Monday is already half way over. That’s a start, right? 
One of the major downsides to working in an office is I feel my whole day revolves me thinking about food and when my next meal is going to be. Food is obviously the highlight of my day. I love picturing what I’m going to make in my head and enjoy eating it when the time comes.
Because of the office setting I also feel my food for the day is so structured. I miss the weekends and days I am out of the office where food is just an added bonus to the other wonderful activities that keep my mind busy.
On weekends its a hit or miss with whether I need a snack or not, but at the office it’s like clockwork where at 10:00 on the dot my breakfast is no longer in my belly and the empty feeling causes it to grumbles.
To stop the grumbles this morning I had a hard boiled egg right on schedule.
Also, on the weekends I find I can hold off on lunch until 1:00 or 2:00, but in the office I can barely wait until noon to race out the door for food. Today was particularly bad as i skidded out at 11:45. I was HUNGRY.
I find the best cure to feeling starved is a Hugh Jass Salad complete with the entire contents of my fridge. 
- Massaged Kale Salad
- Broccoli
- Onion
- Tofu
- Tomato
- Raw Cashews
- Craisins
- Radishes
- Mushrooms
This container was DEEP. It was a whole lot of salad, but I managed to polish it off.
On the side I had the last of my bag of Blue Corn Tortilla Chips.
It was mainly crumbs that I ended up letting Abbie have the majority of. The salad was plenty to keep me satisfied.
Now I have to dream of my 3:30pm snack and my 6:30pm dinner.
How do you eating habits differ from the weekend versus the work week?
{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
Meghann that is so funny! I’m the same exact way. There’s about 700 people in my office and our facilites director commented to me last week that he could set his clock be my routine. He looks at the tapes on the security cameras and says I am at the microwaves or fridges getting my snacks at the same exact times every day! I told him it works for me. And it does. I like having a routine, but weekends well thats a whole different story! i think more people are scheduled than not.
I always graze too much on the weekends because all of the wonderful food is just sitting there! Just curious, what time do you eat breakfast? I am never hungry before lunch (around 1:00), but I eat breakfast later, around 8 or 9.
I eat breakfast at 7:20
i feel the same way – I like how much better the food seems on the weekend when it’s not crammed into my work day.
BUT that doesn’t keep me from thinking about food all day long
Meghann, You are not alone! I am in an office setting and find my meals are very structured, yet on the weekends its completely different….I think its because my weekend meals are more caloric than my Mon thru Friday meals…
I am JUST like you with office eating! During the week, we always eat breakfast at 5:30a. Snack at 9:30a. Lunch at noon. Snack at 3p. Snack as I’m leaving at 4:30p. Gym. Home. Dinner by 7. The weekends, I am all over the place. I never have a morning snack, sometimes have an afternoon snack. It probably has to do with maybe sleeping in a bit later, being busier (keeps my mind off my belly), etc.
This is me, too! I sit at a desk all day long and always thinking of when/what my next meals are!
Weekends we are usually a bit busier… but even if i’m just hanging aroudn the house, i can go longer without eating!
Is that a blue egg?
I just found your blog, as I will be attending the Healthy Living Summit in Aug. and saw that you were one of the organizers!
Great blog… look forward to reading more!
I have been craving hard-boiled eggs like crazy lately but I don’t have a pot to boil them in! I wonder if you can buy them pre-boiled? Sounds a bit funky…
I’m with you 100%. Food is so much more enjoyable, and a much more social experience on weekends. At work all I think about is food! I look at blogs and websites, plan my meals, etc. They think all I do is eat at work, since I eat so regularly just to keep myself going!
That first comment about the office videotapes is too funny! I am definitely similar in terms of my routinized eating on work days versus my more free spirited snacking on weekends. But I have definitely noticed that as I have started to switch from elevator to stairs (for all 12 floors) multiple times per day, I am certainly getting hungrier on work days!
Weekends I have no routine what so ever, so I basically just eat when I’m hungry. During the week though, I live by my routine! 8am breakfast, 11:30 tea and fruit, 1:45 lunch, 4:30 small snack of nuts or fruit, 7:30 dinner. I wish I could be more structured like this on the weekends because sometimes I just graze all day and never have a balanced meal!
