Hi All,

I'm really new to the forum, but looking to lose about 20 lbs. I've gained quite a lot of weight since I started a new job (that I love!! Despite the weight-gain) I used to work in a job where I was ran around like crazy all day and didn't have time to stop till the day was done. Now I sit at a desk all day and while I love the job, and it's not stressful, it's totally making me fat! I bring healthy snacks to work & try to find time to take a walk during my lunch break, but the dreaded SNACK ROOM is my biggest problem.

YES, my work has an actual room full of free snacks for their employees - pop tarts, rice crispie treats, fruit snacks, diet coke, cookies, potato chips, etc. It's horrible and I can't stay away. Every time I get up from my desk to fill up my water bottle I walk right by this huge buffet of awful processed crap foods!

I seriously binge until I feel sick some days. Totally sick. Like, physically ill. I'm working on dieting but the more I restrict the more awful I feel when I binge in the snack room. Just one snack and I'm destined for an 8-pop-tart-day like I had today, with bag after bag of fruit snacks. It's just terrible. Anyone have any suggestions for me?

Thank you thank you thank you so much for any advice you might have!!!

I really feel your pain. I also work somewhere that is CRAWLING with food. I gained about 7lbs the first 6 wks I worked here due to it. We spend $1500 a month on SNACKS for the office. Yes, SNACKS! That's not fruit or lunch for the office or anything like that. That means soda, chips, chocolate, balance bars (which are all junk), fruit snacks, rice krispy treats, etc. I am tempted every single day. 2 out of 5 days I find I give in and have a fun size chocolate bar or two for 80 calories a piece. I white knuckle it those days to not shovel in more. It is so hard. The weekends are easier and when I get off work, it's easier. But all day long I am faced with temptation. I try my best to keep a lot of veggies and fruits around. When I go into the kitchen, I remind myself I am getting water or black coffee only. I grab a piece of fruit if I am hungry. It takes a lot of self-talk and always having better, low cal choices around. I am the most successful when I have a lot of veggies and fruits with me at work. It's easier to say no to chocolate when I have an apple around. It takes longer to eat as well!. I have had days where I've consumed400 cals worth of chocolate at once (5 fun size bars) and then basically not had enough cals left to be able to eat anything else for the rest of the day. I remind myself that I want cals left for the evening and how much better I'll feel at the end of the workday. I mean, really, having a couple chocolates a couple times a week doesn't seem bad BUT it totally messes me up and I am not sure it's worth it. I want more of it and those 80-160 additional cals each day I do it sure make a difference in my mood, my energy level, my hunger, etc. I struggle with depression and sugar is a NO-NO if I am going to avoid medication. But I still do it anyway, even if it's less often.

I also deal with a lot of food at work. My desk is in a high traffic area (one of the only ones in the office) so whenever someone brings in their baked goods (almost daily) they leave them on my desk so that more people can see them. I've just made it a rule that I NEVER eat any of it. It is easier for me to do that then to try to have "just one"

OK, A Snack room? Ick! Think about it this way, a bit gross, but probably more real than you think.

All of the other employees, have touched, sniffed, fondled, etc. all that stuff. And who knows what germs they have on their hands. Ick. Did they just sneeze, pick their nose, not wash in the restroom? Dig something out from between their teeth with a fingernail? And never mind the whole thing if they have kids that go to daycare or school, the greatest spreader of germs ever!

Then, who knows about the unhappy office worker who might be wiping nasty stuff on the snacks. EWW!

How long have you been there? I would guess that after a while the "new" will wear off and you won't be so tempted. Rice KRispie Treats are generally only 90-`100 cal for the snack-sized kind, so having one of those as a treat is really not so bad. 8 pop tarts, though- that's 1600 calories!! I mean, Pop-Tarts just aren't 1600 calories good!!

I think of my calories like money. At the beginning of the day, I have $15 (1500 calories) in my pocket. Personally, I know I want to save at least 600 for dinner and pre-bed sweet snack, so I try like heck not to spend too many calories on breakfast and lunch and stay full- like bargain hunting. Eggwhites are a huge bargain- 3 filling eggwhites are 50 calories! Chocolate is super expensive. Think about what good stuff you're going to have for dinner and how much you will regret having to forgo something delicious and satisfying if you eat all those poptarts instead. Poptarts may tempt me, but I find I have more resolve if I think that if I have a pop tart, I'll have to have soup for dinner to make up for it.

I have issues with this at work as well. I feel like I can control myself everywhere but at work. What I've found is that if I have a filling breakfast and lunch, that I can really stay in control at work too. I used to "plan ahead" and not eat breakfast or lunch so that I could eat crap at work, which is ridiculously unhealthy. I also make sure that I have a healthy snack at work that is similar to the bad things I could be eating. We have a lot of chocolate and cake, and I almost always have a Kashi peanutty dark chocolate bar with me, so I can still taste those sweet things, but I'm eating something that is pretty good for me.