Thursday, May 26, 2011

Hazardous Workplace

I work in the worst possible place for dieting. There is always a dessert, leftover lunch items, donuts or other snacks sitting in the kitchen. I also feel like for the small number of people who work here, there is an amazing number of birthdays and in turn cakes celebrating these birthdays. There’s a chocolate frosted pound cake sitting on the counter in the kitchen as I write this.

I constantly have to repeat the mantra “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” in my head whenever I go into the kitchen at work.

Over time and consistent execution of willpower, it’s gotten easier to resist these free treats. However, yesterday was too much--there was a baby shower for one of my coworkers and his wife complete with chips, dips, delicious looking fruit cake and of course dozens of mini cupcakes topped with mouth-watering frosting. As I watched my coworkers peel off cupcake wrappers and crunch into chips, I felt the urge to make an exception and have some.

"The cupcakes are mini, they can’t be that bad,” someone said to me. I shared with her the information I dug up earlier in the day when I wanted to pop a leftover chocolate munchkin in my mouth: a single donut hole is 70 calories. That cupcake was for sure a lot worse than either of us probably thought. The word “mini” is deceiving.

In order to avoid anymore temptations, I left the party and heated myself up a cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee (courtesy of the Box of Joe left out from an afternoon meeting). I hoped it would curb the cravings I’d developed after simply being in the same room as that delicious food. Saturated fat is contagious. Knowing that I had just enough calories left in my daily budget for dinner and an evening snack, I sipped on the coffee, forcing myself to forget how good that chocolate-chocolate frosting cupcake probably would have tasted.

It wasn’t working so I called my mom. I told her about the willpower I was using and wanted her to congratulate me on being strong. She did and told me she was proud of me. That helped, but not for long. At 4 p.m., I headed to the kitchen and scooped some leftover taco dip (my favorite) on my plate along with a couple broken chips. Normally I would pretend it didn’t happen and that I didn’t cheat because no one saw me do it, but for some reason I have developed a sense of guilt that drove me to look up the calories for these things and add them to my count. Because of the slip, I needed to go for a run after work if I wanted to have any after-dinner snacks.

I didn’t end up using the extra calories I burned and earned from my run. Too bad I can’t carry them over… today is a new day with a new cake to resist.

Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels… Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels…

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