Thursday, September 22, 2011

Eating 9 to 5

The hardest place to maintain your plan to eat healthy is probably at work.  This is kind of a problem if a good chunk of the day is spent at work.  Unless I bring my own food, the photo above shows my only option if I happen to get hungry.  Gee-dunk machines, offering a variety of overpriced crap guaranteed to leave you still feeling hungry, a bit poorer, and maybe a little nauseous.  The candy machine offers everything from popcorn to Pop-Tarts.  At the very bottom are a few selections of gum and off-brand mints that have probably been there since the $1.25 candy bars sold for a quarter.  You can wash it all down with an ice-cold can of high fructose corn syrup infused water...or just get a bottle of plain water for a slightly higher cost.

For me it's critical to take, not only lunch, but something healthy to snack on through the day as well.  Stuff like fruit, cottage cheese, yogurt, maybe nuts....anything but the calorie dense but nutritionally sparse fare I might find in a machine.  Experience has shown me that when I don't have anything brought from home and I get that urge to munch....and I always do....those machines look mighty tempting.  I can convince myself that a bag of pretzels is healthy, that a Reese's Cup has protein so it's not so bad, or just plain out say I'm hungry and screw the diet.

I avoid the temptation by carrying my own food.  It means that I have to haul a cooler to work.  It also means that I have to make time in the morning to pack all the food I want to eat during the day.   Still....probably the best way I've learned to avoid using the machines is to make sure I don't have any money in my pockets which, considering my profession, is not all that hard to do.

3 comments:

Boyd said...

Oh you should see my table behind my desk. I have it filled up with two different types of protein which by the way I'm still loving Syntha 6. I have oatmeal, packs of tuna (not in can) the packs so I can open right up and eat if I get urge. Packages of ready whole grain rice that you can just pop in the microwave and eat with the tuna :D You're doing so good Jay Keep it up

Unknown said...

You could always pack your lunch and snackies the night before! Or when you buy your cottage cheese and whatnot just portion it all out into containers so you can grab and go.

Luckily (or unluckily)I work in a restaurant so I snack on pickles and the occasional french fry. And I'm to the point where I'm sick of the food there so I rarely eat at work anymore. So then of course I am starving by the time I get home......

Anonymous said...

I own a vending machine company. We depend on people like you to keep us in business. Please stop bringing your lunch to work :)