One Seinfeld episode saw the character Elaine becoming furious over the amount of celebrations going on in her office that involved food. There seemed to be cake for every birthday, promotion and anniversary that occurred and the office culture demanded that everyone take part.
Some days there were back-to-back cake servings and Elaine insulted everyone by finally boycotting the whole corporate culture of dish upon dish being brought into the office.
The same is very true of offices all over America. Between potlucks, pizzas and birthday celebrations, as well as cookies and muffins being brought in by sales reps and the like, there seems to be a never-ending parade of unhealthy snacks all day.
The Wall Street Journal published an article recently on this topic. Office politics can also play a part in who brings in what, and who eats it.
Some fit and healthy co-workers are given a hard time for not playing into the notion that it's just a small piece of cake or just a couple of cookies. They can be seen as looking down on those who eat the treats or are seen as more ambitious and even a career threat.
Dieters who finally say no to the treats and lose weight are encouraged to make exceptions for cake and other foods every time there's a celebration -- ensuring these "exceptions" become the norm and the weight is gained again. Some perpetual eaters at work are determined to not eat alone.
The Wall Street Journal also gave information on a study from Survey Sampling International for Medi-Weightloss Clinics in Florida that showed almost 30 percent of dieting coworkers feel that their peers sabotage their efforts by making fun of their diets or deliberately put goodies in front of them or order them fattening meals. Jealousy or a feeling of abandonment may be felt by diet saboteurs.
There are ways to combat this. One way is playing the game but doing it with fellow dieters instead. Arranging healthy weekly pot lunches instead of the fattening ones, leaving a bowl of mints on the desk instead of chocolates or candy and taking daily walks together after lunch is a great way to find strength in numbers and offers tremendous support, as well as positive peer pressure. Support is key to losing weight and keeping it off.
Brown-bagging healthy lunches is an easy way to say no to offers of fatty or sweet goods and a simple "no, but thank you!" should also suffice. No one should feel obligated to indulge in endless eating at the office in order to fit into the work culture.
Tell Us
Is your work sabotaging your weight loss goals? Do peers pressure you to overeat? How do you cope with all the workplace treats?
Source:
Shellenbarger, Sue. "Colleagues Who Can Make You Fat." The Wall Street Journal. 14 March 2012: A1. Print.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230371730457727940252209046...
Edited by Jody Smith