Today’s corporations are trying to save money on their health insurance plans by finding more ways than ever before to make it easy for their employees to lose weight and stay healthy with on site fitness centers, company sponsored weight loss plans and cafeterias with low fat options. However, if you work in an office, then you may still be struggling to lose weight, despite having some or all of these advantages around you.
For most office workers, the very nature of their jobs is such that they are required to spend the bulk of their days seated in front of a computer. As you know, if you are sitting still then you are burning very few calories. At the same time, though, your office likely has food for nearly every possible occasion. Office parties for birthdays, baby showers, upcoming weddings, retirements, product launches and other occasions are so common that they are frequent punch lines on television sitcoms. Snacking on a slice of cake once or twice a week in addition to your regular diet can add hundreds or even thousands of extra calories each month. Over the course of a year, those extra calories can add up to a net gain of a pound or even a few pounds of unwanted weight!
Studies have shown that office gatherings, like birthday parties and wedding showers, bring workers together and build morale, so even though they may be heaping on the extra pounds it is not a good idea to try to eliminate them. Reduced office gatherings, like any other major attempts to reduce expenses by corporations, will make your colleagues unhappy and suspicious about the company’s future. Instead, try to find ways to make them healthier affairs or to mitigate the effect that your participation in them has on your waistline.
Think about when your office events are normally held during the day. If they are being held at an arbitrary time, such as 10 a.m. or 2 p.m., rather than near lunch time or breakfast time, then perhaps you could influence your colleagues to try rescheduling the next such event. This way you can swap out the breakfast that you would have at home for the bagel that you plan to eat at work. Although what you will eat at work may be more calories, you will still be eating less calories than if you ate what is essentially an entire extra meal in the middle of the morning.
If you cannot change when your office gatherings are held, then when you are next charged with planning one, try out a bowl of fresh fruit in addition to whatever pastry, coffee cake, bagels or other treats are the traditional items in your office. Make sure that you get the best possible fresh cut fruit so that your colleagues are sure to enjoy it. Hopefully they will enjoy snacking on slices of fresh pineapple, sweet strawberries and chunks of juicy watermelon that you will see fresh fruit, which is a weight loss healthy sweet treat, appear at the next office celebration. You may still see a big sheet cake with thick layers of icing, but when you have an appealing option then you are more likely to resist eating a piece of it.
Article by Sara Woods, a writer for CouponCroc.co.uk, where you can find discounts to save on everything from fitness equipment to health supplements.
