Sabotaged at work?

Anyone else have saboteurs at work?

1. I've noticed that I get mixed responses from my quest to get to a healthier weight and healthier lifestyle. ie.
"There are brownies left over, do you want one?"
"No thank you, I am watching what I eat."
"You're on a diet? You don't need to be on a diet. *I* need to be on a diet."
I'm sure there is some veiled compliment in there, but to me it really feels like trying making me feel bad for trying to improve my health. Such as, if they aren't doing it, I shouldn't be either. Once or twice of someone saying that is easy to shrug off, but that reaction everytime you choose not to eat a jumbo cookie from the caterer is kinda hard to handle.

2. The more the results show, the more people come out of the woodwork encouraging me to eat.
"Want a piece of chocolate?"
"It does look good, but no thanks."
"Oh, have a piece, be naughty I won't tell."


3. "She won't want to go to lunch with us, she's on a diet." Actually have heard this one. So, now that I am paying attention to what I eat, I am to be socially ostracized?

It's not that my co-workers are evil, many of them are just friendly and offering me things. The "no, but thank you" works very well. But a few of them take my not binging as some sort of affront. It's really hard... sometimes I am holding to my decision not to eat a Costco bag of Doritos by a thread, peer pressure is torturous in that situation.

Anyone else have this issue?

Yes. I find that the best answer is a simple, "No, thank you", without giving any explanation. If they asked why, just say you don't feel like it, or just because. In other words, don't give them a reason to argue/persuade you.

Only one of my colleagues tries to sabotage me but I don't see her very often. She keeps waving cake in front of my face...sometimes I have to suppress the urge to push it right in her face
I know she is just jealous and I feel sorry for her.
Everyone else is very supportive. If there are sweets around I ask them to take them elsewhere and they do! One colleague recently said that I don't need to lose any more weight. I think she truly meant it as a compliment and that's what I took it for.
Stay strong when they try to tempt you. It only takes a second to say "no" but it takes much longer to work the calories off if you say "yes". Eventually they will give up.

I had this experience too but it passed after a while, like 4 months. Now people are just used to me not joining in for treat time or substituting with healthy, portioned foods.

I'm pretty sure I'm becoming an office "feeder" though. I have to watch my vicarious living... I keep bringing my co-workers the muffins, pastries and french fries I won't touch because my brain wants someone to enjoy them. I'm still dreaming of the pistachio tart and apricot crumble cake I got my cubicle neigbors last week from the new french pastry place nearby. I don't force them on folks though. I just like to see them smile.

I get it all the time at work - both overtly and subtly. I just ignore it most of the time.

I have found that telling them, I have food sensitivities/allergies (which is true) avoids a lot of that pressure. Certain foods give me stomach bloat, constipation/diarrhea and other GI issues, I explain if they persist. TMI? Well, then why did they persist in asking for details!

Plus, even if I am not allergic to it (besides the calories that end up on my bod ), I have a good friend that once told me her husband just tells people he is allergic to anything he doesn't want to eat, and he is toothpick thin!

This thread makes me realize I’m lucky to work in an office where they support those of us trying to make healthier choices. When having company sponsored "treats" they always include healthier options. Whenever they have cake for someone’s birthday they also have fruit or granola bars available. And they even provide free green tea along with the typical coffee. And today a coworker brought in some awesome tomatoes and peppers from his garden.

IMHO - Your progress makes them uncomfortable with their lack of action. Makes them feel bad about themselves and that is why they act out.

Surprisingly enough I'm sabotaged more at home than at work. I think when people act like that they feel bad that they can't stick to a diet so it makes them feel better (subconsciously) if you cheat.

it is annoying when people don't take no for an answer. Even my husband who says he completely supports me always tries to get me to eat something I don't want. He will ask 3 or 4 times until I yell at him.

They don't understand that while I do allow myself to eat something bad every once in a while, I only do so if I really want it. Most of the time when they ask me to eat it is not the time that I want it.

My husband is getting better, as he snacked on Doritos just before we go to bed last night, he was careful not to offer me any.

Good luck and Stay strong!

Me too. I did get them to start having vegetarian and vegan options at our events, which is nice. They even remembered to offer fresh fruit at the last ice cream social they threw.

