Treats in the Office Kitchen

One of the biggest challenges that makes staying on track with healthy eating difficult during the holidays is what dieters find when they walk into their office kitchens.  The fact of the matter is, it often seems like there is extra (tempting) food everywhere during the holidays, but the office kitchen is definitely one of the biggest culprits.  We’re not going to sugar-coat this (no pun intended): managing the office kitchen during the holidays is difficult but it absolutely can be done with three key elements:

1. A really good plan
2. Strategies to put that plan into action
3. Extra determination

The first part of managing the office kitchen is having a plan.  For most dieters, it almost never works to just “wing it” (meaning, go into a situation without a firm plan and with the thought that they’ll just figure it out when the time comes) but this is especially true during the holidays. When there are so many extra temptations around, having a clear plan is critical.  When making a plan for treats at the office, it’s important that your plan is both reasonable and realistic.  If your plan is too restrictive or unreasonable, then ultimately you won’t be able to follow it anyway and will likely end up throwing it out the window and eating way more than you would have, had you made a more reasonable plan that you were able to stick with.

Some of our clients have plans such as: one reasonable treat a day from the office kitchen; one treat every Friday; one treat every other day; etc.  A plan that we, ourselves, use and that many of our clients have since adopted is this: no treats from the office kitchen ever (unless it’s an office party).  If there’s something in there we really want, we take a portion home and have it after dinner. This plan works so beautifully for us.  It makes it so much easier to resist treats at work because we’re able to remind ourselves, “It’s not that I’m not having this food, I’m just not having it right now. But I absolutely can have it later, and when I do, I’ll be able to really enjoy it fully without guilt.”  It also works well because we only bring home one portion at a time so even if we really want more when we’ve finished, there’s no more to be had!

Once you have your plan, you then need strategies to help you stick to it.  One extremely helpful strategy is to make Response Cards for any sabotaging thoughts you think you’re likely to have about sticking to your plan.  Here are some sample sabotaging thoughts and Response Cards.

Sabotaging Thought: It’s okay just this one time to not stick to my office holiday treats plan.

Sabotaging Thought: I’m going to eat this unplanned treat because I just don’t care.

Sabotaging Thought: It’s too hard to stick to my plan.

Sabotaging Thought: It’s okay to eat [this unplanned treat] because everyone else is.

Just making Response Cards and looking at them every once in a while is probably not good enough during the holidays.  Once you have your cards, it’s important to start reading them every day, at least once a day, as a matter of course. Doing so will start cementing these helpful thoughts in your head. In addition to reading them once a day, consider reading them again during difficult moments at work. If, for example, you know that 4:00 is a vulnerable time for you, set an alarm on your phone and read your cards again every day at 3:45.  Or if you know going into the office kitchen to get your lunch puts you in direct contact with tempting treats, read your cards right before venturing into the kitchen.

Another strategy that can be helpful in dealing with office treat cravings is to have distractions at the ready.  Remember that cravings really are like itches in that the more you pay attention to them, the worse they get. The moment you get really distracted is the moment the craving goes away. Having a list of distracting activities to try when a craving strikes can help you even more quickly turn your attention to something else.  Some potential distractions are: take a walk, go talk to a co-worker, call a friend or family member, write an email to someone, check news or sports headlines, look at social media, do a crossword puzzle or Sudoku puzzle, read your Response Cards, read a blog post, online shop, and so on.

You may also want to pay attention to how long your cravings actually last. Most of the dieters we work with tell us that their cravings usually last somewhere between three to fifteen minutes.  Even if your craving lasts a full fifteen minutes, it will eventually go away.  Seeing how long they last can help you remind yourself that the discomfort is temporary, and that you’re only x minutes away from success.

We know that office treats are tough to handle, but the more you work on it, the better you will get.  Make a plan, make Response Cards, and have distractions ready.  Then you’ll be ready to do battle and win!