Peer Pressure to Eat Unhealthily |
5 Comments |
[This is a guest article by Engeri Gal, my wife]
“Aint too proud to beg, Sweet darling..,” - The Temptations
I deemed the title appropriate for today’s topic: peer pressure to eat unhealthily. In my seven years of being in the work force, I have never come across this phenomenon. At my first job, I worked alone and my second job everyone was on a health kick. However, this new job is driving me straight into an obesity statistic. For the past six years I was a dispensing pharmacist, so I was running, jumping and hopping to get the 200 prescriptions done - burning calories along the way. And After work, I went to the gym. Before Lazy Man and I lived together, dinner was a quick chicken breast - whatever I could make quickly.
With this current job as a health care consultant, I work long hours sitting in a cubicle first time. Lazy Man and I eat dinner together. Once you cook dinner for someone else, my simple chicken breast dinner doesn’t seem to cut it. By the time I get home from work, around 6-7pm, the gym just isn’t on the radar.
I think I am doing well controlling my eating at home, eating oatmeal or bran cereal for breakfast, bringing a Lean Cuisine-like lunch , with a piece of fruit. We attempt to find healthy choices for dinner. However it is the hours of 8am to 5pm, that are really frustrating. On numerous occasions, I will get this mass email from a co-worker, “cupcakes in the conference, go have one!”, or “it is Suzie’s birthday, let’s have cake!” If you don’t participate in the food, someone will come around to your cubicle and say “MMMM this cupcake is good, why don’t you want one?” I reply, “I am dieting, watching what I eat, no thanks”, in which the conversation steers to “Oh! Come on! You are so thin! Eat the cupcake! You know you want it!” I think to myself, “Duh, I know I want the cupcake, but my pants that use to be loose are now tight and with my lack of gym time, I don’t need the extra calories”. I say no again to which this co-worker says again, “Oh! Stop it! You want this cupcake, just eat it, come on!” Of course, I end up taking the cupcake. But I wonder…
1) If I was a recovering alcoholic, would these co-workers push a beer on me?
2) If I was an ex-smoker, would they push a cigarette on me?
What happened to the office world where it focused more on actually doing work, rather than when breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack time is?…..
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PropellerNext: I am Going Bald!
August 30th, 2007 at 7:14 am
I make it easy on myself by making it clear from the get-go that I don’t like those sorts of foods. Since I actually do not care for sweet foods in general and cake/cupcakes in particular, it is very easy for me to not have any.
I still eat about twice as much as anyone else in my office, though.
September 1st, 2007 at 8:32 am
When I had to face those situations, I needed to get quite assertive and let the food pushers know that they were crossing the line. If I caved into their “pushing” I knew that they would have won and they would never stop hounding me.
Remember that if you eat whatever it is that they’re pushing on you, you’re the one that will have to deal with the calories, not them!
September 3rd, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Oh lord, where I work they buy doughnuts and muffins every week, pizza for everyone once a month, pub junk food in the evenings every so often …. it never stops! But in my experience once you’ve stood your ground a few times any colleagues with a shred of sense and tact will stop bothering you. Especially if you grab your glass of water and go toast the new parent/birthday person/etc in the conference room with an appropriately cheery corporate grin. There is the more clueless few in every office, who deserve a little more sarcasm.
And, as I’m constantly evangelizing, try working out in the morning. Multiple benefits (energy, extra qualiddy time with the spouse, early morning weather, quiet gyms), not least the sense of achievement of getting it out of the way early. It’s so tough for us office workers to shake the fatigue & summon the energy in the evening.
(PS, re beer, come work in my office …. I’ve been loudly asked if I’m pregnant for refusing another round!)
September 5th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
this is so right. i have noticed that it is not just at work, family also pressures you.. i guess it depends on how you handle it.
September 24th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Chocolate (dark chocolate at least!), cookies, cake, donuts and bagels/cream cheese are often brought into the office. Even though I bring a healthy lunch and snacks it’s hard to resist someone dangling lavender cookies or a piece of dark chocolate! So I opt for a very small piece of the sweets and make sure I eat a lighter dinner or fewer snacks. I try to compensate in the rest of my eating if I decide to have sweets.