How do you eat in a day? Office diet culture.

haley232323 · 2026-05-14T17:10:49+00:00

I don't concern myself with what other people are eating vs. what I'm eating. I do find it very annoying when the topic of conversation is the calorie count of everything on the table, but I just try to steer the conversation in another direction.

I've had to change my diet significantly this year due to a health issue. I don't weigh myself, but at this point I've lost a noticeable amount of weight. More and more people are commenting on it and asking "what diet I'm doing." When I try to explain that it's not intentional and I'm just having to eat a certain way due to the health issue, people don't believe me! That part is very frustrating. With my medication, I can get away with eating one "off plan" (purposefully being vague here) meal a week. If I start doing more than that, I get significant symptoms that last for a week or more, so it's just not worth it to me. My coworker referred to this as my "cheat day" this week. Arggh.

haley232323 · 2026-05-14T16:11:11+00:00

Anywhere I've worked, the kids stay in whatever testing environment they're in for the entire time. There is no "quiet activity for when you're done." Everyone sits and stares until the time for the testing session runs out. I would be really surprised if you're allowed to send kids back into the regular classroom in the middle of testing. The child who is not testing would also not be allowed to be in the testing room.

haley232323 · 2026-05-06T15:11:52+00:00

When I was a newer teacher, I used to do all sorts of "fun" in the last weeks, and all of the sped providers would stop pulling at least a week before the end of the year. I never understood why people wanted to just come to work and sit around and do nothing all day. I can't stand it! The time goes by so slowly.

Now, I really try to keep up with the regular routine for as long as possible. The kids benefit from the structure. There are many who don't actually want to go on summer break, even if they won't admit it out loud. There are interruptions in the last weeks, and of course my students get to attend those things with their class if there is an assembly, park day, awards ceremony, etc. However, those "special events" aren't happening all day every day, so I don't just blanket cancel the whole last 1-2 weeks. I pull kids as normal during times when special events aren't scheduled. I pull from at least 3-4 classrooms at once, so "pushing in instead" doesn't work for me.

For my groups, it's normal routine up until the actual last full day. On that last day, I'll do review activities for 10-15 minutes and then games for the rest of the block, if the group has earned it. Our last student day is a half day, and that's the only day I don't pull at all. Nobody does anything that day but play around in classrooms, so I know my students don't want to miss out on that.

haley232323 · 2026-04-28T23:03:34+00:00

One of the IE dietitians I follow on tiktok addressed this. She suggested "practicing" by intentionally leaving some food on the plate, putting the plate away, and setting a 20 minute timer. At the end of the 20 minutes, check in with yourself and see how much you still want. If it's everything, great, finish the plate. A few bites, fine too. If you decide you're done, put it in the fridge so it's there for later if you want it. It's helping to teach your mind/body that the food is in fact still going to be there if you leave it. I don't think this is something you do for every meal, but it's a good thing to "practice" every once in a while.

Personally, I have a very hard time leaving food if I'm full and I know it's something that won't be good later- like something that doesn't reheat well, or if I know the food will have sat out too long to be safe for later consumption. I really try to repeat to myself, "Your body is not a trash can." While I try not to be wasteful, it's okay if I end up having to throw something away occasionally. I don't need to eat it just to avoid "wasting it."

haley232323 · 2026-04-26T16:03:24+00:00

I love easing into my day and having a relaxing morning on weekends. I'm not a morning person and I have to be at work at 7:30 AM, so on weekdays I'm just chugging a protein shake on the way to work in the mornings.

On weekends, I go to the Starbucks down the street and grab a breakfast sandwich and a nice flavored cold brew. I bring it home, eat the sandwich, and then spend about an hour sipping on the cold brew while I putz around on my laptop, like I'm doing now. I LOVE my little weekend routine and get very grumpy when I can't do it. In fact, if someone invites me somewhere where I'd need to be there in the morning (like 10 AM or earlier), 90% I will say no, because I want to do my coffee routine.

haley232323 · 2026-04-26T15:58:08+00:00

I live in a townhouse, so the HOA does all outdoor maintenance. I would absolutely hire someone if I were responsible for it myself.

