Does your job make dieting harder in any way?
For me part of the problem is my odd hours. I work until 8pm so it makes it kind of hard to eat dinner early enough. I used to eat a a lot of food way too late.
I guess it also doesn't help when you're not really happy at your job. I used to like to have a few beers like every other night but I had to stop. It felt too often and it's obviously a lot of calories. I guess I just kind of used that to unwind a bit and now it's harder to relax and forget about work sometimes.
Delicious food would often come after the beer and that had to stop too, haha
Where do you work? I actually find that having a job or being in school helps me stay on track. I pack my lunch/snacks/drinks the night before, and so that way it's impossible for me to overeat. (I'm too cheap to buy food out!) Also, it helps me balance my foods better.
When I'm at home, I just eat and eat and eat. Simply because food is available.
Anyway, hope this gets better for you! You should definitely pack a snack or something to eat before dinner. Then you can just have a small dinner when you get home.
Hah, for me, being at work is the problem! Home is where I eat healthy.
I work at a deli in a grocery store, so every day going in and out of work I have to walk by this bakery full of delicious items, and I spend all day serving really yummy looking food and having cooks offer me extra tidbits. Saying "no" can be really hard!
Once you get in the habit of saying "no", it does get easier to ignore the temptation. In your case, that would be the overeating once you get home. Maybe a cup of decaf tea after work would help?
yep! My job definitely makes eating healthily and regularly a LOT harder! I'm a waitress and there are standard shift hours each of us work:
12pm-4pm 6pm-close
3pm-close
6.30am-3pm
6.30am-6pm 6pm-close
12pm-6pm
It makes it reeeally difficult to fit in three proper meals and when I don't its very hard not to just mindlessly eat when you're on a break. Furthermore, when the restaurant occasionally provides 'staff tea', its often extremely unhealthy and high-calorie, meaning Id rather wait until I get home which again leaves me open to overeating! Although, on the plus side, it forces me to plan out meal-times in advance and the restrictions can actually help me organise and stick to my calorie limit.
I'm also not a fan of my job: its a temporary thing to earn some money and after some miserable shifts all I feel like doing is sinking into a vat of chocolate, so I feel your pain! Just remember that ultimately, it doesn't help!
But I guess, although work can hamper a healthy lifestyle, its only if you let it. As with anything else, if you plan ahead and schedule your meals and snacks, everything should work out!
Good Luck!
The whole being sedentary for 8-9 hours a day can be a real killer.
I try to run on lunch breaks couple of times a week, but I still hate the feeling that my butt goes numb in my work chair if I'm sat down for couple of hours in a row...
I wish I could have an outdoor job, but needs must and my desk job pays the bills.
One of my challenges is to maintain daily exercise - I'm required to travel with my laptop, which thank goodness, has a DVD drive. All I need to remember is some workout clothes and a few DVDs. When I'm at home, I juggle my schedule to make sure that I have exercise time.
The other challenge is eating clean or even properly when travelling. I don't always want to eat at restaurants or indulge in the pastries that are available during business meetings. Instead, I will bring a batch of homemade granola bars and/or find a shop nearby where I can get some fresh fruit and veggies for snacking.
Yeah, I feel that my job makes dieting difficult because I sit on my butt all day long staring at a computer. Plus, I am not very busy right now so I find myself wanting to snack constantly. For example today, I ate a banana and had a weight loss drink and within a 1/2 hour I ate my planned snacks for the whole day, when I didn't even feel that hungry. When I used to take Hoodia, I had to force myself to eat every few hours and now all I want to do is eat. I am determined not to take any diet supplements because they force you to be dependent and I do not want that.
I also work till about 8 PM, sit on my butt for 8- 10 hours a day. I try to down a protein shake about an hour and half before leaving work, this way I am not starving when I get home and it limits how much I eat before bed. Since I am usually in bed by 10:30 or so, my last meal is around 1.5 to 2 hours before bedtime. I also try to not get any simple carbs with my dinner. Easier said than done most times.
I always have the best intentions when I go to work in the morning. I pack a small lunch every day with 2 or three healthy snacks.
