Saying "No" to McDonalds

I don’t know about you, but one of my biggest challenges in with this whole “eating right” thing is having to work while doing it. Of course, I should be able to brown bag lunch everyday and assume that the problem is solved. Not at my job.

I’ll paint you a picture of a typical day. 

I come in at 8am and grab my coffee with Spelnda (I’m not a fan of the fake stuff, but we don’t have any real sugar here). At about 9 or 10 my boss—size 2, blonde bombshell—asks if anyone is hungry. This roughly translates to, “I want a Sausage McMuffin and hashbrown, but I can’t be the only one eating Mcdonalds, so I’ll buy you all breakfast to alleviate my guilt.”  Then, the rest of the day no one eats again.

OR, I come in at 8am, have my coffee. No one eats anything, then, at about noon, the boss asks “How about Chinese Food?!” or “How about pizza?!” or “How about burritos?!”

Now, don’t get me wrong, these free lunches are awesome! Who doesn’t want their boss to offer to buy lunch or breakfast daily? My problem is the health factor and self control in this scenario. I WANT to say yes, but recently I have had to force myself to say no and find something else to eat. 

Brown bagging has been working so far, but this morning the inevitable “Do you want anything from McDonalds?” happened. I immediately said “no.” but then, just to make sure that was my final answer, I went to the McDonalds website and looked at all the deliciousness they have to offer. I held strong and stuck with my original “no,” but realized that this is going to be an ongoing struggle. Eating healthy isn’t just about eating the right things, its about WANTING to eat the right things. It’s all very physiological and requires a lot of self-control (which I've never been very good at--ask the 13 Del Taco chicken soft tacos I had one day in college). 

I think the best way for me to keep this whole thing up is to continue to brown bag my lunch and snacks and keep things interesting. I can’t bring the same thing everyday, because it will only get boring and I’ll be even more tempted to get a Grande Burrito with extra sour cream. (Mmm…)  

Anyway, I have to be happy with my bananas, blueberries, cheerios, whole-wheat wraps and green tea. I have to make things that actually taste good, not just are good. So that’s the plan. Come up some tasty treats that are low-cal, high-protein and, most importantly, delicious. If I come up with anything super-crazy-awesome, I’ll be sure to let you know. 

Ok, now back to my tomato soup and fruit salad. Happy Friday, ya’ll.

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