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Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! We have been having a very busy month over here so we are still working towards building up a routine podcast release. For those wondering there are two big methods for podcasts, there are those who really do record and release every week. This is great for shows about current events so they can be up-to-date but it does require the podcast to be on top of this every week and can be tricky if they were to be on vacation or having personal issues. A more common method, which is what I believe is best for us, is to have a “bank” of episodes ready to go so we have recorded two or three in advance and then still record at least one new one each week. This way they can already be scheduled and put out if we were to be out of the office for a week. That is the method we are planning on doing, but still requires quite a bit of work because of how I research and prepare for an episode. Once this is in place, I do love the idea of also trying to add in a second episode each week to act as a much shorter episode which can focus on topics that came up that week or perhaps draw upon business topics that are not likely to come up in The Office that we want to bring up. But we are working on them so please standby!

Working on them this holiday weekend is a big goal but like I said we have a lot going on. The Duluth-Superior Pride is this weekend and disappointingly we will have to miss the big events as we are hosting the bachelor party for my brother-in-law (my husband is the best man which is why we are hosting it at our place). My fellow nerds out there will be happy to know that the night will consist of some killer barbecue, a unique Dungeons and Dragon one shot, and then an assortment of board games, Magic the Gathering, and Mario Party that people can choose from. So nothing crazy but should be an amazing night. After that, my goal is get organized and work on the podcast to make progress.

Aside from that, our main goal lately has been keeping up on our recent motivation to get back to the gym. We are at about a month (give or take) but I can say that I am already down 10+ pounds since the beginning of July. Besides just trying to get active, I have very much adopted tracking my calories and being very particular with my food. While this method is not for everyone, I chose to do this because I am a very snack-orientated person. I found myself using an obscene amount of sugar in all of my morning coffee, snacking on sweets throughout the day, and just simply eating even if I wasn’t necessarily hungry. So I understood myself well enough to know that I require that extra discipline and accountability. My actual snacking is down, instead focusing on 2-3 meals and then usually protein smoothies in the morning and evening. But my morning coffee and all of that sugar was, in my opinion, my big obstacle to address and it was when I swung by the coffee shop that I remembered how much I love a Nitro cold brew. It is the only form of coffee I can actually drink black so I have been stocking up on canned Starbucks Nitro but I am seriously considering getting a maker. The big cannisters are almost $200, but then there are these smaller versions that might be a wise purchase in the long run. I just wanted to share with you all how I’ve been working on myself as of late and maybe if there are others out there hoping to jumpstart their own regimen. And truly the most important thing I’ve learned, and confirmed by a friend of mine who is very much invested in his own physical transformation, is that it is all about just getting out there and doing something. Don’t have the motivation for a run on the treadmill; just walk. Those 20 pound weights too heavy; go with the 15s. And if you need encouragement, then please just give us a shout out here because Breakroom Breakdown has your back and knows you can do it.

Now that we are thoroughly caught up with what is going on here, let us get into the Breakdown!

You will recall that when we were last at Dunder Mifflin, Michael had to be escorted ahead of his two week notice because he chose to form his own paper company. He begged and pleaded with people to come and when it seemed like no one believed in his idea, Pam decided to follow after and become a salesman at his new company.

This obviously resulted in a bit of a shakeup, namely with Charles Miner continuing to run the branch and he chose to put Kevin in charge of the phones. Not to say anything negative about Kevin but as Jim puts it, he does about as well as one would expect someone like him would do. Answering the phone is the easy part, but his struggle is his inability to being able to then transfer the call to the appropriate person. With everyone’s help and motivation he was finally able to get Andy’s call to him; after about three tries.

The exciting part of the day was it was Pam’s first official day at the Michael Scott Paper Company. While the rest of the office (aside from Jim) didn’t remain in touch with her, I did because I really did want to know how it was going. Michael was still bitter about me not going with so I suppose that is understandable. They were very optimistic, which is what I believe you need a large quantity of when you leave your steady job to open up a new company like that. For instance, Apple originally started in a garage but as they were working out of Michael’s condo they already had a leg up on them from where they were housed day one. Since they didn’t have the time to prep and plan for the company, they are very much making it up as they go along. Michael’s interpretation of this is stocking up on office supplies and then hoping a large breakfast of French toast would fuel their motivation.

