How To Avoid Overeating At Work

Trying to lose weight is challenging for anyone, but for the 9-to-5 office worker, it can be even more difficult. Why? For one thing, you aren’t at home and you don’t have access to your kitchen, cooking supplies, and healthy foods. The office break room probably is only equipped with a microwave, and you have a limited amount of time to prepare your food and eat it. This causes a lot of employees to fall for temptations like going out to eat (which not only packs on the pounds but drains the wallet), unhealthy microwavable prepackaged foods, and endless snacking.

It doesn’t help either that you probably get tired sitting around at work all day, and you need the energy. At the same time, you aren’t able to walk around and enjoy an active lifestyle, so the importance of dieting is even more imperative. What can you do to stop yourself from overeating at work, while still getting the nutrition and calories you need?

Bring healthy snacks to work.

Avoid chips and cookies. Bring along some fresh fruit and vegetables. Carrots, apples, strawberries, and other healthy fruits and veggies give you nutrition without all the calories or unhealthy additives. Dried fruit, nuts and seeds make excellent options as well. Snacks are great because you don’t need to step away from your desk to eat them. They keep you going throughout the day, and they prevent you from overeating—as long as you are eating healthy snacks to begin with.

Avoid the free food table.

Some offices have tables where free foods tend to accumulate, often donuts, muffins, and the like. If you don’t go near the table, you won’t see what’s on it, and that will help you steer clear of temptation.

Bring lunch to work, put it in the fridge, and microwave it when you need to eat it.

Prepare it in advance. A great way to do this is to make more than you need to eat for dinner the night before. Simply put your leftovers in your lunchbox and eat them at work the next day. That helps you stick to your healthy diet, saves you time, and also will probably save you money.

Eat your breakfast.

Skipping breakfast is a really bad idea for dieting. You may think, “Less food = fewer calories = weight loss,” but in reality, you slow down your metabolism. Not only that, but you’ll be starving in the middle of the day, and you will be more likely to overeat lunch.

Be wary of professional lunches.

You cannot avoid going out to lunch at work sometimes, but you do not have to order a large or unhealthy meal. Stick with an appetizer or a salad or some other lighter option. Do not use the forced lunch meeting as an excuse to throw discipline out the window.

Following a diet in the modern corporate world is challenging, but it is far from impossible.
By following the suggestions above, not only will you make it less likely that you will overeat, but you will also likely start saving time and money. The less stress you have, the less binge-eating you’ll partake in, which is just one more way that you can stick with your diet and lose weight!