Hii! I noticed in the past two posts you had tofu, I love tofu when it prepared for me, but it seems when I try to make it comes out…well not good at all. I didn’t know if you had tips and tricks. Thanks!
loving that salad! i don’t work from an office, but i do find my eating is much less structured on weekends. i eat a lot more intuitively and go with the flow depending on what i’m doing on weekends. i like having a balance of both ways of life.
I find that I eat a lot less during the week than I do on the weekends. When I’m chained to my desk at work, and have to spend money to get more food than what I have with me, I’m likely to forgo the extra afternoon snack and tough it out until dinner time. At home, or when we’re out and about, however, my snacking is basically unstoppable. I mean, you can’t NOT get ice-cream when you walk by the ice-cream cart in the park on a hot summer day. It’s just inhuman! But at home my snacks tend to be more healthful anyway, so additional snacking isn’t so bad.
All in all, my weekday eating habits balance out my weekend eating habits, and I’m healthy overall because of it.
I am seriously the same way!!!! There is something about being cooped up in the office…my mind always turns to food. My routine is nearly identical to that. Breakfast at 7:15, snack at 10, Lunch at noon (if I can hang on that long), snack at 3, pre gym snack at 5, dinner at 7 lol.
Heaven forbid something get in the way of one of these meals!! I am one unhappy camper
My boss thinks I am “constantly” eating like Brad Pitt’s character in Ocean’s Eleven. What he doesn’t realize is all the food I eat in the day probably equals the calzone he had for lunch!
Seems like we are all in the same boat! I seriously start dreaming about my next meal (speakin of…where’s my Greek yogurt!). Breakfast at 7:15, snack at 10, Lunch at noon, snack at 3, pre-gym snack at 5, dinner at 7:30. It’s like clock work.
My boss thinks I am “constantly” eating like Brad Pitt’s character in Ocean’s Eleven. What he doesn’t realize is that ALL my meals are probably still less than the crap he ate at the local pizza place (as much as I do heart Gino’s) lol.
I totally have different eating habits during the week, mainly because I don’t have as much time to eat or as many yummy things available to me. Today for example I forgot my afternoon snacks at home : ( I will definitely be scrounging for some food!
During the weekends I eat more than normal, but it’s so much more enjoyable!
Loved the Hugh Jass!
I actually don’t have an eating “schedule.” Is that weird? I think it depends on how active I’ve been, how much sleep I got, and what food I ate the day before… Sometimes I want dinner at 5:30 pm, and sometimes it is 9 o’clock and I realize I haven’t eaten!!
This morning I was thinking about the exact same thing when I was packing up my food for the day! I always feel like I need a snack at 10 and 3, and I eat lunch at noon. On the weekends, I rarely eat snacks!
I think a lot of my work eating habit is to combat boredom! I’m glad I’m not the only one that feels this way!
My eating habits on the weekend go all over the place. It mostly depends on how late I sleep as well as what we’re doing that weekend. I usually only have 2 meals on the weekend, substituting snacks for my lunch because I’ve woken up later than normal.
I feel the same way about work – I’m always planning my next bite and it can sometimes be detrimental. It’s especially bad if I’m bored.
Thanks for acknowledging my Hugh Jass.
Every day is a work day for me!!!
haha. I loved this post! You describe exactly how my day usually passes… FOCUS ON FOOD!!! I wonder if that is telling us something – is our jobs really that bad that we have nothing else to look forward to? lol. I think that is the case with me! Food is what keeps me motivated lately!
My weekdays are exactly the same! I really do feel like I’m living from meal to meal during the week. I try to eat my lunch and snacks slow while I’m at work so I can keep myself unbored longer… which works for about 2 minutes.
Is it friday yet?
I am exactly the same. Yesterday I ate only 1/2 of my usual breakfast and managed to last 6 hours. Today I had the whole usual thing and was hungry 3 hours later, right on schedule.
Weekdays:
get to work at 7/7:30
Breakfast at 8:30 in office
Small Lunch at 12 on the spot
snack 1 at 2:30
snack 2 at 4:30
Dinner at 7/7:30
Weekends???
draw a picture with arrows in every directions-> it could be ANYTHING and ANYTIME!
amazing how work puts us right into a schedule!