Very quickly Pam realized how nervous and terrified Michael was in that he hung himself up on French toast as he tried to figure out what to do next. He had no clients, he spilled batter into his crocs, and he felt like a failure. Thankfully he was not alone, because he had Pam to bring him to his senses. She suggested they start with a list of the tasks they need to complete that day so they can start with the easier tasks. This is really not a bad suggestion. Having a list of your day is never a bad thing but especially when you are feeling overwhelmed, the logic is to not just work through your tasks but to also build your confidence. By getting a sense of accomplishment by completing tasks (no matter how small) you are more confident and are more prepared to tackle the bigger tasks. This does work, I mentioned earlier about my friend giving advice on my gym motivation and he really emphasized that by focusing on both cardio and strengths (rather than just just cardio to cut, for instance) you will have those days where you start to notice slight improvements that really give you the confidence to keep going. And I will say those small victories really do change your perspective; I was feeling pretty good with my look today and my whole day did seem to be better.

So Pam convinced Michael to adhere to the list and begin formulating what needs to be done. She was able to clear off “do a work out” and “eat a breakfast” very quickly. His big goal is to “assemble a sales team” of the best sales people he knows, and then they actually have a meeting scheduled with a potential investor. Once he starts going through the list he really did start to become calmer. Pam describes it well in that in relationships, sometimes when someone breaks down it oddly prompts the other person to be calmer. Unfortunately, they need to also add “find office” to that list because their first official piece of mail is a warning from the condo association for running a business from his place.

This doesn’t slow them down from pursuing their dream team of sales people. First one up is Vikram, the top sales man from the telemarketing company Michael had worked at for a period and he jumped at the chance. They then came up to a bowling alley where Michael claimed to have to use the bathroom, but in reality he wanted to convince our old friend Ryan Howard to come (who is now blonde and tan following his trip to Thailand). Well this dream team heads over to the local retirement home where they have a meeting with an investor. That investor? Michael’s grandmother and her investment club. You’d think it would have been an automatic yes but she really puts him through the ringer to try and defend his company and his team. Unfortunately, it ends up being a hard no and this where things start to fall apart as Vikram sees this as a sign this was a mistake and he should head back. Pam also starts to panic as their master plan starts to slip away from them.

This is now Michael’s turn to rise to the occasion and build some comfort and he decides to do this by finding their new office space. He was able to get ahold of Billy (the building manager of the office park) and he actually does have something that is cheap and available. Turns out it is technically a closet, but it is big enough for tiny company and officially forms their homebase. And it provides that comfort Pam needed, that it proves the company is still real. More importantly, it keeps them right near Dunder Mifflin and as they say, “Keep your friends close.”

You may be wondering what was happening at Dunder Mifflin this day? Now that it is clear Charles is hanging around for a bit, they decide to start to get to know him better. And by getting to know him better, they can start to kiss up to him. Andy was able to figure out that Charles is a huge fan of soccer (as known by Americans but this is properly known as football), and then everyone is suddenly a big fan of the sport. Now I am not a big sports guy by any means, but if I was going to try to get into a sport it would be soccer. It is very hard to tell but it does feel like Charles is completely oblivious to everyone is just faking it. I know this because Charles tried to include Jim in the conversation, which he declined because he doesn’t watch the sport, but then caved and admitted he loves to play it. Dwight catches this lie and convinces the office to play a game after work, all to prove Jim cannot play the sport. Charles loves the idea and suddenly he loves Jim despite having been incredibly apprehensive of him the entire time. They get to the game and for the most part it seems to be going fine, until a kick from Charles goes towards Jim who ducked and this caused the ball to strike Phyllis in the face. Charles is livid towards Jim and they all pile on him for avoiding such a shot rather than taking it. I’m just going to say that with the kick that was at him, I would argue you’d need to be a professionally to feel comfortable in intercepting this so everyone can just get off Jim’s back. Charles is angry at himself and taking it out on Jim; but Jim shouldn’t have lied about playing unless he was prepared to back it up so it is also on him.

And that is this week’s Breakdown! I hope everyone can enjoy this holiday weekend and they do it safely. Those in the Duluth-Superior area (or close by) please come on out for the Pride weekend which will have events up until Sunday night, you can find out more at https://www.duluthsuperiorpride.com/.

And I hope to have more updates for you this next week with our podcast so we can get some regular episodes going as we intend to. And as always, I’ll see you around the Breakroom!

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom!

I was going to try to get a Breakdown today but have been a little busy this week due to the holiday, work has been crazy plus I have a bunch of prep work for tomorrow. But despite being “Out of the Office” I did want to come out here and say a few words for my fan.

