very frustrated in Starbucks

Ok so a ways back I joined weight watchers. I haven't been a member in a while, but one thing I learned that helped me get where I wanted to be was if I can't control how much I can eat of something I might need to "divorce" that food.

Well over the last few months I've slowly put on the weight that it took two years to lose. I know my problem is that I can't stop eating Starbucks pastries. Ok so you'd think just stop going in, right?

I work there! I am surrounding by everything I love. We warm the pastries now too and the cookies are so unbelievably good. What do I do???? I lost the weight by working out 2 hours a day (and it was still a very slow process). Now I'm an assistant manager and don't have the time or energy any more to do 2 hrs a day. I get 30 minutes a day. I need help. I need suggestions.

chew gum, brush your teeth, put on a very minty chapstick, drink black coffee and tea,

Well if you actually make the pastries, it might help you to think about what goes in them. [Big scoops of sugar, white flour, eggs, etc.]... It can be sort of sickening.  This is how I can usually avoid cake.

I'm not sure if that always works, but worth a thought or two :]

Maybe just try to keep in mind that if you eat the pastries and cookies, that is just that many calories you'd have to work off.  Maybe try the tea instead.  You are better than those cookies!  Walk right up to them and say "I DONT NEED YOU!" lol.  it might work....

Thank you! I'll try it all. but keep the suggestions coming because those pesky pastries :( are .... ok i'll start here. the are bad. they don't taste good. ... if i repeat that often enough maybe that'll help.... but still keep 'em comin'. :)

bring something else to eat! seriously. even if you just replace one of your daily pastries with something healthy, you'll feel better. and gradually, maybe you can replace them all! =)

if you always go to the same starbucks (and the baristas often recognize you) you can try this...

the next few times you go in, introduce youself to the barista there.... then tell them that you're on a diet and to not let you buy any pastries.

there's a regular who comes to my store who does that and we do whatever we can to stop her from buying pastries.... she also drops a tip every single time tho....

I had that problem but with the vending machines at work. I looove cheetos. And they stare at me from behind the glass, egging me on.

So I fixed it by making sure I am almost never hungry at work and therefore less interested in the vending machine grub. I bring lots of snacks like nuts, fruit, veggies, etc. If you can sneak into your back office every couple hours and munch on a quick healthy snack, it may reduce your cravings.

I have to agree with bringing your own lunch... we have so many snach foods at work, and i would pack at them all day unless i brought what i though was healthy foods...this way i am full and i no longer need the snacks...i may still "want" them...but i wont eat them anymore, i try to remember that they are bad for my health...and I dont need more health problems! :)

i know how you feel!

i'm a pizza addict, and i work for my favourite pizza company.

it's HARD to give up what you love. especially hard when you're surrounded by it.

What I have done for the past month is given up the "forbidden" for a week, then once I got to the week, I went for another week. then another...and now, it's a month on wednesday, and come this friday, I am going to reward myself with a slice (just a slice :) of the wonderful that is pizza.

once you get over the initial cravings, it's not so bad. you can maybe limit once you've cracked the cravings to once a week. which is what i plan on doing.

i was the same way with diet pepsi. i replaced it with water - and now i don't even want/like the taste anymore.

Good Luck! It's certainly attainable. like KaiKai said - tell them not to let you buy/have the pastries! UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES :P

and remember, you don't have to give up the things you love completely :) just have them as a treat at the end of a week or what works best for you.

I have a hard time with the frappuccinos. If they weren't available, I would probably be addicted to the pastries as well, but mmm, frappuccinos. It's hard, I know.

Whenever I succomb to them, I order a tall. I try to do as little damage as possible. I'd like to avoid them completely, though.

Try flying to Italy and tasting what's really good there. After you try their pastries, you'll think less of the sweet bread sold in Starbucks. Just take a grande-sized latte with nonfat milk and think of something delicious that is somewhere far-far away.