My issue is that I work for a University where we're always having events that operate around food. At least once every couple of weeks there is an event with cookies, muffins, bagels, quick breads...SOME kind of calorie bomb. On top of that, we have weekly "teatime" where someone brings baked goods. My willpower is good, but not that good!
ugh yes!! I don't have weird hours and I don't sit on my butt all day...but my job is just as hard when it comes to food. Okay, today for example, I am an associate at an elementary school which is where my story starts because I have my teaching degree and cant find a job which is why I am an associate...frustrating. Anyway, there are soooo many teachers in the school that love to bake and try new recipes, me included so of course they bring it in for us to try. Anyway, back to today. For lunch I brought a chef salad with boiled eggs, ham, reduced fat cheese, onion, tomato, and reduced fat croutons with light ranch dressing. Great for me! But then a teacher brought in strawberries filled with a pudding/cream cheese mix, homemade fudge, cookies, dipped pretzels, rice krispie bars, and candy corn/peanut mix. Of course I had to try a little of everything....AGHHHH...totally bombed my healthy lunch :(
Original Post by katydid22:
I always have the best intentions when I go to work in the morning. I pack a small lunch every day with 2 or three healthy snacks.
My issue is that I work for a University where we're always having events that operate around food. At least once every couple of weeks there is an event with cookies, muffins, bagels, quick breads...SOME kind of calorie bomb. On top of that, we have weekly "teatime" where someone brings baked goods. My willpower is good, but not that good!
Hi Katy!
I am so with you! My intentions are the best every morning and then... just like today... I have a catering for 11people with cookies and those yummy vanilla custard tarts! And I was soooo upset that noone ate the tarts that I HAD TO HAVE TWO of the left over tarts! Geee.... I wonder why! I was so good throughout the last weeks and then... the old me comes back.
Anyway! This office thing with caterings around are really making it hard to say 'no thanks' and nibble on my apple wedges! :o)
Luckily tomorrow there will be no tarts waiting... I gave them all to our cleaning lady who is very happy to bring those home to her kids! :o)
Original Post by foxxymel7:
Yeah, I feel that my job makes dieting difficult because I sit on my butt all day long staring at a computer.
Me too! I'm still getting used to it. My previous job had me running all over a store all day long. I never had to pay attention to calories then. Now that I work a desk job, my thighs have gotten even bigger than normal! I don't think I eat too unhealthy, although I do realize I have a bit of a problem with portion control, but I have to work out just to stay at a steady weight. I gained 5 lbs in 3 weeks when I didn't work out! YEESH! So if I want to lose any weight, I have to work out hardcore nearly every day. I'll let you know if/when I start to see any results.. 
Original Post by delaney86:
Original Post by foxxymel7:
Yeah, I feel that my job makes dieting difficult because I sit on my butt all day long staring at a computer.
Me too! I'm still getting used to it. My previous job had me running all over a store all day long. I never had to pay attention to calories then. Now that I work a desk job, my thighs have gotten even bigger than normal! I don't think I eat too unhealthy, although I do realize I have a bit of a problem with portion control, but I have to work out just to stay at a steady weight. I gained 5 lbs in 3 weeks when I didn't work out! YEESH! So if I want to lose any weight, I have to work out hardcore nearly every day. I'll let you know if/when I start to see any results..
I know. I feel like my metabolism has slowed down to nothing and when I do work out I have to really push myself. In the last month or two I have increased my exercise from 1 hour to 1 1/2 and still have not seen the progress that I wish I would. Please let me know what you are doing when you see results. I need all the advice I can get.
I work at a gas station that only sells junk food and lots of it too. Sometimes its hard to not eat the food there because the food we prepare is free to us after 4 hours of it being out for purchase. It's all greasy and meaty and I don't make a lot of money so it is soooo tempting. I used to not be able to not eat there but in this past month, I have gotten my head straight and either I don't eat there or I eat a banana or I pack lunch (which I usually forget lol). If I had a desk job or something not in the food or convenience industry then I would be A okay. I probably should mention that I work every shift at a 24hour station so I don't even know when I am going to get to sleep let alone cook or eat. I have dropped over 10lbs so far by staying strong at work. If I didn't have the motivation that I do then I would go back to being a fat kid again. I'm finally in a healthy range!!!
My job doesn't make it harder but school makes it a pain in the butt!
I am a commuter student, and a music major, so I often have up to 6 classes per day plus rehearsals, spaced out all day. For example - on Mondays I have classes/have to be on campus between 8 am and 6:30 PM. The cafeteria in the student center has fast food stations, which I am not a fan of. So I have to take food with me every day.. enough to get me through basically the entire day. I also have long classes to sit through where I can't really eat anything. This semester I am making a much better effort to not load up on snacks from the vending machine or go to the cafeteria.. but school definitely makes this a lot harder on me
Thanks for all the responses guys. It's good to know that plenty of people know where I'm coming from.
I'm a pastry chef. If I can lose weight, anyone can! Good luck.
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