Weight Gain Traps at Work

Not all workplaces are healthy. From the ever-present candy dish to late nights with no dinner, work sometimes is a decidedly difficult place for the person who is striving to embrace a healthful lifestyle. The following tips might help.

Too tired to exercise or prepare food

Are you sometimes too tired to exercise or prepare food after you get home from a long day at work?

Here are some possible solutions:

·   Bring your exercise clothes with you to work, so that you do not need to make an extra trip home before going for that walk or hitting the gym

·   Split your routine up, so that you do half of it in the morning and half of it after work

·   Wear a pedometer all day, even at work, and make walking 10,000 steps/day your goal

·   Devote a couple of hours to creating several meals that you can freeze and thaw out when you are just too tired to make a meal from scratch

·   Keep the staples of several easy-to-prepare meals always on hand, such as whole-wheat pizza crusts or pasta, grilled chicken strips, etc

·   Keep a list of several “throw together” meals that you have purchased the ingredients for, so that you do not even need to think about what you could possibly do with that frozen spinach, for instance

·   Go ahead and buy a few frozen low-fat meals, but make some additions of your own, such as adding broccoli to that low-fat fettuccine Alfredo or some pineapple and mandarin oranges to that sweet-and-sour chicken dish

 

Parties at work

Does it seem like someone is always throwing some kind of party—a baby shower, birthday party, special event in the cafeteria, etc?

Here are some possible solutions:

·   Offer to bring something healthful, such as a lower-fat alternative to the traditional pizza and cake menu

·   Always eat before the parties to avoid the temptation to satisfy your hunger with a large piece of cake

·   Survey all of the offerings before choosing the one or two items that you most want to try

·   Try to limit yourself to one work party per week; send your apologies for the others

Eating at your desk

Do you end up eating at your desk more often than not in order to save time and get more work done?

Here are some possible solutions:

·   Buy snacks and meals with portion-control built into them—individual packages are important because it is easy to eat much more than you intended when you are focused on something else

·   Consider changing the time of your lunch:

•  Try and eat your lunch at a time that is usually less hectic for you—no one says you must eat the midday meal at noon

•  Ask your supervisor, if necessary, if you can schedule your lunch break at a different time

·   Consider taking several snacks or small meals to work and breaking your lunch time up, if you do not think you can spare 30 minutes away from your work—instead, spend 10-minute periods focusing on and enjoying your food

 

Business lunches and dinners

Is one of your job duties to take clients, vendors, or others to business lunches or dinners?

 Here are some possible solutions:

·   Always order soup or salad as a starter, so that you are not ravenous by the time your order comes

·   Look at the menu online or have it faxed to you beforehand, so that you have a chance to look it over and choose a few healthier options before the meal

·   Download the US Dept of Agriculture’s What’s in the Foods You Eat search tool at http://www.ars.usda.gov/services/docs.htm?docid=7783, so that you can easily pull up the nutritional information on thousands of foods at your computer

·   Watch out for those sugar-laden drinks, which often are as detrimental to your health as the main course