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Comment by jaysonelliot | Hacker News Reader

I would add "Eating" to the list.

I eat at my desk all the time, and I really need to stop. When I eat at my desk, I'm generally eating things that aren't that healthy to begin with, snacking unnecessarily, and/or eating too quickly, and doing it in some misguided notion that I'm able to work and eat at the same time. I'm not actually productive at times like that, it just lets me deal with some illogical guilt I feel when I get up to go eat at a table with other people, or out by myself in the park near the office.

When I get up and go to lunch instead of eating at my desk, I'm taking a real break, I'm socializing, or taking time to think.

I gotta stop eating at my desk.

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Interesting. A couple years ago I started ALWAYS having homecooked lunch at my desk, resisting the temptation to stay and socialize in the kitchen after heating it. Since then, I've not felt the need for snacks of any kind at the desk except the piece of fruit I eat late afternoon.

I have always disliked this practice; in myself and others. Too often people think they're being more efficient, but in reality they're NOT working while eating, but using this time to do non-work that should be done elsewhere to begin with. (And I'm waiting for the downvotes by the same people who think, "Yeah, I know it says not everyone can multitask, but I'M not in that group...".)

Also, it smells. I know people don't think it does, or that it's not objectionable, but it's just another sensory input for everyone around them. People wouldn't give a second thought to asking me to turn my radio down; why should I not ask them to keep their smelly heated-over Lean Cuisine in the eating areas?

I also would like to add that hygiene may become a problem, to see cockroaches on your desk isn't a pleasant sight.

Funny enough: I've found that eating at my desk is HEALTHIER because it forces me to pack healthy food, and then eat whatever I've brought (as opposed to eating out).

I describe this further here: http://justinjackson.ca/8-habits/

You could always keep healthy snacks are your desk. Right now I'm munching on some plain, unsalted almonds that I keep right next to me, along with some fruit and other healthy things. Let's me keep going without thinking about being hungry.

It doesn't fix your punctuation, though. http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/lets.html

Get over yourself.

agreed. i've forced myself to eat lunche outside every day even if there is no one to go with. I get lunch and eat it somewhere on a bench while catching up on hacker news (things i used to do at my workstation) etc. i find that just having a HN tab open in my browser is distracting enough so i totally eliminated it.

To me this is an important step to help get rid of mindless eating.

That kind of eating, where a hand goes reaching into a bag of fried shit to grab one more piece of something you never wanted to eat in the first place.

I'm not great at it yet, but I try to stop myself before every bite and ask "Am I hungry?" in my head. I stop way earlier in meals, I eat more frequently with much smaller amounts, and I honestly have happier meals because I have more time to sit and enjoy my company.

I'm trying to do a water-only desk thing. I can have coffee, but only on a coffee break, etc. Not sure if it will make as big of a difference, but we'll see.

I have this problem and will mindlessly eat anything in arm's reach while working. I used to buy mints for anyone passing by to have, but would eat them myself... and they would go fast. I put on about 10kg before I realised that it was because I was essentially eating a bag of sugar every day...

For a couple of weeks my wife bought me chocolate-coated coffee beans once a week. These lasted about 5min once I remembered about them at work, due to (a) yumminess, (b) tendency just to mindlessly eat at the desk.

After that, because chocolate-coated coffee beans are expensive, I figured I'd cut out the middleman and I bought a 5kg bag of coffee beans and just munched my way through that.

DO NOT DO THIS, even though it sounds cool.

After a couple of hours the increased caffeine made me jittery, my heart rate was up, my head hurt and my skin was dry and scratchy.

After a few weeks I quit that. It was hard. I'm a water addict now.

/CSB

Often when I think I'm hungry, I'm actually thirsty. A glass of warmed water (surprisingly) quashes the need to snack. Cold water is no good. Does anyone know why that is?

Actually, I have opposite preferences, so I can't really help, but I don't enjoy drinking water that isn't cold. I wind up having four or five water bottles that I cycle through refrigerating/drinking/refilling. It's kind of annoying.

I remember reading somewhere once that warm drinks are more easily absorbed by the body than cold drinks. Maybe it's something to do with that?

Not sure why is that, but I think it temporarily fills your stomach and makes it 'relax'. In my experience the same meal if hot makes me feel much more full.

I've heard that fast food joints intentionally try to serve the coldest possible drinks to make patrons feel they are hungry for another burger.

The fraction of visits that involve seconds is vanishingly small.

I was expecting to find this item in the list before I opened it, more so was I disappointed when it wasn't there. I only keep a very small amount of (mostly) "healthy" food, such as grapes, a pepper, a tomato, an apple or a lemon, for refreshment.

Yeah, this is high on my list too. Often I fool myself by thinking that I need to eat to concentrate. Of course it ended up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy (if I don't eat I can't concentrate).

I think a lot of times, what we do at our desk are some sort of "rituals" that we think help us to get into the zone. Most of the time they just get in our way of doing things.

Chewing is scientifically known to help thinking. Swallowing is a side effect.

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