Occupational Hazzards

For those who don't know I am the Food & Nutrition Manager at the American Fork Hospital.  I jokingly refer to myself as the Food Dude.  I am around food constantly at work.  It has been challenging to keep my eating at work in check and I feel that I have done quite well each and every day.  That was until Tuesday of this week.

I am on the Food Products Committee for Intermountain Health Care.  We meet once a quarter.  During that meeting we evaluate new products, or products that we may want to change due to pricing, quality, availability, etc.  Evaluating means tasting.  Tuesday's meeting we tasted Chicken Breasts, Chicken Nuggets, Chicken Tenders & Chicken Wings.  Chicken is good right?  Well Chicken Nuggets & Chicken Tenders are fried.  Chicken Wings have skin on.  I could have done better.  Where I was in a group of people I didn't want to do the Joe Slanic method which is to chew until you get your satisfaction and then spit it back out.  That just wouldn't be the professional thing to do in  this setting.  But I could have had just one small bite of each item.   But no ... I had to do what I was taught .... eat everything on my plate.  And then I must admit I went back for more Chicken Wings.  I wanted to make sure that they were as good the second time around as the first time around.  During the sampling I ate enough to totally blow through all of my protien for the day.  I'm sure my fat allowance was overspent.  Not as bad as our Nations' Debt, but on the same road.  My biggest failure of the day however was the Oreo Brownie.  I could have had just one bite, or maybe even two bites, just to feel like I wasn't totally depriving myself.  But by this time of the day I was already feeling like I had failed at my eating plan, so what difference could it possibly make.  I ended up eating 3/4 of brownie.  I know at least I did not eat the whole thing .... but I did eat way more than necessary.

Yesterday I found myself having the hardest time controlling my food cravings at work.  It took more effort to eat well than I have experienced to date.  Could this have come from my indulgence of the previous day?  I hope I can get back to where I had been ... and that is able to look at the food and say, that looks good, but not have the overwhelming urge to fulfill my duties in quality control by tasting everything to ensure that the food we serve is up to standard.