Many of us, especially those of us who have sedentary desk jobs or are not as active as we should be, might be carrying a little extra weight around our midsections, thighs, arms - you name it, there's probably some flab on it.
In an office environment especially, as I had worked in for a few years now, a lot more eating goes on than one would think. Doughnuts for Karen's birthday, bagels for Steven's; a beloved client brings in cake, cookies and candies as a gesture of gratitude. In order to get through the grueling 8-hour work day, we reward ourselves with these treats as "well-deserved" restitution for our efforts: in other words, we eat it because it's right in front of us. Then we wonder why we gain a pound or so here and there.
Through my own experiences, I've seen this happen to myself and it makes me incredibly frustrated. As a person who dreads seeing the inches build up, I've come up with some ways to battle the office-munchies. Tried and true, these have worked just great for me - even with indulging in a bagel and cream cheese every once in a while.
For those of us who reach for our cookie-and-chip stash in the bottom drawer of our desks... I have discovered a few surprisingly simple solutions to this problem. While of course anything in bulk will be bad for you, there are healthy substitutes. 90 and 100 calorie packs are becoming increasingly popular and almost every snack-food brand carries them now. If you've got a sweet tooth, there are miniature substitutes for our favorite chocolate chip, cream-filled, shortbread and alphabet cookies. For salt and chip fanatics, you can buy miniature Doritos, cheese crackers, pretzels and potato chips. While one would think that for 90 or 100 calories per bag, only 5 or 6 cookies and a couple of very broken chips would be included.
However, this is not the case at all. Inside the majority of these bags are between 10 and 20 small cookies, and an average of 20 chips, which, even though they will not give you the feeling of being full (which you don't exactly want from eating cookies and chips anyway), it will give the illusion that you've had more to eat. And at 100 calories or less each, burning the calories in an office environment shouldn't be too difficult (it can take anywhere from 2-4 hours to fully burn 100 calories if you live a mostly sedentary lifestyle - again, that depends on just how sedentary you are). You can pick these up in any grocery store in the snack foods aisle.
Here is another tip that I use almost every day at work. Purchase a box of cereal bars - the kind with the crust on the outside and the fruit purée on the inside (I like the Sunbelt brand personally, but any brand will do). When you decide you want a cookie, take one of these cereal bars and put it in your office-kitchen's refrigerator. Go on about your business and in about 10 minutes, if you're still hungry, take the chilled cereal bar from the fridge, take a plastic utensil and divide into a few pieces and eat it that way, rather than just taking bites out of the whole thing. This tends to help make it last longer, so you're less likely to reach for another one a few minutes later. I've found that this trick is a perfect substitute for Fig Newtons!
Instead of reaching for coffee or tea, grab a cup of ice water or bring your own plastic water bottle with you and drink from it all day. While you may think that the caffeine burst from coffee or tea will help perk you up throughout the day, the effects of the caffeine are temporary and wear off in about 30 minutes. Caffeine also, for a lot of people, does not help with focus and often makes a person less productive. Now, I'm not knocking coffee and tea; they're my second and third beverages of choice. But by drinking ice water, not only will it hydrate you and help keep you feel less sluggish, but the coldness will be a jolt to your senses and will help wake you up. If you drink it continuously throughout the day it will help to curb your appetite and if this is made part of a regular and continuous routine, it can help improve your skin. Water is a miracle element, it works wonders. So keep drinking it throughout the day, and if it means a few extra quick trips to the bathroom, so be it.
Be sure to eat a filling breakfast. Breakfast, especially in American society is usually overlooked - we rush around too much, especially in the morning before leaving for work. Now when I say eat breakfast, I do not mean grab a breakfast bar or a muffin on your way out the door; nor do I mean grabbing the complimentary doughnuts or bagels on display when you arrive at the office. No, what I mean is a balanced meal in the morning that will hold you over for at least 3 hours. But there's a problem - you do not have much in the morning, let alone any to spare for cooking; nor do you want to wake up earlier to leave extra time for breakfast. Well, never fear! I have two great solutions that will get you fed and out the door in less than 10 minutes every day.
Option 1
Invest in instant oatmeal, and 3-minute farina. These are great, hearty and healthy, and take no time to prepare at all. Don't worry about dirtying pots and pans either, or waiting for water to boil - both of these can be made in the microwave. Not a big fan of oatmeal? Find it bland and tasteless? Well I recently realized that the Quaker company offers individual packets of flavored oatmeals, ranging from apple cinnamon to blueberry, and all of them are delicious. They can be found in the cereal aisle at any grocery store, and the best things about these individualized packets are that they can be taken to work with you if you're in a rush and eaten there; also, as with the 100 calorie packs, the amount you're eating is controlled helping you to practice eating in moderation.
Option 2
This option is best if you want to feel like you have really eaten a "meal" with variety. Pick up a bag of whole wheat hamburger buns, or some whole wheat/whole grain bread (for those who don't want to make that sudden of a change from white bread to whole grain, whole-white options are available both for buns and bread) from the grocery store. In the morning, put some peanut-butter (no jelly, just the peanut-butter) on the bun, or between two slices of whole wheat bread. Rinse off about two handfuls of the fruit of your choice and eat it alongside the miniature "sandwich" you've made. To wash it all down, drink a small glass of milk - anything will do, except for whole milk; the fat content it just a bit too high. If you're a real lover of whole milk, however, and aren't ready to make the switch to a lower percentage, simply drink a half glass of whole milk, or water down the whole milk slightly. Without even realizing it, you've just had a very basic balanced meal - every nutritional food group is represented, and this is a great way to give your metabolism a kick-start in the morning.
Option 3
Most importantly, schedule your snack-breaks carefully throughout the day. If you let yourself get up and have a snack every hour or so, even if the snacks are small and healthy, you are consuming more calories than you are burning off (unless you work in an active office environment, do a lot of heavy lifting, etc). However, snacks are needed to keep a person's blood sugar up and prevent them from getting midday sluggishness, so take a look at your work schedule and then plan accordingly. I've worked both part time and full time, so to give an example I'll describe my eating habits at work:
- Part time (5 hour work-day, starting at 9am ending at 2pm - no lunch break): 10:30am - chilled cereal bar; 12:30pm - a snack of fruit such as dried apricots, fresh strawberries, cherries, an apple or whatever fruit is in season. I sometimes replace fruit with a 100 calorie pack of my choice. Throughout the day I drink water, filling up my cup or bottle as soon as it's empty.
- Full time (8 hour work-day, starting at 9am ending at 5pm - 1 hour lunch break): 11:15am - chilled cereal bar; 12pm-1pm - lunch, usually a turkey and swiss-cheese sandwich or, if I go home for lunch, a very small portion of leftovers; 3:15pm - 100 calorie pack of popcorn. Again, I drink water all throughout the day. With these small snacks I feel energized and my appetite is controlled and satisfied.
These are just a few tips to a healthier lifestyle. Sedentary jobs may take up most of your day and not leave much time for exercise, but small steps to eating better can help to keep you from packing on those unwanted pounds that creep up on you as a result of negative eating habits at work!