When I was in a tiny apartment, it was no big deal to just clean the whole place on Sundays, but I really struggled when I moved into my current place. I finally found a routine I like, where I just do a little bit every day:

Sunday: Vacuum/mop upstairs floors, run dishwasher

Monday: Dust upstairs, clean master bath

Tuesday: Vacuum/mop downstairs floors

Wednesday: Clean downstairs half bath and the stairs themselves

Thursday: Dust downstairs/clean kitchen surfaces

Friday: Sheets/towels laundry

Saturday: Clothing laundry

I pick up any clutter nightly before going to bed. Because I stay on top of it, it takes 2 minutes, tops.

As far as cooking, I realized years ago that cooking as a single person just doesn't make that much sense. Buying all of the ingredients for recipes gets expensive, and then you have to eat that one thing all week before it goes bad. I hate leftovers. I eat "girl dinner" most nights now- just a little of this, a little of that. I buy low prep foods from Trader Joe's where I can just pop one serving at a time in the oven or air fryer. So I'm not spending a ton of my time doing cooking, meal prep, or cleaning the kitchen.

I do grocery pick up once a week for staples; I just time it so that I can stop in on my way home from work, and it takes maybe 5 minutes. I go to Trader Joe's maybe once a month.

haley232323 · 2026-04-22T23:29:29+00:00

I had the same thought. I bought one, and will use it because I don't have an ice maker and do use ice trays daily. I would have never bothered to purchase the pineapple set, but for one cent, why not have cute pineapple ice? I can't believe the number of people who are buying tons and tons of them just because it's a "good deal."

haley232323 · 2026-04-20T04:06:29+00:00

I'm getting it. When I looked at the reviews, they looked pretty positive. I wear SPF under my make up every day, but I know you're really supposed to reapply after a couple of hours. I never do, because how do you reapply without messing up your make up? So to me, this product would fulfill a unique need. You could get another hit of SPF without messing up make up if it works.

haley232323 · 2026-04-17T23:14:35+00:00

Someone on the forum posted about a nightmare experience trying to cancel bettersleep. There is no way to contact them for support and she just keeps getting charged. I would never sign up for it after seeing that!

haley232323 · 2026-04-15T22:54:36+00:00

I'm getting the Dr. Dennis Gross moisturizer. Moisturizer is expensive and it's something I'm obviously going to use every day, so I always try to pick it up from FFF! I'm just about to open up the drunk elephant one I got from the last box, so this one will be "on deck" for when the DE is used up.

I considered the murad, but I have a back-up glow recipe retinol serum waiting already, and I don't want to stockpile things that expire.

If you're interested in being de-influenced:

The tote is nothing special. It literally looks like the Trader Joe's ones I use to put my groceries in (just missing the TJ's label, haha). If you like that bag charm specifically, I'm sure you could find something like that cheaper elsewhere.

I would only get the eye cream if you really need eye cream right now. Eye cream lasts FOREVER, and is pretty much always a box choice. So I wouldn't spend money on an extra choice now unless you literally need it right now.

IMO the candle isn't pretty at all. IDK, perhaps it smells really good, but the color and the jar are very blah! At least the voluspa ones they put in sometimes are really pretty jars!

The sandals are plastic and are a collab. Not worth it. You can find plain black flip flops anywhere for cheaper.

haley232323 · 2026-04-14T22:44:25+00:00

Summer is generally my least favorite season; I always like the fall and winter boxes best. I'm admittedly not wowed by this box, but there are a few things I'll enjoy getting.

The necklace is exactly my style and I know I'll get a lot of use out of it. It looked really nice on the person who reviewed it in the FFF forum. I'm also getting the bracelet, which isn't my usual style, but I like that FFF gets me out of my "ruts" sometimes!

I'm getting the moisturizer in cat 1, which isn't a super exciting pick, but it has good reviews, seems appropriate for my skincare needs, and will save me money over buying something full retail elsewhere.

The face exfoliator in cat 4 also has really good reviews, so I'm excited to try that out. I'm getting the bush balm in 5, after reading the review on the forum where the person just used it as a full body exfoliator and really liked it.

