New Job-- Lunch Ideas and the Culture of Junk Food

Over the summer, I had a partial breakdown and was tired of being a broke grad-student. I emailed a resume to all the good employers in the area. Well surprise, surprise, I heard back from ONE of them. LOL Only one? It was a long interview process and I got word that I was hired right before my surgery. Woo hoo!

I've been there three weeks and so far, so good as far as the job goes. Everyone is nice and the job is super easy. Now, I have to come up with a new game plan for my diet, water intake, and exercise schedule. Also I will have to push back my surgery date until who knows when. 

My health insurance coverage will change in 2 months to company paid coverage. I really hope that there is a provision for weight loss surgery. If not, I'm not sure when would be a proper time to ask. "Hi, I just got hired 3 months ago and I'm planning on having major surgery that isn't covered. Can you add this to the policy and let me take off 2-6 weeks?" Mmm yeaaaah, not a conversation I want to take place. Even if WLS is covered by my new employer's health insurance I will probably wait a year just to get in good with my job before I take short term disability for recovery. 

Water Intake While at Work: 

I drink a bottle of water while getting dressed for work (that's 20 oz). It helps ahem, move things along, for my "morning meeting" before I leave the house. LOL. There is a nice water cooler not too far from my desk. I will bring my 22oz cute little water cup and make plans to refill it at least 3 times while at work. I'm sure the people at the office think I'm a freak because I use the bathroom a few times a day. They'll get over it, see the results, and maybe join in on my water intake crusade. Let's see, I work 9am-6 M-Th and half day of Friday. I figure my day drinking water can go something like this:

Drink 20oz. at 7am         Fill 22oz. at 9am              Refill 22oz. at 12pm             

Refill 22oz. at 3pm          Refill 22oz. at 6pm

Instead of coffee I stashed peppermint/spearmint tea and packets of Splenda at my desk. Tea and coffee also count towards your daily water intake. The tea that I chose is caffeine free. Caffeine does something crazy too my heart when I have too much. It also leeches essential goodies out of your system and is a diuretic. I'm trying to stay away from caffeine as much as possible. If you eat right and stay hydrated you won't feel like a zombie at work and need to rely on coffee to get you through the day.

Keep in mind that staying hydrated will also keep your stomach feeling full. The snack and lunch ideas below might not seem like much but if you plan your day right it should be just enough. I recommend counting out your calories and monitoring how you feel to know what's best for you and your body. 

Healthy Breakfast Ideas on a Work Day:
Boiled Egg & whole wheat (low carb) toast
Protein shake
Slim Fast Shake *I usually only have this for breakfast during the week
Oatmeal with fruit and shaved almonds
Scrambled eggs and salsa
Greek yogurt (or fat free yogurt) with fresh fruit and Splenda/Stevia/Agave to taste
Any Kasi cereal and low fat milk/almond milk/soy milk


Healthy Snack Ideas While at Work:

Sugar-free Jello (5 calories)
Greek yogurt (80 calories)
Snack serving of Almonds
Low fat string cheese stick (90 calories)
apple, banana, blueberries, strawberries
granola
Slim fast protein bar

Healthy Lunch Ideas While at Work:

Protein:
Boiled egg
Turkey breast
Hummus
Boca burger products
Canned Tuna in water (you may want to add lemon juice so you don't make the whole office smell fishy)
Chicken breast
Low-fat cheese (wrapped with low sodium deli meat)
Slim fast/protein shake

Carbs/Veggies:
Whole wheat-low calorie bread
Low-fat/low-carb whole grain pita
Baby carrots *I add S&P and fat free Italian dressing to my baby carrots
Tomatoes, cucumbers and green onion salad add oil&vinegar or fat free Italian dressing
Salad greens
Deviled eggs
Spaghetti squash
veggie soup
Any low sodium soup
Black bean and corn salad.

The first day at my new permanent site was the day of the Christmas party and Secret Santa gift exchange. I received a gift bag with King size M&Ms and King Size mini-Reese's cups. There was a spread of food and desserts like you wouldn't believe. Everyone participated in a cookie exchange. Each employee brought in about 2-3 dozens of cookies to split between everyone. Oh the temptation!

I definitely appreciate the thought that they included me in the lunch and offered baked goodies and candies. A few days later I was asked if I wanted to get "Taco Tuesday" lunch. A nearby Tex-Mex joint offers a HUGE portion (2 tacos, chips, salsa, and a drink) at a good price. Luckily the restaurant offers a healthy "power-lite" option. Clearly there is a culture of eating junk in my office. This will be hard but I'm going to politely stick to my guns.