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Staying In Shape vs. a Busy IT Job Schedule?
tnok85 writes "I started a new job ~7 months ago at a very large company working a 12-hour night shift (7PM-7AM) in a fairly high volume NOC. Our responsibilities extend during the night to basically cover everything but the most complex situations regarding UNIX/Windows/Linux/App administration, at which point we'll reach out to the on-calls. I live 1.5 hours away as well, so it turns into 4-5 15 hour days a week of sitting still — throw in almost an hour to get ready to leave, and a bit of time after I get home to unwind and I'm out of time to work out. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure I have a very slow metabolism, ever since I was a pre-teen I would gain weight fairly quickly if I didn't actively work out, regardless of how much or what I eat. (Barring starving myself, I suppose...) So, how does somebody who works a minimum of 60 hours over 4 days, often adding another 12 another day, and sometimes working 7-10 days straight like this, stay in shape? I can't hold a workout schedule, (which every person I've talked to in my history says is necessary to stay in shape) and I can't 'wake up early' or 'work out before bed' because I need sleep. Any thoughts/opinions/suggestions?"
What kind of miracle solution do you want? Its easy...
For a given workday, after N hours work and M hours sleep, is anything left? if yes, make the decision to work out or to fuck off. If not, then wait for your days off and work out hard. Also decrease caloric intake.
There is no other solution (aside from changing work schedule).
http://www.crossfit.com/ - works very well and can be done almost anywhere with little or no equipment.
Get a treadmill for a desk.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I have tried everything and the only thing that works is to workout at least 4 to 5 times a week and watch my diet. And if I don't exercise at least an hour two days a week I don't lose any weight. Long commutes are tough, but you could take workout clothes and go at lunch or have extended workouts on the weekends.
Seriously, walk around. Get up, and stretch. Take a walk at lunch. Take the long way through the halls. Eat properly - high fiber, high protein. Sneak into a side room and do wall pushups. Use your imagination - imagination and intelligence is what makes geeks awesome. Use your gifts.
I know that sounds weird, but if anyone can figure out how to put a keyboard on an exercise bike, it's this community.
You have certainly painted the situation in such a way that you feel you have no time to do anything except sleep, eat, and work. If working out is a major priority to you, perhaps you should be looking for a less demanding job?
~ I am logged on, therefore I am.
Move closer and/or bike into work.
It's rewarding and fun, and a little bit of biking every day goes a long way toward staying in shape.
Well, the biking is fun, the moving sucks.
Working those hours, in a night shift, that far from home, seems to me like a terrible long term arrangement. You'll cut years off your life. It'll make sure you can't get even a semblance of a social life. As a support job, it might not even pay enough as to allow you to see it as a temporary sacrifice for a better lifestyle later.
Look for another job, pronto.
Try it.
The excuse of "I work too much to stay in shape" is just an excuse to not work out.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Is viewing porn in private considered "working out"?
Yeah yeah, easier said than done, but you're working an unhealthy schedule even without considering the lack of exercise. Is the money good enough that you can retire your burnt-out, fat body in 5 years and recover before you drop dead?
I've been in your situation and there are only two possible solutions:
-get a new job
-move closer to your existing job.
If "get in shape" means essentially "lose weight" you need to eat less. Substantially less.
Don't eat anything which you find delicious -- too stimulating. Stick to stuff that is just OK.
Honestly, those are hellish hours and frankly I think you're insane for working that much. My honest answer, as someone who works out 6 days a week but works a pretty normal 9-5 is that, if I had your job, I wouldn't work out either.
You are working/commuting too much. IMHO, you should be looking to first reduce your hours spent working/commuting. With the schedule you have laid out, you dont have time to properly work out and its not good for your mental health either. The body and mind need rest to operate well, by throwing in physical exercise, you are only going to become more fatigued.
Good-bye
Drop from your desk and crank out a small set of push ups/ sits ups, etc aka "The prison workout." Throughout the day this can really add up.
Also, very large companies sometimes have on-site gyms or some relation with a local gym.
I assume you get a lunch hour? Bag a lunch and have a workout during this time.
If you are not getting a lunch break, I don't see how you can make a job situation like this last for any length of time.
If you work a 12 hour shift in a non-physical job, you're not going to have time to stay in shape, let alone get in shape. However, you COULD take out a subscrption to the YMCA and work out half an hour a day every other day - but you're not going to want to; working a 12 hour shift wears you out.
Free Martian Whores!
Hey, if it worked for Jared, it can work for you too!
If you are looking for some basic things the 100 pushups, 200 squats, and 200 situps work pretty well and do not require much. Even a bike trainer to use while watching tv de-stressing at home would be great. Outside of that you will need to fight for some of your life back. Get time from your boss, make time! Most companies have small gyms at work see if you can get one floated past committee.
Avoid refined sugars. I decided to go off of anything with corn syrup for about a month, just to see what happened. I lost about 30 lbs. It is amazing, the stuff we put in our bodies.
read a book called "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" and stick to it. sounds like your body type is an endomorph and your most likely carb sensitive. eat 5-6 meals a day with more protein, less carbs,and stay active any way you can.
Metabolism isn't static. It can go up or down, depending on how you eat and move.
Make sure you eat breakfast, then throughout the day eat enough to keep your energy levels up. If you are skipping meals, your metabolism will drop to compensate. Eat a good balance of carbohydrates, protein, and fat (and green vegetables, not lettuce) to keep your body on edge and ready to operate when you need it. When I say body, I include brain as well, since it is very much part of your body.
