dealing with diet restrictions at work

Jenny952

I recently started a gluten-free diet and up aside from feeling a million times better, I am worried about how to deal with my new diet at work.  Most of us bring our lunch, so that's not going to be the problem.  It's the occasional Friday afternoon pizzas we order, or the lunches during all-day meetings, which happens frequently.  We also have a week-long sales meeting coming up that will require out of town travel.  Does anyone else deal with dietary restrictions?  How have you managed this at work? 

shannm

I don't have a gluten intolerance but I have coworkers who do and I also like PW managed a diet for GD.  

If in your situation, I would reach out to the admin responsible for ordering and see if like was mentioned above, order a salad.  Having said that, the coworkers that do not eat our pizza are often not impressed by the side salad and bring other things to eat.

As for the other ordered in lunches, again, reach out to the admin.  and see what your options are.  

At the end of the day, you may just have to forgo the free lunch and bring what makes you comfortable.  NBD.

emberlee3

I did elimination diets when I was BFing both my kids. I brought my own food 100% of the time. It required planning, but it wasn't difficult. To me, it was easier to know I had food I could eat than to stress about whether the free food would be safe.

jc&cat

Any conference, meeting planner should accomodate dietary needs so you might have more luck there than in the office on a regular basis. In the office, you might be on your own more so. It's not the same however I managed around GD with my pregnancy and i got used to the food packing. Darn pizza used to kill my numbers and that was tough to avoid! GL!

MommyAtty

I was one of those pregnant women who tried to follow all the limitations on diet, like no cold cuts. We almost always have sandwiches for meetings, so I couldn't eat that. Generally, the admins would order something special for me, like a salad with chicken on it or a veggie sandwich. So I second the idea about asking the admin. I was always apologetic for being a pain and very grateful (said thank you a lot), so they never got irritated about the extra work.

momofcatan

I keep strictly kosher, I'm always pulling out my own food at lunch meetings. If there is a special occasion and I decide to go out for lunch with coworkers I always eat at my desk before we go and then just order a drink. It sucks, but its a way of life and I'm used to it. I've tried to order meals ahead of times for conferences, but always packed my own food as back up and had a list of places I could order from if I wanted.

SunAndRain

I was also on an extremely restricted diet while I was BF'ing. It was 100% easier to bring my own food than it was to persuade a group of people to alter their food choices to suit my restrictions.

Quinoa became my best friend.   And actually I turned lots of people on to it as well - it is yummy and healthy and most people are in a "I want to lose weight" frame of mind!

Also, just accept that your food choices will be minimal and far less exciting than in the past.  Yes, you can hunt down gluten-free pizza (which may be prepared in a kitchen that has gluten) but, pizza is fattening so I'd just skip it and go for the protein, veggie and fruit salad.