First, I know you might be devastated over the passing of the “Big, Beautiful Bill” which is going to be devastating to the American people. We will see people lose their healthcare, rural healthcare facilities will need to close, large amounts of money have been set aside to fund illegally arresting American citizens, and the ultra wealthy get wealthier. It is times like this that my faith in the United States waivers and I question what I am supposed to do. But I continue to see fellow citizens remain confident that we will be able to turn this country around, and we cannot be defined by the rampant bigotry we are seeing. So if you also are feeling confused on how to feel, please know that you are not alone and set a reminder in your phone for the 2026 Midterms.

Second, it is okay to use this holiday as a protest against the bigotry. I intend on seeing the new Jurassic World movie (where the evil, rich men typically get eaten) and then spending time with friends and family plotting the queer agenda and reminding each other that there are good people in the world. I know there will also be many protests planned around the country and if that is where you want to be, then I say go for it. Please just be safe, not just in the heat but for potential violence towards the peaceful protestors.

And third, even when you’re being righteous and angry please find healthy methods of dealing with your emotions. I often get very worked up and upset with the world and I have to check myself to bring myself back down. Whether it is video games, dinosaur movies, I do love some good podcasts (Office Ladies and I’ve Had It are my obsessions), or even just having drinks with friends. It is okay to take time away from the anger and try to enjoy your life, so please take care of your wellbeing.

To make up for the missing Breakdown, I hope to do at least one extra post this next week. I’m hoping to have some pretty big things coming this and next month so certainly stay tuned and I am going to work hard to not let my fan down.

Happy 4th of July to you all, and feel free to share how you are celebrating today.

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! I wanted to take some time this Pride Month to single out some amazing, small businesses owned by members of the LGBTQ+ company. While we can perhaps find similar products mass-produced by large conglomerates, how about we focus on supporting our community. I have collected only a few companies with products available but this is by no means a complete list. Happen to know of some other businesses you want to recommend? Comment and share them so we can try to direct as many customers their way as we can!

Modica Cocktail Mixers
Love tasty cocktails at home but hate having to look up the recipes and make sure you have them all? Look up Modica for their cocktail mixers and find your new favorite drink! I think their Blueberry Lavender Lemon Drop will be your beverage of the summer.

MaisoNovo
MaisoNovo is trying to focus on offering convenient storage for soaps and shampoo in your house, and in particular is trying to focus on replacing single-use containers as we know it. They carry their own line of soaps but if you prefer your own, you might love items like their Shower Dispenser Set which can replace trying to find shelf space in your shower/tub for all of your bottles with this wall mount.

Gerrard Larriett
If you are like me, you are a pet parent who wants nothing but the best to take care of your companion. Gerrard Larriett focuses on incorporating aromatherapy in their products to take care of them on a whole other level. How about this Dog and Cat Mouthwash? If your pet’s breath gets as bad as it does with my dogs, I think you’ll be pretty excited to try something new to tackle it.

Boy Smells
Most of us are always looking for what might become our new signature scent, so why not try Boy Smells? I recently treated myself to their Exploratory Set to test out all of their regular scents, plus I got a full bottle of their Citirush Perfume and this might be my new favorite. If you need an incentive, they are donating a portion of their proceeds from this scent to The Trevor Project, so you can smell good and support a good cause at the same time!

Explorer Cold Brew Coffee
Love cold brew coffee but can never seem to find the amount of caffeine that you are seeking? Maybe you need more than they offer, or you need a little less. Explorer Cold Brew offers a range of cold brew concentrate ranging from no caffeine to high caffeine, that way you can find the right level for you. On average I’m going to be an Extra Caffeine type of guy myself, never seems to be enough caffeine in the day.

Bokksu Snack Box
Love Japanese culture and food but find it hard to get authentic snacks? Bokksu brings the snacks to you with their signature product being snack boxes with an assortment of authentic snacks and food from Japan, along with a guide to introduce you to the origin of what you are eating. Their White Chocolate-Infused Strawberries in particular look amazing!

poppy&pout
Going into summer we cannot forget about taking care of our skin out in the sun and most often overlooked are our lips. I cannot tell you how many lip balms I have floating around my house in various flavors and brands and I am excited to add poppy&pout to that collection, starting with their Pomegranate Peach because that simply screams summer flavors.

Bazzle Baby
Now I might not want human children but there are certainly plenty of people there who do and I think you would get a kick out of some of the unique products with Bazzle Baby. Hands down the coolest is the Bib with Food Catcher which is not only really affordable, but so creative. I can think of a few adults who could actually use one of these when trying to eat barbecue.

