Alleviating work boredom with food
 

When I was in grad school I lost 20lbs because I could mix up my day with walking and various activities. Now I'm in a 9 to 5 job that can get monotonous and I've been eating out of boredom. We have free snacks at work and it's so hard to resist. I've been trying to drink tea instead, but it hasn't been stopping me. I've put on 10 lbs in two months. Any ideas of how to work around this?

P.S. I'm going to talk to my supervisor tomorrow about making my job a little bit more challenging.

Sounds like a good start... talk to your boss. With the right job, you won't have to think so much about food. Otherwise, just keep exercising and make yourself only eat at meals (chew gum inbetween) or allow 1 snack.

Things like miso soup, broth, or celery can also be good. Keeps your mouth busy without excess calories. It is still best to break the boredom eating habit, but you can go a long way just mitigating damage, too!

Are there some lower calorie snacks you could bring in for yourself so you can still munch without doing too much caloric damage?

I do this all the time! My office job isn't at all challenging and I frequently feel "hungry" when really I'm just bored. I can't keep snacks at my desk or else I will eat the whole box. We get free food a lot but I've been pretty good about resisting temptation.

How about chewing gum whenever the urge strikes? I also like to lie to myself. I tell myself that if I can stay away from whatever temptations are around, I'll reward myself with one treat meal over the weekend. I'm happy when I can skip that treat meal and see the scale go down. I hope you figure this out soon.

Sometimes for me I just want to have the food so I have the option. So if there's some snack out that I am really "hungry" for, I'll grab one and stick it somewhere that I'll forget about it eventually.

Then I have it, so my brain stops pushing me to go get one before they're gone, but I can just toss it later.

I do not do this when I feel like I'll just go eat the snacks I put away.

Use the stairs instead of taking the elevators. Walk small distances instead of having a ride. Those are examples of small things that will help you keep your self physically active.

I chew Dentyne Ice (cinnamon) or Big Red - that flavor seems to stop some mindless snacking. Also, brushing my teeth. But of course there are those times when I just WANT it, even tho I KNOW I'm NOT hungry, and those are the dangerous times (for me). Sometimes it helps me to say (outloud!) "Nah, I don't want that." If someone hears me saying I don't want it, then it's like a "food police" situation where I'll look really stupid (& piggy! :ink: :o ) if I eat it after I said I didn't want it.

Try branching out your tea flavours too. Right now my favourite is Red Velvet Cake tea. It's fabulous and I find, because it's such a unique flavour, that I would rather have a cup of it than the silly store-bought cookies my co-workers buy to share with everyone. I swear by tea-drinking. It's really helped keep the cravings to a minimum for me. Try online tea stores (my favourite is DavidsTea but Teavana is good too).