Dealing with being cold and hunry

[Gwenhwyfar]

My diet will be going OK and then I'll feel cold and/or hungry and go for the stodge at the work canteen. I always tell myself it'll be fine as I'll have something light for dinner, but this doesn't work obviously.
How can I resist this kind of food when I'm cold?
I can't control the temperature in the office and I'm already wearing as many layers as I can get away with.

Can't you bring in your own healthy lunches?

It's really hard peachy. I'm incredibly lazy and whenever I've tried this it lasts a day or two at most and even with something healthy in my lunchbox, there's nothing stopping me buying something else and having the healthy stuff for dinner.
I know it's possible to eat something else, my question is more about how to avoid the temptation of buying the stodge hot food.

I bought veg for batch cooking last Sunday, but then felt tired Sunday night so didn't do it. I'm home after 7 every day in the week (either work, gym or pub on Friday) so of course that veg is till in my fridge. If I don't batch cook on the weekend, then I won't cook in the week at all. I could make a small sandwich or salad, but then I still face the temptation of the stodgy food.

Our office is above the canteen so I can smell it as well.

Microwave Weight Watchers Cottage Pie or Pasta Bolognese with a huge pile of pre-cooked carrots. About 360 calories for a good filling hot lunch. On special offer at Ocado 2 for £4.
Counterintuitive but go out for a walk. The activity warms you up and the office will feel warmer when you get back, at least for a while.

I was going to say the same, my dd28 went on a diet, she was also doing shifts and not getting home till 8 at night. If she didn't have something there she would just eat whatever was first in the fridge.
Could you also get some low cal breakfast bars, dried fruit ot trail mix to put in your draw.
Graze do a lot and there's always specials on.

Use all that veg for soup. Filling, warming soup for lunch is what you need.

"Could you also get some low cal breakfast bars, dried fruit ot trail mix to put in your draw.
Graze do a lot and there's always specials on."

Why would I want to have high calorie snacks in my drawer if I'm trying to cut calories? And how would these warm me up?

"Filling, warming soup for lunch is what you need."

They sell soup at the canteen at work, but when I'm cold and tired I'm just tempted by bigger. stodgier meals.

The thing is I know I COULD eat something else, that's obvious. My problem is how to resist the stodge they sell at the canteen.
The only thing I can think about is not to go there, but then I have nowhere else to eat except at my desk - too cold to go outside.

Because if you understand portion control, use digital scales and use dried fruit/nuts as a snack, they aren't necessarily unhealthy. But that only works of you can control portion sizes.

How about bringing a tin of soup for lunch, and some fresh fruit/veg as an afternoon snack. Then a calorie counted ready meal in the evening. It's nice and warming and takes zero effort?

Willpower.

That's how you resist. You have to want to lose weight more than eat the stodge and it's obviously that currently you don't.

I think veg soup at work is the way to go, plus herbal teas etc that taste good without sugar. Can you take in only enough money for the soup at lunch (or bring your own), so you're not tempted by the more calorific stuff on offer?

I get this too and it's so difficult to resist. I changed my work routine - took my lunch break a bit earlier so that I wasn't absolutely ravenous, then managed to make more sensible choices and/or warm up something I'd brought from home. It also didn't go to lunch with some of my colleagues who also choose the warming stodge - I either lunch alone, or with others who are dieting.

Do you have facilities at work for heating up food? And would changing your routine be an option or are you stuck with a rigid time for lunch?

"Because if you understand portion control, use digital scales and use dried fruit/nuts as a snack, they aren't necessarily unhealthy. But that only works of you can control portion sizes."

Yes, but my question had nothing to do with cold snacks. I want something to keep me warm when I'm cold and tired. I don't see how weighing up high calorie, cold snacks would help with that at all.
I don't snack during the week anyway.
I also know I can have a low calorie ready meal in the evening.
My problem is the temptation at lunch.

"Can you take in only enough money for the soup at lunch (or bring your own), so you're not tempted by the more calorific stuff on offer?"

I pay with card :)

"Do you have facilities at work for heating up food? And would changing your routine be an option or are you stuck with a rigid time for lunch?"

Yes, we have a microwave.
I'm happy with going down to the canteen at 12.30. I'm not usually ravenous then, just cold!
I prefer to eat with my colleagues than alone at my desk - lunch break is the highlight of my day! - and there isn't another place to eat.

I make lots of cups of fruit tea. It's sweet, warming, and I sit next to the kettle.
I like cherry, lemon, and spiced apple.
I also now put a blanket over my knees at work as the underside of my desk has a cold metal bar.

I love a thread where the OP asks for solutions to a problem but is such a defeatist that none of them appeal.

Thermal vest and leggings under your clothes. Stop taking your card to work and take just enough cash to buy soup or jacket potato.

"You have to want to lose weight more than eat the stodge and it's obviously that currently you don't."

Well, not this past week, no, but the week before I managed fine.

Thermal vest I already do, wear thick tights anyway and boots, drink tea all the time anyway (and obvs have to go to the toilet all the time so can't drink any more than I'm already doing).

I need my card for food shopping on the way home, buying my train ticket, etc.

Is the stodgy option actually tasty? Or just appealing in the moment? (Like when you want chips and when you get them they’re not nice but you eat them anyway)

Is the soup on offer a thick filling one or something made from a packet mix?

Porridge in the microwave? Should keep you going.

Slim a soup cuppa soup,easy, cheap, warming, filling and if you're lucky you'll find some with croutons in

Gemme - yes, the stodgy food is very nice. It's actually what they do well at the canteen. Their salads and lighter foods are quite poor, but they make great lasagnes, etc. - always massive portions.
The soup varies from day to day. Always cooked from scratch, but sometimes thick and sometimes thin.

Ariela - porridge is for breakfast. I don't want to eat it for lunch. Yes, it would keep me going till lunch, but hunger is not the problem here. My problem is being cold and wanting the stodgy food to make me feel better.

I don't really see how a cuppa soup would help me either. I don't actually believe in them. They're not food and they're not drink. I could never just have that for lunch!

Thanks for your suggestions everyone. I think the one that comes closest is to take in my own hot, traditional food, but in a calorie-controlled portion. I might be able to choose a microwave cottage pie over what they do in the canteen.

Start drinking endless cup a soups- some are 30 calories a cup

Then it will keep you warm and you won't be as hungry by 12.30

Or have some of the stodge - baked potato with a filling that's allowed on your diet

And I hate to state the obvious but work shouldn't be cold according to H and S - it's supposed to be at least 16 degrees ? Probably more ? I've no idea the legal temperature but I know there IS one

Laurie - the thermostat shows 22 so facilities won't do anything (It's obviously not really 22 or we'd all be in shorts).
I feel the cold more than other people so even if it was possible to have the temperature as I want it, colleagues would then complain. I work in a large-ish open room and I'm not quite ready to quit my job over it.

I drink tea all the time so not very interested in cuppa soups.