7 Things you should stop doing right now to lose weight

When you're worried about making it to the office on time, you might be tempted to skip breakfast. In fact, you might even think this is not a big deal. However, while being the first at your desk might impress your bosses, it could also wreak havoc on your weight loss. By mid-morning, you'll be crashing and ready to eat anything you can find. Instead, opt to wake up a few minutes early and eat breakfast at home. Go for a balance of protein and comblex carbs, like scrambled eggs with veggies and whole-wheat toast or Greek yogurt with granola.

There's always that one person in the office that has a candy or snack dish at their desk or who is constantly bringing in baked goods from home. While the gesture is nice, always saying "yes" will surely make the pounds creep up. Instead, focus on why exactly you're always gravitating towards that candy dish. Is it that you want to socialize? Is it that you're hungry? Is it that you want something sweet to avoid the mid-afternoon crash? Whatever the issue is, you can address it in another way once you know what your tummy is thinking.

You probably don't remember the last time that you ate lunch away from your desk, and you're not alone. It's hard to get away during our busy lives, but getting away at lunch can create some mindfulness that can in turn calm you down, make you a more efficient worker, and even make you lose weight since you can focus on what you're eating and when you feel full. Try to grab a colleague and head outside for lunch. And if you can't get away one day, try eating half of your lunch now and leave the other half for later so that you don't overindulge just because you're mindlessly eating at your desk.

You're probably letting work stress get to you and that stress might be sending you straight for the cookie jar. While that's totally normal since the stress hormone cortisol makes you crave sugary foods, all that stress-induced snacking can add up. The first thing you should do in this case is remind yourself that your stress-induced craving isn't actual hunger. Instead, pause and do something to take your mind off of things for 10 minutes. Play with your pet if you work from home or get up and stretch (or go to the bathroom) if you work in an office.

You might think that you're saving yourself calories if you don't snack in the middle of the day, but you're likely to get hungry sometime between lunch and heading home for dinner. If you wait to see if hunger strikes, you might have no choice but to raid the office vending machine or your coworker's candy stash. Instead, opt to bring a healthy snack straight from home. If you have a microwave at the office, bring popcorn to pop around four o'clock. You can also bring an apple and almond butter for a perfect protein-friendly afternoon snack.

Another problem with working in an office and trying to lose weight is that many offices these days have snacks abound. It's not just your candy-loving coworker anymore, but many kitchens are equipped with all sorts of sodas, chips and the like—which might leave you grazing throughout the day. The problem with grazing is that you're not paying attention to how many calories you're consuming, and your weight can easily go up from there. Set up a snacking schedule for yourself instead, and never go for something just because it's there.

Impressing your boss by staying late might be nice, but it can be bad for your personal life. Not only will your family miss you, but your weight might skyrocket if you continue to burn the midnight oil. Why? This is likely because you won't be thinking about having a healthy dinner by the time you make it home and will instead scarf down whatever you can find, even if that's going to the corner pizza place for the third night in a row. If you absolutely MUST work late sometimes, then make sure to stash a healthy commute snack in your purse and prep your dinner over the weekend so that you can have some ready-to-eat healthy meals on a weeknight.