Given the skyrocketing costs of healthcare, employers that offer group insurance plans can't afford not to start offering health and wellness programs/initatives/groups. A small number of unhealthy employees with preventable illnesses (like those that correspond with poor diet, lack of exercize and/or obesity) = cost spikes for the whole group. (You know, maybe I should quit with the pastry feeding. lol.)

I work in a government office, so no need to worry about the company actually providing any unhealthy snacks (or snacks at all!) But there are a few people in my office who are constantly bringing in junk- our receptionist provides a steady stream of chocolate and oreos and we have another woman who's a compulsive baker. Luckily, there's little pressuring, so if you can learn to resist when you're constantly walking by it, so one's going to give you the hard sell. It's tough to reprogram people's thinking that they can bring in a snack that's actually healthy rather than always having to provide donuts, cake, cookies, candy, etc.

"She won't want to go to lunch with us, she's on a diet."

I get that one ALL the time. I think it's because everyone knows that I'm vegan, so they assume that I won't be able to find something to eat wherever they go. But that is simply not the case and I would love to at least be invited some time, ya know?

Same deal here. It just takes a little patience to remind/educate people that food exists (even at restaurants, wow!) without fish/foul/meats and biproducts.

There ae a number of times a year we actually get fed at work (I am a teacher and this is a rare occurrence) but the thing that kills me is what they feed us. We have a subject heads group of 18 people - 4 of us are allergic to wheat. Yet at the last day they fed us they provided muffins and danishes for breakfast, lasagna, garlic bread, and Caesar salad with crouton already in the salad, with cookies and squares for dessert - there was not a single thing the 4 of us could eat! And they still gave us a hard time for not eating with the rest of them. Personally I never say anything anymore - I just bring and eat my own food - the less you say the less people notice!

Now that is just plain ignorant. If I were one of the 4 I would definitely have made a stink about it. Sure, it was probably some administrative person who ordered the food, but whoever made the decision to do it should have been aware of any special dietary needs beforehand.

I don't work in the office much so I don't typically have that issue, it's more of a problem at home since I'm the only one on a low-carb diet. I accept that part of me being successful is learning to deal with having that stuff in my face every so often without going off-plan.

As far as lunch dates, I don't wait to be invited. I pretty much go out for lunch every time I'm in the office to motivate me to go there, lol. If you wanted to start being included & knew they were going to a particular place for lunch, go there on your own & "run into them." I'm sure their intent is not to exclude you, so if they see that you can find stuff to eat even when you go out, maybe they'll start inviting you more.

Of course, there are time when I'm hanging by a thread to stay on track & then DH decides he wants to eat delicious-smelling popcorn in bed. At those times I just tell him, "honey, I'm having a rough food day & I can't be around you while you're eating that." He is very understanding & will leave the room to finish it.

I'm a very forward person, so if someone in the group made a comment like Shazzy mentioned, I'd tactfully call them out on it. If someone told me I was silly for trying to lose weight, I'd say something like, "no, what's silly is not caring what you put in your body. Do you realize how many people out here are ticking time bombs?" And if someone commented on my clothes fitting too big in a vindictive way, I'd say, "I know right?! Sounds like you're volunteering to take me shopping...when should I pick you up?"

I'm lucky to work with mostly men. They sometimes make fun of my diet, but don't ever try to sabotage me There is one other girl on my team who keeps yelling at me: "stop losing weight! leave your fat alone!". But it's never evil - she doesn't get offended when I don't eat the home-baked goods she sometimes brings. I usually try a piece from somebody else because it does taste good, but try to keep my self-control strong. There is also one guy who lift weights and reads a lot about eating right and training well, so we often have healthy-food talk over lunches.

Yeah, it's rough. There are a few of us in the office that are actively trying to get healthy. It feels like an underground effort as we all keep quiet about it. One poor guy was getting teased (harshly IMO) because his pants were getting really baggy. Luckily he just shrugged it off.

@Shazzyb. People in the office or home (mostly women) can become really jealous when they see other women looking better or trying to better themselves. If I were you, I would just not mention my diet to anyone. They will quickly notice when you drop the extra lbs and then they will start telling you the same things such as 'don't lose weight, you don't need to' but you should just ignore that too. They are only jealous because they do not have the motivation and determination that you do!

@Shazzyb I think sometimes it is hard to be happy for someone else when you are unhappy with yourself. Misery loves company. And women are EXTREMELY competitive IMO.