When I turned 40, my weight (on my 6 foot 1 inch frame) had ballooned to 237. Recognizing that a slowing metabolism and an aging body were only going to accelerate my decline into obesity, I decided to do something about it.
That something was biking to work and adopting a low carb diet. I've stuck with it, the weight came off, reaching a low of 185. Besides losing fat I also toned up, adding muscle. I'm currently about 195 and would like to lose the fat I still have around my middle and get back down closer to the mid 180s.
My willpower is not the best and I avoided temptations to stray off plan when I worked at home by not bringing anything bad to eat into the house.
Now that I'm back in an office, my co-workers have conspired to fatten me up as if I were Hansel or Gretal sitting in a cage sticking a twig out so the witch will think I'm thin and keep feeding me (am I remembering that right?).
Every birthday we have a cake. And not some cake off the assembly line at Giant. This is a gourmet cake of immense proportions, often with creamy cheese icing that is a personal favorite. Despite the fact that we are a small company it seems there is a birthday EVERY week. Hell, we had it twice one week because the owner of the company was gone for someone's birthday and the decision was made to have a second cake so boss man didn't feel left out.
On top of that, every week, sometimes twice, management orders out for pizza, or Chinese. On Valentine's Day someone brought in homemade heart shaped cookies with the tantalizing cream cheese icing with red sugar sprinkles. And earlier in the week someone else brought in chocolate chip cookies that are made fresh daily in the cafe in the building's basement.
And just when I thought it was safe, someone snuck a bowl full of M&Ms with cute little hearts on them into the kitchen.
Enough with the sugar and fat, people!
If I have to go near the company kitchen I repeat my mantra "what you don't eat you don't have to burn off." I'm thinking of bringing a scale into the office. Not that I would weigh myself here, but just to have it stare menacingly at me if I even think about plopping a dollop of creamy cheese icing in my mouth.
Oh hell, that cookie just looks too good to pass up. Liposuction, anyone?
1 comment:
I've encountered that same issue in a few offices I've been in. Sometimes the only way to attain change in such habits is to initiate it. Maybe you can suggest that birthdays be jointly celebrated only once a month to save on time and costs.
Additionally, I've talked some of my staff in places to restricting lunch in the office to staff meeting days and make it more of a pot luck where I can impress them with delightful dishes that are healthier than the catered stuff.
In any case, the people have to be measured up to find what will appeal to them and then the coercion of coalitions to make it happen is always a challenge.
Best of luck with the food challenges and hope you have a nice weekend!
-C
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