I'm an elementary school music teacher, and tomorrow will be my first day back at school after spring break. One of my health/weight-loss challenges is that in the lounge at my school, there is ALWAYS food to eat. People sign up for a week to bring treats, and aside from the occasional fruit and veggie tray, they are not usually the healthiest choices. I often eat one treat when others are in there, then sneak multiple other servings when no one is around. I need to BREAK THE PATTERN of eating when I'm in there. My goal for tomorrow might sound small to some, but is HUGE for me: to not eat any "lounge food" (has kind of a disgusting ring to it, doesn't it?).

I can't avoid the lounge entirely, as that's where the mailboxes are, and that's where teachers hang out during breaks and lunch, and I don't want to isolate myself. I know I'll just have to tough it out, which, when I've tried it in the past, has really ticked me off and/or made me cry out of frustration. (Try crying secretly in the bathroom for two minutes and then heading back to the classroom to sing happy little songs with young kids.) I'm trying to come up with a short phrase to repeat mentally (while breathing deeply) to keep me from eating while in there; something like "happy, healthy, and powerful" comes to mind.

Any tips from those of you facing similar situations? Oh, and I also plan to report back in tomorrow night to say how it went - just a little accountability there.

Thanks!

Hi IrishHarper.

I know what school staff rooms can be like. So you don't feel too deprived while watching others chow down, I would try taking something healthy to eat. Something time consuming to eat would probably be best - an orange or something would probably be good. Banish yourself from the lounge when it's not break time, as it sounds like your most tempted time is when you find yourself in there alone. Just check your mailbox when everyone else is around, rather than popping in at odd times. Don't do your prep in there, either, as you're more likely to be left alone with the goodies.

Good luck and be strong - you can do this!!

How about letting others know that you're avoiding the lounge food so that you have an extra measure of accountability and support?

It's hard, I know. The two ladies I work with are also dieting and sometimes one of us will have a "forget it!" day. When one caves and brings back cookies or cake after lunch, we all tend to follow and scarf up the bad stuff, then groan and scold ourselves.

Unless you're on a strict diet that would make the goodies off limits (like no sugar or wheat), maybe you could also allow yourself a little of the lounge food and build the calories into your daily count. You could take the portion you want to allow yourself for the day, then eat part of it at the time, and part of it later. No deprivation!

You could have your cake and eat it too! I did that recently - with my birthday cake. I sliced a very thin slice and scraped off most of the icing into the trash can before I sat down to eat it.

Hey! Good luck with avoiding the "lounge food." bleah.

For some people, telling others works--for others, it just brings unwanted attention. I'm in the latter category.

Beezneez, I've often seen women play that game you describe by which they all sort of reinforce the "bad" food behavior and then groan and scold themselves about it. It's really a form of group sabotage, don't you think?

Irishharper, hope you have a good report! But do check in either way.

Jay

I think we sort of get each other's "permission" to have the bad foods. If I were there by myself, I'd have a 30 second fit over wanting a cookie, tell myself "NO" and be over it. But if I voice that desire to my coworker, she'll say "Oh yeah. Me too." And then it's a back and forth game of "I will if you will" and we whip ourselves up into a cookie frenzy.

This, despite having an agreement to talk each other through cravings. *sigh*

Just look at the tray and say to yourself, "that pile of food is what I will be avoiding over one month if I ate one small thing off it every day"

oi, i understand your feelings. I also work at a school, for the most part i try to avoid the food by waiting until later to go into the staff room since most of the food is set up at a certain time and i know the rest of the staff will desend upon the food like hungry hyenas. If that doesn't work, i will take a little bit of what is offered, nibble it and throw the rest away. It's wasteful and it drives me nuts, but i feel like i'm not depriving myself if i take some, even if i don't eat it. hope this helps and good luck.

Ah, yes...the TEACHER"S LOUNGE! Very dangerous place that room! Responsible for many a pound added to this frame over the years! Let's relieve a bit of stress and pop a brownie in on the way to the mailbox. Let's pop another one on the way out. Ah, yes! I KNOW the drill!

For me it was hardly ever that I was HUNGRY when I had that (insert calorie-ridden goodie here) or when I had the next or the next! I realize that now. For me it was all about me using food to try to relieve the stress that went with the teaching!

I never was very successful with the Teacher's Room Food Fest UNTIL I came up with ways to deal with my stress that DID NOT involve eating FOOD.

Here are some of my stress-relievers that I used:

1) I drank water to hydrate myself. Schools tend to be dry, and hydrating myself helped A LOT. I encouraged my children to have water bottles at their desks, too.

2) I wrote myself encouraging notes and stuck them all over (on my desk, in my planbook, IN MY MAILBOX IN THE TEACHER'S LOUNGE, etc. Things I wrote were, "You lost five pounds so far this month! It happened because you let someone else eat the stuff on the table in the lounge!" and "Remember all that walking you did? Don't blow it with a donut in ten seconds!"

3) I buddied up with other teachers who also wanted to avoid the snacking frenzy. We would encourage one another and even warn one another that there were tempting treats in there. Somehow being PREPARED for it helped us better guard against shoving it in our mouths! Knowing what to expect helped me deal with the stress of thinking, "Ooooooo! Wonder what will be in there today?!"

4) Yoga! The breathing techniques really help relieve stress! Just breathing in air and taking a few minutes to center myself can make a world of difference!

5) Playing soothing music in the classroom during creative writing time, indoor recess time, morning time when everyone is coming in or end-of-the-day time is SOOOOO helpful! It relieves stress for the kids as well! I got the CDs from those kiosks in Target or Bed, Bath and Beyond where they have the buttons that you push to try out all the different CDs.