As I mentioned, this is not even a fraction of all companies owned and operated by the LGBTQ+ community so if you know others whose products you want to recommend, comment and share with our readers. If nothing else, I hope you can get out to a Pride this summer (Duluth-Superior happens to be over Labor Day weekend) because you are guaranteed to find vendors of the community that you can purchase from. I hoping to do more to continue to promote the community to so please stay tuned, and let me know if there is anything special you would like to see here at the Breakroom!

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! As far as weeks go this has been pretty decent work week to be honest! Our big update was put into effect pretty smoothly, all thanks to some solid teamwork. Even better, our home remodeling is slowly coming to a conclusion in the first room so that is pretty exciting as every day the room looks more and more impressive. Plus we completed our taxes and yet again we are getting a small return. The key is to keep an eye on your taxes during the year, and it helps to actually speak to your tax advisor about your W-4 because I have no idea how someone can update their taxes and go an entire year without seeing that taxes are not deducting. Learn some personal responsibility everyone, you made a mistake and now you must accept the consequences.

This is a great segue into what happened around the office this week!

First a foremost, the most exciting news is the fact that we have another engagement in the office! You will recall last week that during our final weigh in, Jim showed up from a client meeting all happy despite the fact that he was drenched from the rain. Turns out he had met Pam midway to New York and he proposed in the rain at a gas station. It sounds like Jim originally chose to not tell anyone but Pam insisted they should include everyone on the celebration. I think Jim was accurate in his decision to hold off letting people know. Most people were not super enthused, Oscar assumed they already were, and overall no one seems too interested. Except for Michael, that is, who actually tackles Jim to the ground when he hears the news.

Aside from that exciting news, the agenda for today is the topic of business ethics. Holly Flax, our new human resources representative, is tasked with conducting the company’s ethics seminar to ensure we are familiar with the policies. Lucky for us, it gets to start with a quiz to basically measure how familiar we are with the company’s practices. These quizzes are pretty common with larger companies and are actually designed so it is very hard to fail them as you would usually need to totally agree or disagree with a provided statement.

This really shouldn’t be a difficult day because the training is literally read out from a binder. But most offices do not have Michael Scott to help them. Michael insists that Holly had some showmanship, and he even helps her with the introduction by doing singing and dancing to the song Let’s Get Physical by Oliva Newton-John except they have changed the lyrics to “Let’s get ethical.” I have seen these types of things occur before where human resources likes to get people excited with a song and dance routine to make it exciting. I am going to be honest and say that they remind me of being back in grade school and have people come and do little musical skits about the dangers of alcohol or sex. Did not like them then, do not like them now, just simply do the presentation in a timely manner and be on your way. Provide a free lunch and I can assure you, that will get the attention of people more than your little dance.

And Holly does try to get right to the point of her training by reading from the binder and walking through the company’s expectations. She talks about how it would be totally wrong to take personal phone calls while on the clock. In addition to this, spending half an hour at the water cooler is another example of what is known as time theft. Rather than working, you are talking or goofing around with coworkers when you are not on your break. In the business world, this is truly nothing surprising because of course the company does not want you to be doing anything aside from working. I was actually surprised that people like Kelly were so shocked by this because those policies exist everywhere. This goes for Holly’s other piece about not stealing office supplies from the office because it is taking from the company. In all reality, we should have simply listened to her, nodded our heads, signed the forms, and went about taking pencils home or slacking off like every other employee in the country does. But this was all a bit too boring for Michael.

He felt we should be having an actual discussion, similar to Oscar who pointed out that true ethics is a philosophical debate while this is just the company’s anti-shoplifting policy. So it can be considered true that there is a difference between business ethics and philosophical ethics. Holly was just trying to give us a very simplified version of what business ethics is, because there are other aspects to the topic. Some examples might be ethic business practices, is our business model in line with the site values or goals that we have in place. Perhaps the company is trying to put an emphasis on environmental sustainability, are all of our practices currently in line with that goal? Maybe there is concern over the fact that some companies have misleading advertisements or social media interactions, are we sure our marketing is being held to ethical standards? At the end of the day, business ethics really is about setting a certain standard of honesty and trust between the company, consumers, and employees.

Since Michael wanted to get to a more serious conversation, he decided to open up the floor to let everyone admit to unethical actions they have made at work. He has promised immunity in exchange for being honest. As Holly mentions later, when it comes to the work place there is really no such thing as immunity or “off the record” so if your boss promises to be honest in exchange for immunity, do not trust it. Even if they are not trying to trick you and they simply do not understand the concept, or have watched Survivor too many times, immunity isn’t legit.

