Office Terrors

Deep within the shadows of your cubicle, hunched over your desk, staring at your computer screen, you relish in the stark silence that surrounds you. But, then, the calm is pierced by chatter, and, soon, you smell something delicious that makes you stop in your tracks. Your hands come off of the keyboard, your head spins around, you feel your body lift out of that office chair as your feet carry you to the conference room. Five minutes until that eminent meeting is suppose to start, and, it looks like the boss bought several pizzas to share. You wince. You started out the day so well with a balanced breakfast. But, now, the aroma of the pizza is weakening your self-control as your stomach grumbles for food. One hour into the meeting, you hang our head as you realize you ate three huge slices of meat lovers pizza. That healthy breakfast is a distant memory now.

How can situations like Pizza Meeting Wednesdays, Doughnut Fridays, or Cookie Mondays be remedied? Dip heavily into your healthy snack drawer before attempting to muster up the self-control necessary to resist such temptations. What exactly can you put in this "Holy Grail" of a snack drawer? Simple:
- individual ziplock bags of nuts or seeds (about 1/4c in each bag) or purchase snack packs of nuts, then the portioning is done for you
- fruits that can handle hanging out in a drawer, such as citrus like oranges, clementines, and grapefruit, or other fruits like apples and pears
- bags of mini carrots or celery sticks
- individual ziplock bags of dried fruit, or purchase those single wrapped prunes or small boxes of raisins
- small cans of olives or jalapeño rings
- Kashi cereal cups
- low sugar protein bars like the Think Thin or Power Crunch brand
- individual ziplock bags of five grain hot cereal or quick oats
- single servings of whole grain crackers
- reduced-fat string cheese (although this will only last one day, not all week)

Don't forget to always have some type of protein with your snack, especially when eating higher sugar snacks like fruit. Also, I recommend restocking your drawer every week, since those fruits and veggies won't last longer than that.

If there is space in your company fridge, there are a few other items you can consider bringing (just make sure to put your name on it so Howard knows he can't eat your stuff):
- hard boiled eggs
- more string cheese sticks
- frozen vegetable cups, like the kind made by Green Giant

Having your arsenal of snacks stocked and ready to go, you should be able to valiantly fight food temptations in the workplace since your stomach should always be satisfied.