6) I have several stress balls and would use them and let children use them, too, if they needed them. It's amazing how helpful it is to relieve stress!

7) We had stretch times and dance times after reading groups in the morning and before we started math. Movement reduces stress!

8) I always kept apples, peanut butter, and instant oatmeal on my shelf so that I had something to stave off hunger throughout the day. It's amazing how just having a little something really helps you AND the children feel better. We had a morning and and afternoon snack, and the parents reported that their children were eating better, healthier foods and were less hungry for junk before dinnertime. That was a stress-reliever for ALL of us!

Hope some of these help! Good Luck!

Cheryl

Even the office lounge. In order to get to the kitchen for tea or to nuke my lunch, whatever, you had to go past the lunch table...where people placed donuts and bagels and the boss' wife's leftover pies from the bakery customer she had. ::sigh:: I would studiously avoid looking down at the table as I marched past, or I'd fill up with water or a healthy snack before going that way. Then I'd find an empty office to eat my lunch in rather than at that table.

I feel ya! -

I'm responsible for "getting the monthly birthday cakes" - once a month, I get two birthday cakes (icecream during the summer!) for everyone who is celebrating a birthday in that month, and many others who come by to say "Happy Birthday" & get a piece of cake. I HAVE TO SERVE IT. Do you know how HARD that can be??? Constantly getting icing on my fingers, etc. It's TOUGH.

Sometimes I allow myself to have some cake. Most times it's an itty bitty piece. But that always seems to leave me wanting MOREMOREMORE. And you know, I could easily live without the cake, but I could dive head first into some buttercreme icing! Sweets are one of my downfalls, & it's easier *for me* to stay away altogether than try to have a little & then back off. The LAST time it happened, I nearly dropped a cake on the floor, & I caught it with my free hand... I had that yummy icing allllllll over my hand (even embedded into my ring & bracelet.... uh-oh!) ..... so I quickly fixed the cake as best I could then licked my hand CLEAN. Of course then I washed my hand. But that icing taste was in my mouth. That afternoon, when no one was looking, I had FOUR pieces of cake. Tiny little pieces.... but FOUR nonetheless.

Yup. It's easier *for me* to just stay away from it altogether.

I am also an elementary school teacher. Every week, almost daily, there are treats in the lounge, baked goods, etc. Plus, there is a huge box of candy bars that you pay for on the honor system.
I have found I simply cannot eat in there. I eat in my office while I'm reading this site and using fitday.com. On days I feel the need for company, I walk the parking lot perimeter with a friend who can usually be found there. Or I email other friends or my sister.
The lounge would break me, I'm afraid. The usual topics of conversation among the staff (and I am the only heavy one of the bunch) are food and food and dieting!
Do whatever you need to do to stay strong!
Lisa

I have a mantra for that situation:

I adopt the idea that that is "their" food. It's not mine, so I can't have it. It is for people who either do not care about what they eat or do not need to watch what they eat as carefully as I do. It belongs to THOSE people, not me, so I can't eat any.

If I still feel tempted, I remind myself of two things: First, if I broke down and had a cookie or whatever, it's not so much the damage that one cookie would do but the fact that it might trigger additional overeating that's the problem. I want to avoid being triggered even more than I want to avoid the extra calories from the cookie. Second, after being on a program for so long, I've come to be something of a snob about food. I'm a good cook, and I really prefer high-quality food. If I'm going to eat a treat, I want it to be worth it -- a real, gourmet, fresh, well-made treat. I can pretty easily ignore typical candy, supermarket bakery goop full of fillers, and a lot of other junk food. Even other people's "homemade" stuff doesn't tempt me that much because few people cook well and cook from scratch. I've never really liked slice-n-bake cookies and frosting from a can, and I like them even less so now. So, it's the rare breakroom spread that really tempts me if I stop and think about it for 10 seconds.

Another good strategy is delaying. If you go into the break room and there's something that's really calling your name, tell yourself that if you still really want it at the NEXT break, you can have a little. By the time the next break rolls around, you will probably find that you survived without it just fine and the spell is broken. It may have even been eaten up by the others!

Someone else I know simply doesn't eat "free" food. Anything that she did not provide for herself is simply off limits.

I know that spreads like that are tempting, and they were for me for a long time. But, once you adopt a philosophy like one of the above and you practice it for a while, it'll get to where you barely notice it, I promise. You just have to be consistent and keep a positive attitude. The more you mourn it and whine about it, the longer you'll want it. But, if you talk to yourself POSITIVELY about not eating it, it'll become a blip on the radar, even undesirable after a while.

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions and encouragement. I succeeded in not eating any "lounge food" today! At one point I thought "well, I could just have one cookie, maybe I can stop there", and then I remembered that I'd committed to reporting back here tonight . . . . so maybe this forum is really going to be helpful to me!

I'm going for it again tomorrow.

Congratulations!! That was quite an accomplishment. Just take it one day at a time...if you could do it today, you can do it tomorrow!

I'm a nurse and we have the same problem. There is always someone bringing in food. Sometimes it's the patients families, sometimes the doctors, some times it's the other people that work there. You gotta face the fact, there is always going to be food around that you shouldn't have! Yes, it's hard to resist. And yes, you know you have to. We get some of the most imcredable chocolate sometimes, and gourmet cookies. And don't forget the chocolate covered strawberries!!! And we have pot lucks all the time. The solution that works for me is, I have some. I will take my time, decide exactally which piece of candy or cookie I want, and eat it slowly and enjoy every bite. If it's not "the best" I just go some place private and spit it out. I look at it and ask myself "is this worth the calories? Usually it's not.
You have to decide what important to you. Get a cup of coffee or a water and sit down away from the food, or leave the room if you really can't resist.