5 Tips to Break Bad Eating Habits at Work

Your career in general, or your specific workplace can make it very easy to develop some “bad” eating habits.

It may seem like something that you won’t be able to break unless you change jobs or careers. However, the great news is, this is simply not true.

Your eating habits can be completely independent of your career or workplace circumstances, because your eating behaviors are ultimately controlled by your thoughts and feelings. Regardless of the circumstance or situation.

So to help you get started, I’m sharing 5 tips to break bad eating habits at work (plus a bonus tip!).

I’ve personally used all of these to successfully control my eating habits while I was working as a Physician Assistant. I had plenty of stressors and food around to tempt me, but these tips helped me stay in control.

Tip #1 – Bring Enough Food to Work

I can tell you from experience, probably the top reason we can end up snacking on the cupcakes in the breakroom in the afternoon is because of over-hunger. Over-hunger will occur if you don’t bring enough food to work for lunch or snacks.

Because hunger is the #1 reason humans eat, over-hunger is the #1 reason we eat as well. And when we start to become overly hungry, that’s when the urgency starts.

It feels urgent to eat something, because over-hunger is really uncomfortable.

Think about it.

If you’re trying to concentrate on something on your computer and your stomach is growling, your head hurts, and you start feeling shaky, you’ll do just about anything for that all to go away…..and quickly too.

So, you find yourself searching out food. Any kind of food. Something quick and hey, even better if it’s something delicious.

That’s when you’ll be way more likely to decide from your stomach and not from your brain. Even if you’re trying to have healthy eating habits, you’ll be more likely to give in to the over-hunger feeling and eat the food you’ll then feel badly about later.

So do yourself a favor, and bring your lunch, plus a snack. That way you’re prepared when your normal hunger levels set in, and are less likely to get overly hungry.

• LISTEN OR READ: Food Craving vs True Hunger (Podcast Episode)
• GET WEEKLY TIPS: Eating Habits, Weight Loss, Mindset (Weekly Email)

Tip #2 – Find the Emotion Coming Up for You

A common reason (besides being truly hungry) that we eat, is due to an emotion driving the actual action of eating. Also known as emotional eating.

It only makes sense that during your workday, you’ll be experiencing lots of emotions. Many of them not necessarily being ones you want to experience, such as stress, worry, irritation, etc.

When it comes to emotions that are uncomfortable or undesirable, our human brains want them to go away quickly. Food is a very easy and quick way for them to “go away.”

Unfortunately, this is NOT a healthy way to deal with or manage emotions (for multiple reasons). Plus, if you’re trying to eat less of the breakroom treats, this certainly won’t help.

So here’s what you do for the second of the 5 tips to break bad eating habits at work….

Next time you find yourself seeing out something in the breakroom (or elsewhere at work), ask yourself if you’re really truly hungry or if you’re feeling an emotion. What can clue you in is if the emotion is one you don’t want to be feeling.

For example, are you feeling a little rushed because of a sudden deadline placed on a project and all of a sudden you have a desire to see what snacks are in the breakroom?

Just starting to ask yourself and take notice of how you’re feeling is gold. You’d never be able to catch onto yourself otherwise. So pause and get curious.

I have plenty of podcast episodes to help you with emotional eating below:

• LISTEN OR READ: Emotional Eating at Work (Podcast Episode)
• LISTEN OR READ: The 2 Biggest Emotional Eating Mistakes (Podcast Episode)
• LISTEN OR READ: Emotional Eating: Is it Even a Problem? (Podcast Episode)

Tip #3 – Change Your Route

One of the more simple of the 5 tips to break bad eating habits at work is this one. Take away the trigger or cue and make it more difficult to eat the donuts, cookies, whatever it is in the breakroom, cafe, etc.

You can do this by changing your route, so you don’t have to walk by and see or smell the food. When you’re not near it, it also of course makes it more difficult to eat the food, because it’s not right in front of you.

You can also move the food to another area of the office (or your house if you work from home) to make it harder to see and access.

This tip is based on behavioral science. Research shows decreasing or removing the trigger and making the behavior more difficult to do helps you NOT do a certain behavior.

So change your route up, put it out of sight, out of reach, whatever you can do to decrease the likelihood of you automatically going for the goodies.

• LISTEN OR READ: Part 1: Eating Behavior Triggers (Podcast Episode)
• LISTEN OR READ: Part 2: Making it More Difficult (Podcast Episode)

Tip #4 – Don’t Work and Eat at the Same Time

I know it’s very tempting to eat some snacks right from the bag or box while working, but don’t do it. You are not going to be able to pay attention to how much you’re eating or if your stomach is satisfied yet.

This is called mindless eating.

You might think you’re an excellent multi-tasker, you will end up eating more than you needed. And not to mention, you won’t enjoy it as much either.

So, just don’t do it.

If you absolutely HAVE to eat while you work, make sure you only have a finite amount in front of you. Meaning, portion it out. Don’t eat directly from a box of crackers.

• LISTEN OR READ: Mindless Snacking and How to Stop (Podcast Episode)
• LISTEN OR READ: Mindful Eating Even When You’re Busy (Podcast Episode)

Tip #5 – Don’t Expect Perfection of Yourself

The last of the 5 tips to break bad eating habits at work involves some self-compassion and giving yourself some grace.

There will be times where you’ll be in a rush and don’t pack your lunch, forget to see if an emotion is making you want to eat, and walk into that breakroom to see what’s available….

And that’s okay.

When you expect perfection, you’re setting the bar too high when it comes to habits. Habits involve a part of the brain that takes some practice to really get good at.

So, try for a little more progress each day or each week. It’s like learning how to do any skill….art, a sport, new technology….you wouldn’t expect perfection the first few times you tried. You’d shoot for progress, until you get really darn good.

• LISTEN OR READ: Self-Compassion and Your Eating Habits (Podcast Episode)

Bonus Tip

Don’t be fearful to ask for help. A big reason why we as career women don’t like asking for help is because we think that will mean something negative about us.

Like we’re not capable (especially when we pride ourselves on being VERY capable with everything else). Or like we’re expected to do it all ourselves, because we “should.”

Or my favorite, because it’s why I sometimes don’t ask for help….we’re trying to show the world how capable we are as women and if we ask for help, it’s a sign of weakness for all of womenkind.

I’ve discovered that this isn’t true at all. It’s actually the opposite. If we use the help we can get to better ourselves, we show up BETTER as women. We make more of an impact on the world around us.

So, if you’re finding you need and want help with breaking bad eating habits, I’ll help you. It’s my area of expertise.

Let’s meet for a free consult, so you can tell me what you’re struggling with, and see how coaching will help you.

Click the button below to book a free 60-minute consultation with me.