And the guys are right: ask baristas to sell you coffee or tea only. Like: "Ted, may I have a banana cake with non-fat latte, pls?" -- "No mam. Only latte. You promised to fire me otherwise!"
(that was a 'lol')

I work at something simular to starbucks. i start off alright eating a luna bar......and then all of a sudden im eating 3 brownies =0

the cookies and pastries are always going to be there.  they're not going anywhere.  i hate depriving myself of anything, in general i think it's a bad idea and a set up for failure and a day of binging.  try making them a special treat only now and then, make room for them in your diet and you'll look forward to your weekly treat, bi-weekly treat, whatever.  hopefully that helps.  just remember, they'll be there next week, you don't have to have them everyday.

I used to work at a little bakery and I know JUST HOW YOU FEEL.  I broke myself of the habit by thinking of everyone who bought those pastries and how happy it would make them to eat it. 

My special sin was sourdough cream cheese muffins.  I only had to think of one of those kids who squealed in delight with cream cheese and frosting all over their face, and tell myself that if I ate that muffin they would be all gone before that kid got one.  Or that tired lady who smiled when she picked it up.  Or any of the people who got them.

Pretty soon I felt so guilty buying one, like I was tearing it right out of that kid's hands.  It got to the point where I had a little smile on my face every time someone bought one of those muffins.  It was like I gave it to them, as utterly ridiculous as that thought is.  My brain works in pretty crazy ways.

Delegate pastry and cookie duty to a staff member...lol

When I find myself craving something I envision my goal body---I have a goal for 145 by May and wearing a beautiful dress. The taste of victory is much more delicious than a pastry that's gone in 30 seconds!

Bring stuff to work to eat on breaks. If you eat pastries, it will only lead to a blood sugar crash and mess up your appetite for the rest of the day...

It's really going to have to be willpower, too.

When I really want something like that I say: ok...for 5 min of pleasure I'm going to buy myself hours of misery and I'll have to work that much harder to get back where I was. Is it worth it? Heck no. I know it sounds too simple and maybe you have to be in a certain place mentally to do it, but it works for me.  

It's hard to work around food!

Being as you work around them and you can't control your access to them, I think you  just have to quit 'em cold turkey at work.

At work, you are a professional. You aren't a customer.  You are to sell the merchandise, not eat it.

Don't. Ever. Eat. A. Pastry. At. Work.

EVER.

Don't just divorce the pastries, declare war on them!

Those pastries are not making you happy. They're making you miserable. They're poison to your body. They want to hurt you. They want to destroy your goals and everything you work towards.

Those pastries are traps. They're nasty mines of cellulite and flab and self-loathing under disguise. They taste like fat and heart-disease, love-handles and gasping when you climb the stairs.  Don't be fooled by them.  You know what they do to you. 

You are going to kick those pastries A**!  They sit in the bakery case calling to you, thinking you'll be weak. Thinking they can trick you into letting them win. But NO! You are to smart for them! You can foil their evil plan to sabatoge your waistline. Let them sit and be miserable in the display case instead of you sitting and being miserable with them on you hips. Each one you sell to a customer and don't eat is a VICTORY. You won the battle with that pastry.

You are stronger than all the forces of their butter, sifted flour and refined white sugar combined together!

The only one who can stop you from eating them is you. You have to want to not eat them more than to eat them. You'll feel your resolve weaken, but that's when you stop yourself, pull yourself togeher and say "no. I won't do that."

Whether you resist or give in, the next time it will be easier. Which behavior do you want to make a habit?

Resist!

thats a rough one!!! ... mmm .. I love pasteries.  Heres my advice when you want to eat one look up its calorie content!!  That might discourage you.  I used to get the starbucks 12 grain bran muffin thinking it was the "healthier" chioce.. until I looked it up.  Its got 370 cals!!! 

if I remember right starbucks has other options that are good such as small sandwiches and salad.  I am a sucker for the lattes though :P