But we do get some pretty shocking confessions. Michael admitted that when he discovered Youtube, he did nothing for like a good solid month. Oscar admitted that he does a long lunch on occasion; that is nothing compared to Kelly who stated that she will download pirated music to her work computer. Just a tip to everyone, your work computer can absolutely be used as evidence against you, so certainly do not use it for anything that you don’t want to be caught with. Angela, shockingly, admitted to calling the INS on Oscar to ensure he was a legal citizen. Not quite sure why she chose to admit this to everyone, or why she really thought it was important. And then Meredith chose to drop the biggest bombshell of them all. For the last six years, she has been sleeping with rep from Hammermill in exchange for discounts on supplies, and coupons to Outback Steakhouse. Needless to say, this marked the end of the training seminar as Holly and Michael quickly tried to deal with the issue.

Michael recognizes this situation is bad and is hoping to let this whole thing slide, while Holly is utterly appalled and believes Meredith needs to be held accountable. The two of them actually head out for dinner to discuss the situation; personally I believe Michael was hoping he could distract Holly to prompt her to drop it. But it doesn’t work and Holly does move forward with submitting the report to her superior at corporate.

While this is all happening, Jim decided to use the entire day to try to catch Dwight wasting time at work. So positive that he never wastes even a second, Dwight is ready to prove to Jim that he would never be caught wasting time. And this goes on all day with Jim monitoring Dwight every second, stopwatch in hand. Dwight goes so far as to do things like sneeze without blinking and urinate in a soda can at his desk, just to prove that he will not be caught. It is worth noting that Jim basically did nothing all day, just to prove that Dwight wasted time at work.

As for Meredith? Turns out that Holly’s leader, Kendal, agreed with Michael that we should let it slide. He sees it as a “morally grey area” and the fact that this was resulting in discounts for the company means it is actually a good thing. While I get that, if this sort of news were to be caught in a news article it would be devastating for the reputation of the entire company. While this might not be anywhere near as bad as a government official accidentally adding a reporter to a social media outlet where they are discussing military actions, it is still pretty bad. I lose a lot of respect for the corporate office here, and personally I feel like this is some pretty shady stuff going on. I think the fact that Ryan was able to go so long with his fraud before he was caught really makes you wonder who is monitoring the actions of the senior leadership. I believe the answer would be, no one.

That being said, I would still consider Meredith is more ethical than Ryan is because she is at least not just in it for herself. She even used some of those coupons to bring is a whole lunch for everybody courtesy of Outback Steakhouse, so that is good enough for me.

So was everyone able to learn a little bit about business ethics this week? Yes, we usually hear about ethics in the workplace when it comes to making sure we are doing our jobs an not stealing, but technically it does go beyond that but how this impacts us is largely driven by our role in the company. Does anyone here have a great example of business ethics that they have encountered at work? Feel free to share in the comments and let us know!

With that I hope you all have a great weekend, and I’ll be sure to see you around the Breakroom.

Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom!

I hope this week has gone as smoothly for all of you as it has for me! Work has actually been pretty uneventful in the sense that it has been calm with no major headaches. This next week will be pretty hectic following some changes behind the scenes but at least we have known about it so we can be ready. The home remodels are going swimmingly and I look forward to seeing the completed work in as little as a couple weeks.

And of course, since this last week we have talked about trying to focus on personal health and wellbeing and trying to celebrate what we have done. I will be honest and say I haven’t gotten on top of the fitness as much as I would like to, although my husband has been so I’m really proud of him! I’m hoping to get back to meal prepping to ensure we are eating properly during the week with lunch time always being the difficult one. But this week has been one in which we have focused on keeping our stress low and taking the time to relax. We have gotten several new video games in the house, including the fact that we started playing a cooperative game called “It Takes Two” which really is interesting because I feel it can truly showcase how in sync two people are. Personally I think we are doing pretty dang good so far, and it is one I would recommend to couples who want to game together. That being said, “Hello Kitty Island Adventure” is also cute and quaint for those who want a leisurely game to play. Our mental health is just as important as our physical health, so I want to continue to focus on managing my stress but I’m still going to use this next week to be more active.

How about all of you? How have you paid extra attention to your physical and/or mental wellbeing this last week? Remember that even a small victory should be celebrated and it should be noted that it really can be a lot of work just to achieve those small ones, which is why they are so important. Feel free to comment with your personal victories!

So what has happened in the last week at the office?

