30 Day I’m Not Going to Eat Any Work Crap Challenge

(I actually wrote this on Wednesday 5th of January, after having a stressfun-filled day at work Tuesday)

There is something that pisses me off immensely about myself. Time and time again, especially when feeling stressed I eat things that are “in my face” on the work floor even though I have plenty of healthy alternatives near me.

Yesterday I lost count of how many Italian chocolates I ate even though I had an apple, two mandarins and a kiwi staring at me as I shoveled them into my mouth. And to add insult to injury, I purposely walked over to the biscuit tin and had four cookies. Four.

I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t craving anything. They were there so I ate them.

Coincidentally yesterday was probably the most stressful day of the month for my job as I’m in accounting and we had to close the previous month and open up the new month. On top of all that, all the questions, all the pending emails, everyone wanting a piece of me – I just went straight for the junk.

I want to say it loud and clear. This is NOT who I am or what I do. I do not eat junk. I do not buy it outside of work. I do not have it at home. I don’t even eat it on the weekends. This holiday period has been an exception of course, but even then I haven’t gone completely insane outside of work.

It’s being at work, the stress, the crap everywhere around me (and trust me, I work at a company where it’s possible to get sweet syrupy chocolaty beverages, pastries, biscotti, shortbread cookies, chocolate bars… yet I don’t BUY that stuff so I don’t eat it.). I have one colleague who fills up the candy jar every single week but it’s quite far away from me so if I do go for it I have to get up physically and walk over to it (the jar is filled AND there is a tin of biscuits there as well) – in times of stress I do this yet I cannot find the logic in my actions!!

I don’t want it. I don’t even crave it. I’m not even sure that I like it! SO… I am going to learn how to deal with my stress in other ways. I am taking on a 30 Day I’m Not Going to Eat Any Work Crap Challenge starting today. Every time I feel compelled to go for the chocolates or biscuits or brownie samples I am going to go up and down the stairs three times (it’s only 3 flights, but still).

I got some great suggestions from my lovely twitter friends, some things I do already but maybe not consciously enough:

1. always take my lunch – I get 30 minutes and I always go away from my desk and eat with my colleagues
2. arm myself with healthy snacks in arms reach – I do that BUT somehow this hasn’t stopped me from shoveling the crap in even whilst staring at it
3. Go outside and take a walk – this I don’t do, but if the stairs aren’t helping then I will try this as well.
4. do some deep breathing exercises / count to 10 exercises
5. look up the calories in the junk and write down how many miles it will take to burn off
6. Run (well, cant really do that at work except on Running Club days and even that I feel stressed and guilty about because I’m away more than an hour)
7. Drink water, tea, coffee & eat “filling” foods (beans, fiber fruits)
8. Allow myself one treat – I would like to save ‘treats’ for special occasions actually.
9. Get to the root of the problem – the stress/ reaching for crap. (my husband said something similar “you’ve got to really check under the hood why you are doing that when you don’t really want that stuff anyway) OK but then I need a shrink!!
10. Imagine the food covered in wriggling maggots – I used to say there were “bugs” or “worms” in food and that would keep me from eating crap. Maggots are extremely gross so I’m going to try this visualization again.
11. Bring a bouncy ball and throw it repeatedly at the wall. Or hit something (I like this one – am afraid I would hit someONE though. Haha!)
12. Coloring books and surf the net – I like this one a lot but I’m sure I’ll get my arse kicked if I start coloring at work and surfing the net! Definitely like this for non-work situations.

I would like to thank you ladies for helping me through: @muffintopped, @SuziStorm, @debroby, @donna_de, @angiejanetads @EMRUK, @tidbits_of_tara, @yogasavestheday, @TeachyBon, @longdoglover, @Mariaelopez, @JewliaGoulia *smooches*

Again, I want to stress that when I am doing this, I am NOT usually hungry. I am not even craving this stuff. It’s funny because I don’t really crave anything at all. I mean, I look forward to eating good food, but that’s something totally different. If I ever crave things it’s definitely more like pizza or döner kebab and that’s almost always in conjunction with drinking (which I normally reserve for weekends). To reiterate: I don’t buy it, it’s not at home, I don’t purposely go out and get it either.

This bullshit stops today. I am a grown woman. I know that no piece(s) of chocolate is going to solve ANY work challenges. It’s not logical and I pride myself for being a logical person. I’m just so done with this. At the end of this challenge, I will win the satisfaction of knowing that I am Lord (Lordess?) and Mistress of the food that I put in my mouth and not a damn cookie or piece(s) of chocolate. SCREW YOU JUNK FOOD!!!

What do you do to combat stress? Do you find yourself emotionally eating often? What’s your trigger? If you have been able get to the root of the crap-eating what were the steps you took to get there?

and now as of this posting, I made it through days 1 and 2 of my 30 Day Challenge. It’s silly, but it works. I haven’t touched any of the stuff!!