How do you politely say no to cupcakes at the office? Reader A has a great question, with shades of “how to stop the food pushers at the office,” as well as how to adapt to the “snack culture” at a new office, and more. Here’s the Q:
I recently started in a new office, and people love to bring in food and snacks all the time. Trouble is, I don’t like to eat lots of sugary snacks, and, frankly, don’t enjoy flavorless cakes with too much icing. How can I say no without appearing standoffish or snobby?
Well, I wouldn’t include the bit about “flavorless cakes with too much icing.” Instead, how about: “This looks delicious, but I’m good, thanks.” or “What beautiful frosting! None for me though.” or even “I’m not a big snacker, but thank you for offering!” [Read more...]
make clean-up super easy, too.) I have a few other ideas for easy weeknight dinners, and I’ll also list some of my absolute easiest recipes below — I’m a totally lazy cook! (
When I was a young associate, I was continually in a state of fear or trauma. As a result, I didn’t really have the time or desire to make sure that I was eating healthily. To make matters worse, I still had a student mentality about saving money. I pretty much ended up subsisting on the little cups of cream that I would put in the free tea my office offered (I drank a lot of tea). Over the years, I have seen many female associates who have difficult workloads put eating on the back burner. They start to have that sort of adrenaline rush that starved people have, the beady eyes, the cold aggressive handshake. 
When you’re a busy woman, taking the time to cook for yourself can be a luxury. It’s better from a health perspective — you know exactly what’s in the dish, as well as how fresh/healthy the ingredients are– and you can much more easily accommodate special desires (low calorie, low sodium, low fat, low carb) by cooking for yourself. Furthermore, frequently it’s far cheaper than eating out. The easiest way that I’ve found, when I get time to cook for myself, is to cook large batches — but then the problem becomes that my schedule is so unpredictable that half of the batch (or more) goes to waste. Not to mention you get “food fatigue” from eating the same dish so many days in a row. 
