My friend, Lenny, cuts up fruit for us every afternoon. I used to bring in cookies and dougnuts, now I bring in nuts. Birthdays, well sure we have a cake, but half of us do not eat it.

Fruit is almost just as bad right? From what I have read Lc'ers need to stay away from it too...am I wrong?

Fruit isn't bad for you, but if you are on a low carbohydrate diet then you will want to avoid most fruit because it's a high carbohydrate food. Just like you would avoid tubers and other starchy vegetables.

It also depends on which plan you are following and where you are in your journey. For example, I am Primal and fruit would be allowed but I choose not to eat fruit because I find it too sweet. I eat a punnet of berries on most days though.

Fruit juice on the other hand is just liquid fructose and will wreak havoc with your blood sugar levels because it's so concentrated and easy to consume.

Oh, the irony.

I just contributed to this whole workplace/food issue. Tomorrow, my co-workers will be the recipients of a homemade carrot cake with cream cheese frosting...

...courtesy of all the CSA carrots that my husband and I will not eat!

When this happens I choose to do one of two things.

My first choice is simply to bring my own lunch (if it is a potluck), or "snack" if it is something else. I have my own food, so there isn't that momentary moment of "what about me?".

My second choice, avoid the area where the food is. I personally, do not LIKE to watch others induldge in foods that I know are not good for them.

Now don't get me wrong. I LOVE those kinds of foods, or let me say I 'DID". I am maturing, and growing up some, so Christmas is more then just cookies and fudge, and birthdays ~ well let's celebrate LIFE not with a cake,but with memories! I know it can be tempting and hard, but as one poster said you have to choose what you want to do. You have to choose what you can "live" with.

Somebody sent us one of those fruit bouquets yesterday. Usually I don't eat fruit until the evening and then just a few berries a coupla times a week. But this thing looked so good I just had to have a few strawberries in the morning. Well, I was hungry all day! Everytime I went into the kitchen I felt driven to have another piece of fruit and ended up having a huge lunch and snacking on twice as many lc foods than usual. Lesson learned: no more morning fruit for me!

I can't eat fruit either...more than a couple of bites, and I'm RAVENOUS. Sigh...veggie platter for me! (or even better...meat platter!)

Well I had to deal with this just today. A well meaning sweetheart just wouldn't let it be even after I politely declined until I very bluntly said, "Susan, its MY hips and ass. I DON'T WANT IT!"

After a suprised, "Oh!" she finally accepted that I really was going to live thru the day without the cake.

One of my little mental tricks is to just look around - many of the people feeding their faces with "treats" are not a healthy weight. I do this all the time watching people walking into and out of the Panera bread near my house. It's smug, I know. But every little thing helps.

How can you manage !?!?!

I do think some people want and expect to be talked into the goodie they really want. And then they thnk everyone else does, too.

Hmm.. I think its still the mangia mangia maternal habits that make the (probably) well meaning office mom to force the cake on you. Try not to hate her. But keep the faith.

I keep thinking of what a radio personality says who has lost a ton of weight, "ain't nobody feeding you but you". If it helps, cookies, cakes, etc taste gross after you have low carbed for a while. I havent seen two coworkers for 2 months and they low carbed all summer. They look FAB! First day back at work yesterday, 2nd day of recommitting to low carb....cake at work to celebrate our hard work last year. So I just didn't get up and get it. I also didn't get up and get the country fried potatoes, huge doughnuts, biscuits, and gravy. Only protien was eggs, but since I had eaten, I wasn't hungry. Success is easier if you plan. I hate planning and cooking, but I hate being fat more.

Oh no - I wasn't being sarcastic - she truly is a sweetheart! Thats why I was trying to be so nice and polite about it. No hard feelings on my side anyway! Just wish I didn't have to spell it out so loud and clear. Take the hint already! But she got it good after that!

One thing that made it easier was that the cake didn't not smell. It might have been hard if it were fresh brownies!

My biggest temptation is microwave popcorn. I'm just glad they have bags that are available in single-servings. At least it's not as many carbs as a full-size one. Yeah, I'm not perfect but I have a single-serving of popcorn every three weeks. Workin' at it :-)

Too bad instead of donuts, coworkers could bring in cheese platters, smoked salmon, and ribsteak bite hors d'oevres. I'd be their friend forever...

Me too! And we would know they would be there for a good long time to be able to financially support the habit of bringing me good LC foods!