Tomorrow's Fat Friday

I work in an office that has the luxury (or curse) of having lunch provided most of the time. The facility is a training department that is far from any convenient choices to allow students a lunch break in a reasonable distance. Instead when we have students lunch is catered in. As an employee of the department, I get the chance to make lunch out of whatever leftovers there are.

The caterer is feeding a large number of people most days and therefore makes economical bulk meals usually containing pasta of some form. We also have a fridge with a constant supply of sugary sodas and a snack room full of snacks and treats.

I’d like to say that when dieting I am above the temptation of all these options but I would be lying. Truthfully, the urge to snack comes more from boredom or the desire to step away from my desk rather than any sense of hunger.

My workplace is the first saboteur of any diet I am on. One of my coworkers has a lot more willpower and control that I do. I admire her strength and ability to avoid snacking, stick to green tea instead of coffee and salad instead of pasta. One of the ways she sticks to her diet (she has lost 50 pounds in the past year on a low fat, moderately controlled diet) is by allowing the occasional indulgence.

The office is aware of one of her favorite rules. She sticks to her diet all week except at lunch on Friday. The time is now known as Fat Friday. Whether we have pizza leftovers or order some other treat in, she allows herself a moderate treat on some Fridays. She doesn’t seem to feel like she has cheated or fallen off the wagon by allowing the indulgence.

I wonder how she has talked herself into such control. I realize that most of weight loss is mental. You have to have control in order to practice moderate eating habits and regular exercise. I apparently don’t have what it takes.

So if giving in just once ruins my entire attempt to diet,
how am I supposed to get anywhere?