So, the Halloween pledge worked out well for me. I am ready for my next pledge – no holiday goodies. I work for a big corporation and we receive SO MANY vendor gift baskets around the holidays. Good stuff, too. I did pretty good last year, but wavered a few times. My rule for this year – I can only eat pears (we get a lot of Harry & David gift baskets). If we get a basket with pears (or other H&D fruit, but really the pears are the best, not wild about the apples and regular baskets dont have the exotic fruits), I can eat one pear per day, and take pears home for later. NOTHING ELSE (the pledge extends to baked goods, treats brought in by coworkers). No moose munch, summer sausage, chocolates, cookies. ONLY PEARS.
I think my school is the worst! Well meaning parents gifting the teachers and staff! 100 staff members bringing all of their holiday leftovers and dropping them in the staff lounge. It is a minefield EVERYDAY! However, I know that is one of the main reasons I gained my weight so I have had a no staff room food pledge with myself since I lost my weight. I ONLY eat stuff out of the staff lounge if it is fruit or plain veggies. I may have wavered once or twice over the years but it is rare. I keep my blinders on. So, I'm in on the pledge too!
Michele, you are right. Schools are even worse than hospitals!! But when I think about what gifts I want to do for my kids' teachers, cookies, candies, etc., seem to always be at the top of the list. Do you have any suggestions for non-food teacher gifts that are ~$5?
Michele, you are right. Schools are even worse than hospitals!! But when I think about what gifts I want to do for my kids' teachers, cookies, candies, etc., seem to always be at the top of the list. Do you have any suggestions for non-food teacher gifts that are ~$5?
A lot of parents give gift cards ($5) to Starbucks or other local places (yogurt, etc.). Those are always appreciated! If your kids are old enough, have them write a meaningful note or card to go with the gift. Another idea is a set of note cards/thank you cards as teachers are always writing notes and thank you's.
I'm taking the pledge & steeling my will against next Thursday.
That's when the famous Package of Cookies From Diane arrives.
My department employs a very gifted & hard-working graphic artist named Diane who puts as much thought & effort into making her Christmas cookies as she does into her graphs, charts & illustrations. These are not your ordinary cookies. Oh, no. They are magazine perfect, and they have extraordinary flavors, and some are rather fragile & sculptural-looking, intriguing to the eye as well as to the taste.
She works remotely, so she takes the trouble to mail them to the head office, where I work. (I work there two days a week, anyway, when I'm not working from home on the laptop.)
For three years running, I have not gone anywhere near the table at the office where her cookies are laid out. Not in 2009 and not in 2008. Not in 2007, but that was easier, because I'd just started changing my eating habits & was so high on my success, that was enough of a treat.
I'm afraid. Very afraid.
There is, thankfully, a ritual to the serving of the cookies, which makes it possible to avoid them: They're revealed, on a series of plates, on a long table, just before an e-mail goes around telling selected people (only within our dept) that they're out, and then their location is disclosed. Once everyone in the dept. has socialized & eaten in an inpromptu standup party, the cookies are hidden near an Important Person's desk, so people from our dept can stroll by periodically & take them, while the Important Person looks on, to be sure no unauthorized coworkers get access. These rituals occur because these cookies are so coveted, and their fame is so far-reaching, that we don't want strangers from other depts. wandering in & taking any, as that is a very present danger.
Even if I don't get up & take a cookie, I'm surrounded by the sound of munching coworkers, and the smells (salted caramel! real raspberry filling made with fresh raspberries!), and people oohing and awwing over what Diane made this year.
This is incredibly difficult.
I recognize Diane's artistry & her talent. Her true gift.
But damn, I wish she sent us a CD of her photographs & drawings instead. I wish she quilted. Or painted. Or did ceramics. Or ... something else. Anything else.
I wish she just made your common cut-outs with sloppy green icing & those silvery beads pressed in them, or gingerbread that goes stale in about five minutes after the Saran wrap comes off, or those red-and-green M&M cookies, or those things that aren't even really cookies, where people just dump layers of coconut, condensed milk, chocolate chips & graham crackers in layers & cut them in messy squares.
I've bought dish towels before from a trip the family went on.
One teacher collected owls. Another was a Florida State University fan.
A wonderful parent has coordinated a gift before, collecting what people wanted to donate but suggesting $5, and used it to purchase a couple of restaurant gift cards.
I join the pledge to avoid the mundane, the store bought, and even the seasonally good.
Howsomever, should I be able to figure out how to get to the famous "Package of Cookies From Diane" I'm gonna have one - I'll examine the whole batch, make my first choice, factor it into a snack budget, and savor it like crazy.
[Focusing on the clues: Just outside of NYC, head office, has an employee named Diane, desk of very important person.]
I'm just going to comment on the "Diane" cookies as snacks in the workplace are not a problem for me (unless you like dog doo, frozen chunks of wood or sand ).
I would factor one cookie per day into my food budget. Sometimes you get something extraordinary (obviously these cookies are that and more - they are creations of love and art) and life is too short to pass it up. And since you have a "cookie controller" that should enable you to stop at one, yes? I would feel no shame at begging for more but you maybe could quietly ask this person to give you the "stink eye" if they see you lurking anywhere near the cookie location.
During the holiday season I go to the Belgian chocolate shop every Saturday and get one chocolate. I go to a very quiet local coffee shop, order a tea, which I don't touch, and savour this chocolate for as long as I can.
This year I will be doing a two hour long dog walk after the chocolate so the caloric implication is negligible too!
I'm definitely taking this pledge! My office is full of junk, yesterday someone brought in coconut pie and another person brought brownies. No, no, no!
The only off-plan item I'm having this month is some pie after Christmas dinner. Everything else I will avoid!
Last edited by My Michelle; 12-03-2010 at 07:52 AM.
LOL Dagmar - love the stink eye idea! My husband (a fitness god - blech) has looked over my shoulder every meal since I started maintenance. I asked him how long he was planning on doing that and he looked very surprised that he'd been caught! He's on his best behavior now.
Saef - only you know what you can handle from a temptation standpoint, but it seems to me that figuring in a moderate amount of something you really love is a good life strategy. Gee, what a bunch of fantastic weight-support people we are! We're standing by whispering "Eat the cookie! Eat the cookie!"
Last edited by hatethesweatpants; 12-03-2010 at 07:56 AM.
I'd say based on the fact that there are literally THREE people in my office and we currently have no less than 8 POUNDS of candy in the break room, I'm in trouble...gonna try my best!!
Holiday workplace snack pledge
).
My husband (a fitness god - blech) has looked over my shoulder every meal since I started maintenance. I asked him how long he was planning on doing that and he looked very surprised that he'd been caught! 
He's on his best behavior now.
