The Break Room Fridge

Ah yes, the break room fridge. Where good intentions go to die. I mean I can't begin to count the amount of times I've brought a healthy snack or lunch, and conveniently forgotten about it at the first sight of a donut or just the whisper of the word tacos. Then a few days to weeks later you hear a coworker open the fridge and exclaim, "GOOD LORD! Was that a bag of grapes?" "WOAH! I think this was a salad, who's is that?" You slowly melt in to your chair, because those were your grapes, and that salad you were so proud of is now brown sludge in the bottom of the Tupperware in the back of the fridge. 

So yeah, I honestly struggle more during the work day rather than when I'm at home. To combat this, I've been trying to be more proactive about my snacking and my lunches. I've never been very good at meal prepping, but this time, I think I have a handle on it. Sunday afternoons are usually down time and typically, we as a family take a ridiculously long afternoon nap. Well, now my naps will be cut short so that I can prepare dinner and my lunches/snacks for the week. 

Some things I am doing different this time; 1) Planning a week ahead. I'm planning the next week during the current week so I don't have to plan and prep all in one day and exhaust or overwhelm myself. 2) I'm also truly measuring my portions. When I prepped in the past, I would just put what looked to be a reasonable about of food in the container. This go round, I am taking my time and measuring to ensure my success.

As far as snacking goes, it takes a lot to walk in the break room and not grab a hand full of pretzels or cheese its. We also keep a pretty great selection of chocolates. If I'm not careful, I end up making a meal out of them. Luckily, my boss has been rationing the chocolate and cutting back on buying it because we were spending a lot of money on chocolate for the office. But snacks are another item I need to measure. There is a big difference between 1/3 cup of nuts and 1/2 a cup of nuts.  Honestly, Amazon Pantry has been really helpful in this department. I just order a bunch of pre-measured snacks and have them delivered to my door. 

With some new skills and planning, I should be setting myself up to make it through the day with out eating seven Reese's cups and chugging Coke. And maybe I won't be the one responsible for growing new life forms in the back of the break room fridge.