Blog Post for: Kathryn Henderson, PhD
11/24/2006 | Kathryn Henderson, PhD
Toxic workplace?
Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Annual American Eatfest. Beginning Nov 23 and running through the New Year, most Americans will dine their way through the holiday season. Most Americans will also complain about how difficult it is to maintain during this period the healthy lifestyle they may be striving toward.
The workplace plays an interesting role in this struggle. Many of us will be hosting various holiday parties over the next several weeks, and will consequently have leftovers at home. We often decide that we don't want the temptation of having these "not so good for us" foods around to tempt us, so what do we do? We take them to our workplace so they can tempt everybody else. Couple this with holiday parties in the workplace and gifts brought in by appreciative clientele and, by the end of December, we have collectively created a toxic landfill of sorts in our places of employment. One way to make a difference this year is to try to change that habit. If you don't want to be plagued with temptation, chances are others would rather avoid it as well. Some options are to (a) prepare less food so you don't have so many leftovers to deal with; (b) prepare fewer "not so good for you foods" and more healthy foods, so leftovers don't feel so problematic; (c) work toward a policy at your workplace, whereby everyone agrees not to bring in unhealthy foods; (d) plan celebrations that involve healthy foods or, better yet, that are focused around non-food activities.
