(offtopic) Starting a diet by avoiding the cafeteria

So recently, I have decided I need to get in better shape (everybody seems to do this at two points in the year, New Year's day, and the springtime!).  Anyways, I'm in pretty bad shape from a - dang I am getting heavy - perspective.  Since starting at Microsoft I have gained 50 lbs and it's not the healthy kind of weight gain.  This is weight gain despite consistent exercize and endurance training.  Last summer I trained for bicycling to eventually ride a double metric (200 km) at the end of the summer and trained to swim the 2.5 miles across Lake Washington in August. Despite consistent training (actually /more/ exercize than before I started to work here) my weight's been balooning up steadily.  This could be caused by a number of things but I'm curious about one specific variable - since starting here I have pretty much eaten 80% of my meals at Microsoft cafeterias.

I have a coworker who had remarkable consistent weight loss and I asked her how she did it: "I stopped eating at the cafeterias on campus," was her trick.  Just out of curiousity I have decided to try this too to see if it makes a difference. If it works, I'd wager it's because the cafes on campus serve giant portions and oftentimes the healthy options take forever to prepare and are made unhealthy through frying deep in oil and using questionable oil mixtures (I heard the bottle labeled Olive oil is actually only 10% olive oil, the rest being unhealthier but cheaper oils such as canola).  I was also told that some of the salad dressings have high fructose corn syrup making me suspicious that the cafeteria is basically filled with health landmines.  So, me being lazy and impatient, I got the following food from Trader Joe's which looks delicious and is cheap but unfortunately is a little salty:

Anwyays, I'll see how this works out for me.  The cafeterias at Microsoft are extremely tasty but the portions might be too big for me and I have trouble making smart health decisions when eating at them.  Also, if I were closer to the commons - our amazing cafeteria with food from every imaginable culture - I would probably be eating there every day :)

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• Anonymous
  April 20, 2011
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• Anonymous
  April 20, 2011
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