But why is office food so irresistible? I have a few theories. First, I think part of it has to do with the fact that you're often stuck at work, at least I am, with no ability to leave or access any other form of sustenance. That means that this food is special because it doesn't have much competition. It's like if you were lost in the woods and all of a sudden you saw a Denny's in a nearby clearing. You wouldn't want to, but you'd devour you some Denny's.
Secondly, workplace food is tantalizing because it is almost always junk. No one puts spinach and quinoa on the counter in the break room with a sign that says "thanks for a great week, guys!", at least not where I work. Maybe in Seattle. Instead, it's all sugary crap that either the original owner put out because they "couldn't possibly have it sitting around their house after Halloween" or because they "just wanted to brighten the office morale up a bit". Yep, nothing says thank you like diabetes.
Lastly, it's free. To a mother of two with a husband in graduate school, free is pretty choice. If there's pizza in the office, it's pretty tempting to just eat that and save my packed lunch from home for tomorrow or for dinner. Also, people will take anything if it's free, even if they really don't want it or need it.
Of course office food is always well intentioned and it doesn't need to be a bad thing. I'm only being cynical for comedic effect. At the end of the day, the problem lies not with the office food, but with my lack of self control, which brings me to my day. Today was one of those "every single committee in the building had a meeting and here's all the leftover food" days. First, I sat through a 40 minute meeting with an entire container of chocolate chip cookies less than a foot away from me. Now, this is going to sound pathetic, but I only ate three and that took a lot of discipline and internal struggle. Sad, I know. Three should not be my "restrained" number, but had I not kept my goals in mind, I probably would've eaten the whole thing while my coworkers looked on in shock and horror.
After that meeting, I head to the office for some rousing photocopying and what do I see? Only this super delicious bread from this local Italian place. God, I love bread. Again, this is sad, but I held back and only ate two pieces. If I'm being honest with myself, I probably would've eaten at least three if not four pieces had I not been conscious of it. So what was about 600 calories of food between the cookies and the bread could've easily been double that without really any conscious thought.
I try to avoid the work place food trap, but I guess the truth is that you really can't. My homework isn't going to photocopy itself, and sometimes when I go into the office, food is going to be there, and it's okay. I just need to relearn how to be aware of the amount and type of food that I'm ingesting, and the temptation will become less insurmountable.
Other than that, today was fine goal-wise. I'm having a crazy busy week at work and Wednesday nights Greg has class, so I didn't get to workout or write (again), but I'm hoping to make up for it at least Friday and Saturday. Tonight was all kinds of baby chaos and by the time they were finally in bed at 9pm, I had to do dishes, write a note for my parents who are looking after the boys tomorrow, and blog. No energy for the grading I needed to do or anything else. This week is crazy hectic with work stuff and getting ready for the boys' party, so I'm hoping I'll be able to find more time in future weeks. This might be naive, but we shall see.
Weekly goal update for today...
- Ate 1,775 calories today (325 below goal! woot!)
- Was a little worse about my phone, but not awful. By the end of the night, I was so mentally and physically exhausted that I needed just a few minutes of cell phone zoning out before the boys fell asleep. Overall, I was much better than usual though.
- No writing (1,987 words left)
- No working out (5 miles left)
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