Well, evidently all of the offices under Dunder Mifflin have been doing so poorly with the weight loss challenge that corporate has actually chosen to increase the vacation prize to five days from the previously three.

You might be wondering why a company would be so adamant about such an initiative to encourage their staff to lose weight. Such events and initiatives to support employee wellbeing have become quite popular for a multitude of reasons. For starters, by encouraging employees to be physically healthy they are a lot less likely to need to take excess sick time off work. Just because a company offers sick time for employees, doesn’t mean that they would love it if we never got ill and had to call in last moment. When it comes to our mental health and wellbeing, a big part of it is to quite simply keep us happy in our professional and personal lives. When you’re unhappy you might be eager to find change, or develop burnout at work if your career becomes the primary source of your stress. If one can find no problem with your job or place of work, it becomes that much harder to choose to leave them because you have this connection. Similarly, a company who offers benefits that include plans tied to health and wellbeing become pretty coveted and it isn’t easy to have to give up those incentives to go to a new position. Do our employers actually care about out wellbeing? It is certainly possible because not every large company is ran by supervillains with too much money. But obviously, they are certainly going to accept the reward that in exchange for such benefits, their employees have a much greater retention factor. Finally, as I mentioned last week there is the fact that this weight loss event has an added benefit of fueling comradery at each branch, plus some health competition in wanting to defeat the others.

Now this office is filled with quite a few competitive people, and I happen to be one of them so these competitions can get fierce. I might not be competitive with every aspect in my life, but when it comes to games or contests I can take it pretty seriously. In our office we have people like Creed who measures out rice for each meal and Kelly who is eating next to nothing. And then we have Dwight who decides he is not the the problem, but he knows who is. First, he quite rudely decides to select “random” people to go out and get liposuction surgery (he chose Kevin, Phyllis, and Stanley). He then tries to apologize to Phyllis by taking her on a joint sales call, but all he did was drive her miles away and leave her stranded with no phone or purse. He thought he was being a hero because he forced her to burn a great deal of calories by having to walk back. He disagreed, and that is also how David Wallace felt about the situation when she called. For the record, not sure why she chose to call the CFO about this issue as, if anything, this should’ve gone to Human Resources. This was also the moment that Kelly fainted at her desk because of her lack of eating.

This prompted corporate to step in and try to reiterate that this competition was not to get people to starve themselves but to actually get healthy. Now I am not a nutritionist and this is not a blog about nutrition since I am not qualified to talk about such things (neither or most of the “influencers” out there). But I feel I can explain to everyone that you should be starving yourself because this is not healthy for anyone. For most diets, it might require you to reduce your overall caloric intake each day but this is typically done gradually and still requires you to be eating balanced meals. Do not starve yourself, knowingly ingest a tapeworm, and be weary of any fad diet. Instead, focus on eating healthy, sticking to proper moderation, try to work out, and if you need the extra help to formulate a diet, reach out to a professional on the matter.

As for Dunder Mifflin, they are trying to encourage us to find satisfaction in who we are; going the extra mile is our own, Michael Scott. With a partially inflated sumo suit underneath his clothes, he comes in as “Michael Klump” to promote body positivity. It is possible to want to lose some weight but still be happy in your own skin. It is having such a poor opinion of your body and weight that can lead us to making such poor decisions about our health. This is why it is so important to also think about your mental wellbeing alongside your physical, and the two really should be treated as connected. Michael actually encourages us to say positive things about Kelly to remind her that she is already beautiful.

Just when I thought this was the end of the competition, we got one final surprise. While it is being decided that Utica is the victor, Michael and Holly announce that if we can lose 8 pounds by the end of the day, we can still win. In their defense, I truly believe that they do support body positivity. I just think that they support winning more; as a competitive person, I can see where they are coming from. Michael insists everyone stop eating and Andy tries to crank up the heat to turn the place into a sweat lodge. Personally, I thought we could sneak a win by switching to lighter clothes in order to trick the scale. I suppose it didn’t help that when Jim showed up from his client meeting he was soaking wet from the rain. Never seen anyone look so happy while drenched in rain.

In the end we didn’t win, but I knew it would be a longshot to lose 8 pounds by the end of the work day. Brightside, most people lost a bit of weight so we did succeed in the end and that is what counts. Unless you are able to win, because then that is what counts.

And that was the conclusion to our weight loss competition! I hope everyone is able to find some time to focus on their personal wellbeing this next week, and please share how you do so.

Until next time, I’ll see you around the Breakroom!