I eat soo much better during the week than the weekend, my body senses its time to party on friday and instantly wants some grease and beer! A habit I am trying to cut out of my life
I’m the same way! At work I’m always thinking about food (especially today as I’ve been especially hungry) and when I can eat next – the weekends are much more carefree and I love it!
I feel the same way! And my Mom always laughs at me but if we haven’t thought of and are making dinner by 6 then I feel like my stomach is eating itself!
I completely agree that when on a structured schedule, I always get hungry at the “appropriate” times. On weekends, since I sleep in, I’m generally not very hungry for lunch until 2-4:00 and by that time I just have a snack then wait for dinner. Or just play by ear!
That tofu looks so yummy!!! I love tofu when it is marinated or has a nice sauce on it
That tofu looks fantastic – I haven’t had it in so long, yours has struck a craving!
OMG that salad looks absolutely heavenly :-p
Meghann- thank you so much for posting this. Lately I have been feeling really guilty about thinking about food at work but there are definitely times when thinking about food is more pleasant than the task-at-hand! I know some people say that if they are thinking about food so much that they have the wrong job, but some of us have a lot of “dues to pay” until we can do exactly what excites us all day every day. For me, I love my job but sitting at my desk all day staring at my computer makes me feel awful and getting up to heat up my lunch is a nice distraction. This makes me think I need to take more walks. Anyway, thank you again for posting this! It is very helplful to read everyone’s reactions to your post.
Xoxo LBD
Thanks for checking out my blog!
I am similar to you with eating on the weekends, where I am often not hungry until 12:30 or 1 pm, and need very few snacks in the afternoon, as opposed to the weekdays where I start getting hungry at 11:30 and again at 4 and 6.
I am the opposite of you. I tend to eat more on the weekends because I am not on a set schedule. I enjoy a structured workweek because it helps keep me on track.
Oh my goodness, I am EXACTLY the same as you! I have my snacks at 10 and 3 and my lunch at 12.30 like clockwork. On the weekends I’m way less structured and don’t think about snacks or lunch much at all.
on the weekends I eat wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more, bleh )= I guess its having no structure and the freedom to graze more.
AHHHHH this is soooooo true!!! Guess it’s because on the weekends, we are so busy and occupied that we don’t really have a spare moment to think about food until we are actually hungry.
Working in an office definitely has been thinking about food and my hunger all the time. Because let’s face it, what else is there to think about?!?! Food acts as a break from work and a little pleasure in the drag of the 8 hour grind.
I totally get you on this one babe!
Lol as of now almost everyday is sort of a weekend. I have class, but it’s not all day like during the school year.
My eating habits are the same as yours. During the week I am all about the belly! During the weekend I can go longer.
Gotta love the giant salads. I always load mine up with anything and everything that’s in my fridge!
As for eating habits, they stay somewhat similar but at the same time I probably snack more on the weekends since I’m in the kitchen much more often!
I totally agree with you on the snacking at work vs. weekend thing. I eat so much more at work than I do on the weekends or days off.
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Your salad looks great!
As for office jobs, you are right: the appetite is always timed. And it is easy to get bored at work: so why not eat to spend the time…
Anyway lol, your salad looks great again!
I would say that I eat “better” during the week but there is definitely a difference in the structure of my meal times and such. I can eat a later breakfast on the weekends, which means no morning snack and most of the time it’s just 3 meals a day on the weekend (plus dessert)! But during the week, its 3 meals + a snack in between meals. That’s funny how so many of us are the same way
This is so true for me. At work, I am CONSTANTLY snacking. When I am eating well (this doesn’t always happen, and is fairly new to me), then I bring fruit, protein bars, rice cakes, or other healthy snacks to eat for scheduled snacks.
All the other times, I am constantly chewing gum or eating some kind of sugary candy (e.g., Sweet Trarts), then alternating that with sunflower seeds.
On the weekends, I rarely eat snacks, and don’t think much about food at all!
I so hear you on this. When I was working in an office my entire day revolved around food. It was all I could think of. Now that I work at home my mindset has improved so much. Honestly part of the reason that I quit my job was because the food obsession was just too much (for me, because of my past disordered-ness). Now I eat when I’m hungry. I don’t think about food (as much). I feel like I’m actually listening to my body. I don’t know what to tell you though. Oh, and I agree with others that I never snack now. I just dont think about it that much.
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