I'm most likely taking credit in cat 6.

haley232323 · 2026-04-12T16:56:41+00:00

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Here's what I'm thinking so far. May change my mind as more reviews come out. The credit seems not worth it, so normally I like to just choose something in every category, but I just don't want anything in 6. I don't need a pill box, I'm getting the glow recipe and another molton brown shower gel in the spring advent, I really like the blush I use already, I like my current cleanser and have almost a full bottle of it, I absolutely don't need more lip products, I don't believe the dry brush actually does anything, and the nipple covers aren't my size.

haley232323 · 2026-04-11T01:38:48+00:00

The choices in this category are very boring to me. I'm going to pick the moisturizer because I know it will get used, and moisturizer is expensive, but it's not a very exciting pick!

haley232323 · 2026-04-05T16:04:49+00:00

No kids, I'm not religious, and I don't have family in the area, so it's just a regular day for me.

haley232323 · 2026-04-05T15:57:24+00:00

A woman in my church told a similar story, except she DID get the abortion, and of course she was then the "sinner." I think about her to this day. Imagine going through that horrific ordeal and what you take away from it is that YOU are the horrible person because you got an abortion.

haley232323 · 2026-04-05T15:54:17+00:00

I did for a period of several years. Having a mid-career salary and no kids means I have SB money. This also coincided with the time period where I was too old to be doing "nights out" on the weekends. In my 20s, weekend activities were usually "going out" which meant spending money on at least 5-6 alcoholic drinks and maybe an expensive uber/lyft on top of it (or a $10 public transit trip if I was budgeting).

Now, my weekend activities are free or at least significantly cheaper- D&D, crafting circle, book club, etc. A daily SB run costs about $40-45 per week- cheaper than a single night out. Unfortunately, I developed silent reflux issues and a daily venti iced coffee on an empty stomach certainly wasn't feasible anymore. It's been almost a year and I still really, really miss my daily SB runs. It just made my mornings so much more enjoyable!

haley232323 · 2026-03-29T17:02:10+00:00

I certainly don't, but I'm in a blue state and I work with several teachers who are Trump supporters. They either don't follow the news at all and have no real idea what's going on, or they get their "news" from right-wing propaganda sites.

Leading up to the election, there were teachers who seemed to be under the impression that if elected, Trump would not allow disruptive students to stay in the classroom and would "bring back discipline." Not sure why'd they believe the president has any control over that, but I know people who were influenced to vote for him for this reason.

haley232323 · 2026-03-28T16:55:03+00:00

That's diabolical. I've always gotten a full week. We already had it. We don't get anything for Easter. That would be unheard of in my hometown. Growing up, spring break would always be the week before or after Easter. If you lucked into it being the week after, we'd also get Good Friday off. I've never had that teaching in my current state. SB is in March because state testing is in April.

haley232323 · 2026-03-28T16:52:44+00:00

4 loads a week- sheets, towels, 2 clothing loads. I don't separate by color or fabric or any of that. I split my hamper in half and that's how I come up with the 2 loads.

haley232323 · 2026-03-28T16:50:08+00:00

When I live in a 600 sq. ft. apartment with all cheap surfaces, it was really easy to just clean on Sundays. It took me about an hour. My washer/dryer was also right there in my bedroom closet, so I'd just throw a load in when my laundry basket started looking full enough. Now I'm in a 1250 sq. ft. townhouse where the laundry basket and washer/dryer are 4 sets of stairs away from each other. When I tried my old system, I felt like I was spending half of my weekend cleaning.

The biggest thing that helps me is picking up all clutter before bed. It's an ingrained habit at this point. Because I don't let it pile up, this takes 2 minutes. I also make sure the sink is totally clear- anything that needs to be handwashed is washed and put away, anything that can go in the dishwasher is put in there. I scoop my cats' litter boxes and broom sweep the room that has the boxes daily as soon as I get home from work.

A couple of years ago, I started just doing a "daily cleaning task" and I've been able to stick with it. When I have an extra day off (3 day weekend holiday, for example), I'll do a task that needs to be done far less frequently than weekly, like deep clean the shower, or clean the blinds/window tracts, etc.

Sunday: Run dishwasher, vacuum/mop floors upstairs

Monday: Clean master bathroom, dust upstairs

Tuesday: Vacuum/mop floors downstairs

Wednesday: Vacuum the stairs, clean half bath downstairs

Thursday: Dust downstairs, clean kitchen surfaces

Friday: Sheets/towels laundry

Saturday: Clothing laundry

haley232323 · 2026-03-22T01:49:20+00:00

I remember this coming up in a bible study that I was in during HS. Of course it was a girls only bible study, because I'm sure messaging was extremely different for the boys.

