It’s no secret that I love food. When asked who the love of my life is, I would answer “KFC”. On questionnaires you can find ‘eating’ under the hobbies title. At any given time, you could probably find a chocolate bar or a couple of packs of Sesame Snacks (I like to think they’re healthy) in my handbag. My filing cabinet files food. Top drawer – gum, mentos, werthers etc. Middle drawer – bags of gummy snakes and sour patch kids. And the big drawer at the bottom? Old reference documents….and bags of chips.

After starting a 9-5 desk job, I have found that my eating habits have become increasingly worse. I am ALWAYS snacking! It doesn’t help that I work in an office with a convenience store downstairs stocking anything and everything. Oh, and I should probably mention – I work in food retail , for one of the biggest supermarkets in Australia. So that doesn’t help either because there’s always an abundance of food- especially free – around here!

But why choose a packet of chips over a mandarin? Because it takes less time to pull the sides of the packet open than to peel a mandarin. (Also I don’t know how to peel a mandarin – I have to ask someone to break a whole in the skin for me to start – I’m hopeless, I know. At least I’m not as bad as a friend of mine whose mother SLITS THE BACK OF MANDARIN SLICES AND TAKES OUT THE SEEDS!??!)

Why do I choose Diet Coke (diet counts right…?) over water? Because it’s Coke! It has sugar! It’ll make me more active and productive! It’s all in the science….

And for someone who doesn’t like coffee, I sure drink a LOT of it! Because it’s the only thing that can wake us up of course.

When starting this job, I was fit enough to run a lap on the oval, able to walk up and down stairs without huffing and puffing and able to climb up hills without getting sore knees. Over the course of the year, I have found my fitness disintegrating into nothingness. I walk up two inclines on the way to work and I get puffed just looking at it. I can’t talk and climb stairs because I get puffed after a few flights and I feel lazy

But that’s going to change! Goodbye snacky -junk food and hello still snacky -but –better- for- you food.

If you’d like to keep up to date with Diet VS Desk series in which I will talk about my progress, what I’ve been eating and sharing some recipes and thinks that are working for me – follow my Instagram (@ByMeneka) or subscribe to email notifications!