I'm currently working on the set of a movie, which is awesome and I love, but craft services is set up by someone who, I swear, must be a 10 year old!

All that's there is candy, pop and salty snacks. Every so often someone brings by fruit of veggies but those get snapped up pretty fast because everyone else is so sick of the sugar and salt.

I'm having the hardest time keeping away from the candy! I must have had about 20 little mini snickers and milky ways today! I had about 10 kit-kats too. Not to mention some red vines, nerds, and laffy taffy. I just couldn't stop, which is strange for me.

And then I had 2 cheese quesadillas, which are homemade so not awful for you, but I wasn't really hungry when I ate them I just ate to eat. And since I'm listing, 3 pieces of this bread they brought for breakfast (which was almost dripping fat). Way too much for how little work I was doing.

I wouldn't mind that list if it wasn't for all the candy! Cut that out and it's not a bad day foodwise. But sadly there they are.

But I have managed to stay away from pop totally (with about 3 or 4 times when I gave in) and only drink water so I guess that counts for something.

It's so hard to eat right when the right kind of food just isn't around. I'm on set for 12 hours a day so it's hard to really bring anything. Ack! I know I just have to keep myself on a short leash and just say out of the craft services room but it's so hard!

Chocolate is my downfall!

And I guess I should be happy that other than that I have an awesome really fun job that I love (although I'm not actually getting paid, which sucks). But I just had to vent, and hopefully keeping announcing to the world how much I ate will keep me in check.

I think I'm going to have to write down everything, as annoying and semi-humiliating as it might be. That's the best way for me to keep myself in check I know.

Sorry, just had to rant for a bit.

I commiserate. The entertainment industry is full of skinny people and bad food. I don't get it, but I can definitely relate. Ironic how the healthy stuff is always the first to go...

Haha I feel you. I work in a nursery at a church, and the snacks they buy are ALL junk. Makes me so sad for the kids! It's hard not to graze on the sugary spiderman cereal, or the movie theatre butter popcorn, chips, homemade cakes brought by somedays, Hawaiian punch, the Cheez-Itz, etc etc. Just stay strong!! You can escape the chocolate prison lol.

I frequently face similar problems. My job requires me to attend a lot of business conferences and you'd be surprised, but these things are often sugar orgies. The last one I was at served ten different kinds of cake--I counted (carrot cake, black forest cake, cheesecake, German chocolate cake, mocha cake, devils's food cake, some sort of three-layer torte, there were so many I can't remember the rest), large chocolate chip cookies dipped in chocolate, AND Haagen Daaz ice cream bars (and none of the light ones, either).

I find that attitude is critically important. I go to each event with the attitidue that I am not going to eat the breakfast pastries or any of the desserts. Then when I'm there and I see all the desserts, I have to admit that my first instinct is always that I have to have a dessert. I just have to have it! When I have that reaction (which I've now come to anticipate), I take a deep breath and ask myself why--why do I have to have the dessert? I try to remind myself that I don't have to eat dessert to enjoy the conference and that this is not my only opportunity to have dessert. I can go to the store and buy myself dessert anytime I want. Reminding myself that eating dessert is not critical to my experience and that this is not my only opportunity to have dessert usually helps me resist. I can't say that it works all the time, but it helps a lot. And at least if I do give in, I've made a conscious decision about it instead of just eating mindlessly.

The other thing I do is drink a lot of decaf coffee. I love coffee so it's a treat. And it keeps my hands busy and gives me something to put in my mouth. Not sure if the craft service offers coffee or if you like it, but beverages can be a great strategy for avoiding snacking when you aren't hungry but are just snacking cause the food is there.

I hope you don't mind that I responded since I'm not a 20-something, but I thought my experience might be helpful.

Are you a regular in the film industry? I'm a film major in school, and any and all food on sets are crap. I hate it. If its a student film (as most of the ones I work on are) its always burritos or pizza or chinese, and the one movie I've done that had proper craft services had complete crap for food! We ended up ordering out most days anyway.

The only solution I can give is packing your own lunch, I suppose. Stinks to have to do more work in the mornings when you're getting up far too early anyway, but still...

Hey - I'm also in film - here is how I combat it.
1) STAY AWAY FROM CRAFTY
2) this means stay busy on set (really helps when you are in a key position - DP, AD, Director) not as easy (makeup, costume, grip) - maybe find another place from crafty to congregate and chat.
3) STAY BUSY
4) drink lots of water - on set I allow myself Diet coke - this helps
5) talk to the crafty people - tell them you are unhappy with the choices - the reason for crafty is to make people happy - not the other way around. Make sure when it is your set to have healthy choices and good food.
(maybe take itt upon yourself to be crafty - if its a student project - they are always looking for help with this.)

the end

OH, that's so hard! I usually am good about having the willpower to not buy junk food, but when it's in front of me like that? I have a really hard time resisting.

You DO have a cool job though

Thanks guys!

It's not a student film, but it is an indie film, I'm art department so that does give me a decent amount of stuff to do, but it's still a movie set, so most of the time you're waiting around.

Although I did have to set up a scene full of dead rats today, that helped me not eat. Actually, just thinking about that will help me avoid cravings for the rest of my life I think.

Student films (the ones I work on) are about the same as indie films - maybe a little less money - but prob the same production value - same comrodery etc just KEEP BUSY talk play - read harry potter - comes out in a few days

hehe. you do good art department stuff? coming out to LA???

B

i hear ya!!!

jobs can have HUGE diet pitfalls!

i'm an ICU nurse - there are always people bringing in cake and chocolate and all sorts of goodies for us ! you dont always have time to eat but a plate full of cookies on the nurses station are so easy to grab while walking by!!!

--- if you are in the hospital and want to treat the nursing staff -- send fruit baskets!! haha!

I work in the endocrinology section of a hospital which includes diabetes and nurtition in our department and you wouldn't believe the junk that we get here. The drug reps are constantly bringing in lunches and breakfast (almost everyday); there is only one rep that always brings something healthy. The rest bring in pasta w/ creamy sauce, pizza, cookies, pasteries, cakes, etc. I can't believe the sugar when we're promoting diabetes education! Its so hard to resist sometimes because they always put the leftovers on a table next to my desk. I try to think about how long something has been sitting out and it makes it a lot less appealing to me.

My stepbrother was in a motorcycle accident 2 weeks ago that left him paralyzed and his SICU staff was just incredible. Of course, the first thing we are thinking of to give them as a "thanks" is cookies or something, but I could just as easily send a fruit platter. Does fruit go over just as well as cookies?