Oral Fixation

The many and albeit daily eating downfalls at the office include boxes of sugar coated donuts, homemade brownies, cupcakes, candy filled cabinets and don't forget fast food lunches -- all washed down with an endless coffee supply. No thanks!

In the last 8 or so months I've put on some weight, when I tell people how much weight I've gained I find that the usual response is along the lines of, "I can't tell," or "that's not a bad at all."

But it is bad, I'm 5 feet tall so every pound matters on a petite figure like mine. I'm not upset about the weight gain but I'm certainly doing something about it. Big changes have happened in my life since last fall when I was at my physical best: I moved out of my parent's home in the suburbs, I'm now working downtown and living with my boyfriend in the city.

New home, new relationship, new job -- change can lead to a lot of things and in my case, weight gain. Suffice it to say, I've let myself go a little bit and have put on about 8 lbs, a little less than 1 lb for every month my boyfriend and I have been together. While it's certainly not an excuse to eat anything I want all the time, I accept the change and am now moving forward with becoming healthier. I've been at the gym almost every day this week to reinforce cardio and strength training as a routine.

And because I sit at a desk for 8 hours on Monday through Friday, eating healthy is harder than one would think, or at least it was. Ever since we moved in together two weeks ago, we've been cooking dinner at home and also packing our own lunches. This is a much better alternative than running downstairs and hitting one of the many fast food chains in the Loop, it's cost effective too!

Now I don't consider myself a "snacker," but there are times while I'm at work that I just need something, a piece of gum or mint...or whatever I can grab in our company's "candy cabinet."

In an effort to appease said oral fixations, I've recently purchased a 150 count container of Yummy Earth's Organic Lollipops from Amazon. They're all natural lollipops (no artificial flavoring or dyes) and a serving size is about 3 pops for 70 calories. I've shared these with my team (and other teams) and everyone really loves them. They're also fairly sour and less sweet which is highly enjoyable. I've got them at my desk, readily available for when that craving kicks in...