Seriously, I never noticed before how much I'm surrounded by bad food options here at work. I recently moved across campus to a new office (work at a college) with a new group of people and the amount of bad food offered to me is INSANE!

The minefield in the past two weeks alone:

Week 1
- Someone brought bagels and donuts in for everyone on not one occasion, but THREE.
- We celebrated someone's b-day one day with chocolate cake w/sugar-lard frosting (my description )
- On another occasion someone brought in 2 dozen cookies to share
- Someone else brought 2 lbs of taffy back from Cape Cod and handed it out
- A colleague brought me back a HUGE Guinness chocolate bar from Ireland

Week 2
- More bagels and donuts brought in one day
- Fudge another day
- Another b-day with banana cream pie & fruit tart
- Dept. retreat day 1: Cobb salad (good choice, brought my own dressing), with enormous fluffy rolls, chips galore, gigantic brownies, cookies the size of my head and little coffee cakes and coffee with 2% milk (no 1/2 & 1/2)
- Dept. retreat day 2: breakfast of bagels and donuts (!#@$%!#@%), lunch of pizza, dessert of more brownies, more cookies and ice cream
- All-campus picnic (NOTHING I could eat): salad w/maple balsamic vinaigrette already applied, curry rice dish with little bits of sweetened turkey, bean burgers, bison chili (sweetened w/tons of beans), and dessert of Ben & Jerry peace pops.

I have not indulged in any of this. But Friday at this all-campus picnic I just lost it. I was angry that I could eat NOTHING at this event. The menu advertising it said there'd be smoked turkey legs and hamburgers. The only turkey I saw was cooked in maple syrup and cut up in the rice dish. The only burgers I saw were bean burgers. Even the salad was tainted with sugars, something I've never seen done before at a college event. I'm glad I have willpower, and I do not feel tempted by this junk, but MAN, is it overwhelming or what?!?!

Anyone else feel like they're walking a minefield?



~Susan

Yeah, I remember feeling that way, too, Susan! The best thing you can do is bring your own low-carb snacks to eat on when NOTHING is healthy. This gives you a virtual way to FLY OVER all that crap so you stay committed to your low-carb lifestyle. Let others get fat and sick. You're living better!

It's not so much willpower, but a steadfast resolve to make better choices. THREE CHEERS FOR LOW-CARB!!!!

When I was a "wage slave" as opposed to a slave to my own business, I wouldn't even enter the break room when we had employee parties or lunches. Nothing like walking around looking at TONS of food and realizing there was nothing there I could eat.

Susan---my fellow nurses here can attest to the fact that a nurses station is loaded with junk to eat all the time----someone was always doing something---now for years I was a very brittle diabetic---before losing the weight---cookies and cakes were everywhere---one Christmas I ended up in the ER with a blood sugar reading of 700 from eating all the junk there


good for you in staying true to yourself at the picnic---

I am with you sister! When at work, there is constant temptation. People always want to show us gratitude by bringing baked goods, and the like. Also, both of my paid jobs, EMS and dispatcher, people are generally not concerned with their health and weight, so they are always bringing stuff to eat and enough to share, which can be uncomfortable, especially when they feel like you are refusing because THEY made it. Then of course, we have several of the fire houses who want us to come down and eat with dinner with them, and that is really a crap shoot when it comes to what they are cooking. Most of them know I am low carb, but for all good intentions, they really do not fully understand what I can and cannot eat, and there are times where they tell me things are low carb, but they end up including sugar, flour or thickeners. A good example is that they put sugar in their deviled eggs, but since it is just a little bit for the batch, they don't see how it will hurt.

My workplace is the same. Last week there was a cake, today there's a batch of cookies. Between now and Valentine's day there will be a constant influx of goodies on the workroom table. Everyone here knows that I don't eat any of it because of my diabetes and feels a little sorry for me. This year I've made up my mind that about once a month I'm going to bring a low carb treat for everyone and label it as such. Who knows, maybe if I show them how yummy healthy treats can be I'll convert a few people.

I do that every once in a while and it works great.......people do this>>> when you say it's low carb but when you feed them and then tell them it's low carb they want the recipe. (don't forget to take it )

I've done that Gracie and you'd be surprised how many people won't eat it if you SAY it's low-carb, but will devour it if you don't. Strange the way we fool ourselves, hmmmm?

It reminds me of a bone head thing my mother did.

When my parents were trying 'Atkins' I told her to have strawberries and cream for dessert.

So she sprinkles the strawberries with cane sugar!

I'm sure the excuse was, "But Dave, it's natural you know so it must be healthy."

I've actually noticed a big improvement in work with goodies being brought in....but we have a popcorn machine!!

There are women who bring things in, but much less frequently. Most don't even bother offering it to people, they just leave it in the kitchen. The problem with the kitchen is the popcorn machine that gets me. Not in a good way, I HATE the smell of popcorn unless I'm in the mood for it....and day after day I have to go into the kitchen for coffee, water, ice, etc.