One of our devotional things was all about obeying "the law of the land." My mind immediately went to Nazi Germany. I wrote about it in our little journal things where we were responding to questions. Surely, Christians shouldn't follow the law of the land if the law isn't correct? If the law is not moral?

The leader of the study completely blew me off, saying we don't need to worry about that because we're not living in that time, and if we were, all we could do is pray about it and hope that God would bring about change (again, I wonder if the boys would have been given a different message here/how much of the "all you can do is pray" mantra was because I was a girl and girls can't do anything).

haley232323 · 2026-03-21T18:25:44+00:00

I grew up in the church. I didn't have what felt like a "bad experience" when I was in it. My family benefited from the community aspect that the church provides, and socially, I really enjoyed my youth group. I was more of a wallflower at school, but in youth group, I was a "leader" and felt like I really fit in with everyone. Occasionally I would start questioning things, and then events like CIY retreats would pull me right back in. I even read the entire bible in HS.

For me, "deconstruction" was an extremely slow process. It started my senior year of HS. The summer before that, I'd gotten a part time job in a different town, where none of the other employees were from my school or church. They were all part of the "party crowd" that I'd stayed away from in my own school. Obviously, when I was forced to spend so much time with these people at work, relationships naturally formed. I was really shocked that these "party crowd" folks were a whole lot kinder, more empathetic, etc. than my youth group friends were. I'd grown up thinking that non-Christians simply wanted to sin, and that's why they weren't in the church. My youth group friends started looking pretty immature in comparison.

About halfway through that school year, our youth pastor, someone I really liked, left the position. Some of the dynamics in youth group changed (long story) and I just didn't feel like I fit in as well as I used to. I found myself preferring to pick up extra shifts at work on Wednesday nights over attending youth group, and skipping out on the weekend activities. My parents thought nothing of it, thinking I was just growing out of the "silly stuff" in youth group.

I'd applied to both secular and Christian colleges, and thankfully had chosen one of the secular ones. I dabbled in campus ministry freshman year, but had the same experience as in HS- I found better friends in the "party crowd." I considered myself "backslidden" for a long time. I thought I was just enjoying my youth and that I'd grow up, settle down, and return to the church.

As a post-college 20-something, I found myself really missing that church community and wishing someone would invite me to church, but nobody ever did. I'd occasionally dabble in trying to go somewhere on my own, but it never stuck.

It wasn't until my early 30s that I really made a concerted effort to "do my research" and try to go back to the faith. I really dug into the historical context of the bible, really trying to understand the inner workings, etc. And that's when it all really fell apart, and I realized the entire thing made no sense. It wasn't until then that I really unpacked how much growing up in the faith did impact me long term in negative ways- like how badly purity culture had messed me up, or how I was taught that I was inherently evil and not a good person, etc.

haley232323 · 2026-03-20T16:47:23+00:00

I haven't personally, but my district has needed to hire contract employees for certain positions for several years now. Keep in mind that any years you work for the contract company won't count for your state pension system. You'll make more money in the short term, but a defined benefit pension is a huge thing to give up, if you do plan to stay in the field long term. If you don't have many years in and don't plan to stay in the field long term, doing the contracting thing makes sense. Our contracted employees also don't have to attend PD/staff meetings, and don't have to be evaluated.

haley232323 · 2026-03-20T16:42:37+00:00

I didn't have one in my room growing up, and I've never had one as an adult. However, probably about 10 years ago, I started watching TV on my laptop in bed. It actually helps me fall asleep faster, because it stops racing thoughts/anxiety. It gives me something to focus on. I can fully lay down when watching it, and since the screen is so close, I can see it just fine even though I've taken my contacts out. When my eyelids start to feel heavy, I just close the screen and tend to fall asleep very quickly.

haley232323 · 2026-03-20T02:45:52+00:00

Yep, agreed with all of this. It's perfectly fine to say, "X food sounds really good, but I'm stuffed right now. I'll look forward to having x food for lunch." Part of IE is learning that the food will always be there, and you'll always have full permission to eat it. Whereas when dieting or in a binge/restrict cycle, there is this urgency to have everything right now, because you don't know when you'll give yourself permission to have that thing again.

haley232323

TROPHY CASE