an apple pie called for 1 1/2 cups sugar.
If you've ever eaten fresh fruit pastry in Europe, they're MUCH less sweet than American pastries. One of the best apple tarts I ever had was in Paris - fresh from the bakery and there was NO added sugar in the recipe - just a little vanilla sugar sprinkled over the top of the baked apples and crust.
American pies and cakes are often MUCH sweeter than the European versions.
If you've ever eaten fresh fruit pastry in Europe, they're MUCH less sweet than American pastries. One of the best apple tarts I ever had was in Paris - fresh from the bakery and there was NO added sugar in the recipe - just a little vanilla sugar sprinkled over the top of the baked apples and crust.
American pies and cakes are often MUCH sweeter than the European versions.
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So true. I spent the first three decades of my life in Europe and when I bake from North American recipes, I automatically cut the amount of sugar in half (and I still find it plenty sweet). That has always been my complaint that everything here is too sweet - some stuff (e.g. a sheet cake) does not have any taste - it's just sugar, sugar and more sugar.
Keeping the willpower strong and steering clear of unhealthy snacks is all on us, right? I mean, there are temptations everywhere, not just in those vending machines. And hey, why not shoot the breeze with the office manager about tossing in some healthier options the snack vending machine? Nut bars, dried fruits— you know, the good stuff.
Last edited by miafricker; 12-14-2023 at 04:25 AM.
Tricks for Resisting the Vending Machine @ work/ Curing a Sugar Addiction
