After Lap Band Surgery, Avoid Workplace Weight Traps

After you’ve recovered from Lap Band surgery in Sarasota, Bradenton or St. Petersburg, sooner or later the time will come when you have to go back to work. Work can be a tricky place for Lap Band patients after surgery, as most of the day is spent in a sedentary position and office snacks abound. Not to mention, the added stresses of getting back to the daily grind can easily trigger unnecessary and unhealthy food cues.

Fight off work-related weight gain after Lap Band surgery with these helpful tricks.

Get Up, Stand Up

According to a survey conducted by CareerBuilder, 54 percent of workers claimed that sitting all day at the office led to unwanted weight gain. If your job requires you to sit most of the day while you work, make an effort to get up and get moving at least a couple minutes each hour. Instead of emailing someone in your office a quick question, take the time to get up and walk to their desk and ask in person. If you head out of the office for you break, try taking the stairs, or if you’re on the phone a lot, stand up and pace back and forth to burn excess calories while you talk.

Avoid Stress

Avoiding stress at the workplace is easier said than done. With the added pressures of your boss and coworkers on top of deadlines galore, it’s easy to become stressed out. Thirty-seven percent of people from the CareerBuilder survey believe that added work stress caused excess weight gain. Though you can’t always control workplace circumstances, you can control how you respond to them. Don’t let stress cause your weight to creep up by learning to recognize hunger cues that are triggered by stress.

Once you recognize your hunger is probably triggered by stress, you can make an effort to avoid indulging in unhealthy snacks. Go one step further and rid your surrounding workspace of unhealthy snacks and candies. Lap Band patients have to take extra care in controlling portion sizes and the types of foods they eat. Make sure you only have access to high-protein, healthy foods for when you do actually need to eat.

Bring Your Own Lunch

When lunch time rolls around and everyone in the office heads out to their favorite lunch spots, it can be easy to get caught up in the excitement and overindulge in something unhealthy. Nearly 20 percent of the CareerBuilder respondents said that eating out regularly contributed to their weight gain. Though lunch is usually treated as a mini-vacation from the office, you don’t have to splurge like the rest of your buddies. Instead, bring your own healthy lunch with you to work. You can use portion control Tupperware to keep foods best fit for your post-surgery diet cool and fresh at the office. If you don’t want to miss out on the lunchtime gossip, just bring your lunch with you wherever the rest of the gang eats—just don’t be tempted to order something instead of eating the meal you brought.

Sustaining weight loss after your Lap Band surgery can be difficult at the workplace. Don’t let your workplace environment sabotage your weight loss efforts and use some of these tricks to avoid weight gain. For more help on how to avoid overeating after Lap Band surgery, speak with your Lap Band surgeon.