I work in a small office with little “outside” food brought in except for the Christmas gift baskets sent by vendors and service providers (and that lasts quite a while as most of us eat just a small amount each day). This is the best time of year for shared food, though, as colleagues and even former employees bring in extra homegrown vegetables. We enjoyed asparagus and arugula last month, radishes, beets and garlic right now, and soon it will be peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini.
My D is a summer intern at a company that provides free breakfast, lunch and snacks to all employees. Everything is pretty healthy and they can order made-to-order meals in advance. Snack stations on every floor stock regular water, fruit-infused water, nonfat popcorn, fruit, granola/seed type energy bars, etc. They have a nutritionist on staff (maybe part-time?) and a trainer for the onsite gym. I don’t know if she loves the work all that much, but she certainly loves the food perks!
At first I thought I wanted to work with @abasket’s daughter, but now I know I want to work with yours, @LuckyCharms913! Garden produce is also a very nice perk.
Yes, I took the article to mean 1300 calories “extra” - so on top of snacks you might pack from home to work or planned in as small meals throughout the day.
We have some wellness initiatives at work but it’s a very large institution and the % of people who participate or who can get to the offered lunch time classes (if it’s not on your campus, you’re probably not going) is very small.
The hardest thing for me to NOT indulge in is definitely donuts. Like bakery kind. I guess the good thing for me is that the majority of people in my office don’t cook or bake and tend to bring in store bought less than average cookies, etc. - I can pass those up.
I too like Sabaray will bake something at home, enjoy a piece or two and then bring the rest to work. I DO like the camaraderie from sharing and enjoying food together - it’s just there have to be some limitations!
My S was over last night and this thread was fresh in my mind so I asked him about his newish workplace. He said they provide a really nice kitchen area but it doesn’t stock any food. In the several months he has been there he hasn’t seen a lot of junk food out for the taking. His company does bring in food when they have events but it is usually healthy. They have an on-site cafe with mainly healthy food choices. They also have a gym that includes lockers and showers. They also have trainers who come in and offer free classes. They have stand up paddle boards for the employees to take out. They also have an outdoor nature walking trail along with a grass field and basketball court. My S plays basketball at lunch. They are pretty casual in that if you work out at lunch you can take time to shower and change as long as you extend your day to get a full days work in. He also gets half day on fridays from Memorial Day to Labor Day. A lot of pretty nice perks plus they get an awesome discount on the companies products. Friends and family also get a pretty decent discount on products as well. FDIL said in her department each person has snacks in their drawers but they do go all out with sweets when it is someone’s birthday.
Both my other children work in two person offices so the only snacks they have are the ones they bring in themselves.
My last employer had a refrigerator stocked with healthy items for us to eat for lunches and snacks. It was great! My coworker’s employer serves healthy, amazing lunches for free in the cafeteria.
At my job, we currently have a ridiculously delicious apple pie in the common area - right outside my office. I have to have willpower!
A colleague lost about 20 pounds over a period of a year and a half by avoiding all snacks at work. In fact, she stopped snacking altogether, sticking to 3 meals a day - and a lot of tea and coffee in place of snacks. It made her pee a lot, but got the job done.
Our very small office has a limited amount of small snacks like pretzels, chips, cheese sticks. The office setup is such that I have to go through another large office space to get to the kitchen, and everybody sees what I get, so this has shamed me into not eating much. I used to bring a bag of crackers or chips with me, because I just crave carbohydrates occasionally. Of course, I usually mean a box to last a week, but it’s normally gone by the end of the day. After about 10 extra pounds creeping up seemingly from nowhere (yeah, right) I stopped doing this and started bringing a small box of fruits or grabbing a cheese stick in the afternoon. 8 pounds down in a few weeks.
I think the notion is that it’s 1300 calories in addition to what you should be eating. Obviously you can have an eating plan that includes 1300 calories of snacking and if it’s mostly healthy snacking there’s no issue. But 1300 extra calories of even the healthiest snack is going to make me gain weight unless I eat 1300 calories less in my other meals.
My food rule regarding donuts is I am only allowed to eat them when driving long distances. The one exception is if you are being a tourist in Atlanta you are allowed to heat fresh warm ones from Krispy Kreme.
I keep a counter on my cube whiteboard of how many days I’ve gone without eating something from our work snack drawer/table. 10 is my high # of days so far. I usually get to 5 before giving in and having some peanut M&Ms.
I do have one allowed exception, which is a Top Pot cake donut with chocolate frosting, The rules are suspended for those. But they only show up every couple of months, so I think it is okay.
The place I work one day a week has pastries from one of the vendors. They aren’t worth the calories. Once I awhile one woman who is a great cookie maker will bring something in and I have one. We do sometimes get fresh produce. The last few weeks it’s been avocados
“I usually get to 5 before giving in and having some peanut M&Ms.”
One of the admins at my former employer had a big candy jar. She’d often buy the jumbo bags of peanut M&Ms. The sound of those M&Ms pouring into the candy jar was like the bell to Pavlov’s dogs. All our ears would perk up. Dangerous.
Mr. B cut the story out of the paper they subscribe at work for the break room and threatens to post it above the “healthy” snack box which has things like whole grain chips and high sugar granola bars. Lol.
The department I work in has a snack budget. Someone comes around and fills the M&M jars every couple of days. I have to will myself to stay at my desk when I hear that sound. I’ve taken to walking the long way around to the cube next to them where I often talk to a co-worker so I don’t actually see them.
I occasionally get peanut M&Ms but not every day nor every week. We do have snacks in the department a couple times a month…so I almost always can’t resist. But no one really has “desk candy”…I think we’re all too conscious of the extra calories in my group! Now the rest of the office building…you can find snacks if you desire snacks! I have to stay as much as possible from additional calories as I just don’t need as many as I needed when I was younger. I can easily pack on a couple pounds if I eat unconsciously for a few weeks.
We have way too many snacks. Doughnuts. Birthday cakes. Extra desserts brought from home. Monday breakfasts. Friday lunches. Oh, and I just realized that I forgot my leftover chocolate croissant.
We do have a workplace initiative right now. It’s 10 weeks and encourages participants to eat what they want, but to only eat when you’re hungry and eat the bad stuff in moderation. Also, fill up on this diluted H2Orange crap so that you aren’t hungry.