As far as exercise, if you do it right, it will help you unwind. If you're feeling like all you want to do is go sit on the couch and do nothing, it's because you've been not eating a balance or not moving for so long, your body doesn't have the energy or desire to move anymore. You have to help it wake up and become alive, because seriously, who wants to waste all their non-work hours relaxing doing nothing?
Qxe4
Do anything you can to move about - look for a further away parking spot, rather than one close to the door. Take the stairs. You do get breaks, yes? Walk during them.
And watch what you eat. I can imagine that on such a shift the temptation will be to nibble on high calorie snacks and drink lots of soft drinks.
Try and take healthy snacks that you can nibble through the night, and get a water bottle, keep it full and drink lots.
Could you turn some of your unwinding time into exercise time? Maybe stop at the gym even for thirty minutes on your way home? Or go on your way to work, and use the showers there to get ready for your night-time shift.
I would look for a different job or move closer.
In this recession, "a different job" would likely pay less than half the hourly rate, and "move closer" might be difficult if the significant other commutes in the other direction.
Take your meals and snacks with you, and make sure that they are rich in fiber, not in simple carbohydrates. Fiber is very filling and takes a lot of energy to burn. My wife recently started making tex-mex soup/stew out of chili powder, beans, corn and ground beef. My stomach isn't bothered by it, and it generally gets me through the day on a serving size that is about 450-550 calories. If you take snack bars, it's important to make sure that you buy the more expensive onces that are mainly complex carbs and protein, and not just simple carbs and candy coating.
Find a job that isn't killing you first. Done the night shift. Done the long hours and commute and 4.5/hrs of sleep/day. Never done the two together and don't recommend either.
Not to be obvious but: do whatever you can do on your breaks.
I used to go out with someone I met at a work location and do TaiChi. Yoga comes to mind. Crunches/Push-ups/curling a freeweight comes to mind as well.
After every call (or every 30min without one) drop and do (say) 20 of any of the above. Even if that ends up being once an hour (hour long calls?) a 10-hour-day will have 200 push-ups/stomach crunches (for a freeweight, working it while at your desk isn't bad; but remember to switch arms from time to time).
Durnig your break, go for a run.
Welcome to IT. Find yourself a chick that likes chubby guys. I myself work in a large office building and use my hour lunch (when there is time for a lunch) to walk up and down the flights of stairs in the building. Won't do much to keep the buffness but keeps the waist down a bit.
Somebody already mentioned CrossFit, which I've been considering doing. But then I also came across this very interesting article about a new study about exercise. Bottom line, it's possible that you really need very little time exercising every day. It's the *intensity* of the workout that matters, not the amount of time.
This fit very well with the Crossfit philosophy, which is a single exercise per day, but very intense.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Get a bike rack, a bicycle, a good headlamp and some very reflective clothes.
Map a bike route from your worksite to a terminus about 6 to 10 miles away (where you can park your car). Optimize the route for safety and speed.
Drive your car to the terminus every day and ride your bike into work in the morning and back to your car in the evening.
This isn't rocket science; pick one or the other.
(I suggest you pick the health, and loose that job)
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KETTLEBELL! What is it you ask? It's a cannonball with a single handle on it.
I'm in a similar boat, in that my metabolism had been stuck in park since my mid-teens. Approaching 30, I started doing something about it.
I started working with a kettlebell in march, and promptly lost almost 30 lbs by mid-may. I've fallen off the wagon with a new job, and need to start working out regularly, but it's incredible. The workouts are Short (15-20 minutes) but very intense, keeping your heart rate high.
Do a search on Youtube (or better yet, my account has a bunch of good training vids favorited: www.youtube.com/psiphyr). Look for "Enter the Kettlebell" by Pavel, and get yourself a kettlebell. You can take a look at my blog (again, fallen into a state of unlove since I started my new job 6 weeks ago) to get some ideas for how I built my routine.
WARNING: This is one of the most intense exercise programs you're going to find. It's what the USSR used to train their Spetnaz. Check with your Dr, especially about your heart and/or asthma. This is a fast and effective way of working out. That does not mean it's easy.
I realize that you have a relatively insane schedule, but go back and read your comments. They are nearly all self defeating. Working out regularly is like quitting smoking - it's something YOU have to want to do for yourself and your own benefit. You'd be amazed what a simple set of adjustable dumbbells and a weight bench will do when used for only 20 minutes a day 3 to 4 days per week. Throw in some form of cardio on your days off from lifting, and you're doing far better than most of the general public.
Also, if you are truly serious about staying in shape, take a good look at your diet. Years ago I switched my diet from overly processed starches and red meats to include more whole grains, skim milk, water, whole fruits and vegetables, and green tea. My energy levels easily doubled. The amount of time I spent sick dropped.
Seriously, if you truly want to get in shape, you will make time for it. All it takes is making it a habit, which will probably require a 2 month investment on your part, whether you feel like it on a given day or not. There are days when I don't feel 100% like working out, but once I get about 5 minutes into my routine, I am up to the challenge.
(1) Try living closer to your work. That long commute is more draining than you realize.
Assume you need 8 hours of sleep a night. Working a 12-hour shift, you are using three quarters of your free waking hours commuting. This leaves you one hour for eating, exercising, and anything else you want to do.
So probably you're not getting enough sleep...which means you are more stressed, which also leads to weight gain. Add in the lack of exercise, and your cortisol levels must be getting pretty high. So not only do you have little free time, you are gaining weight, and you are slowly reducing your life expectancy.
My suggestion is to move or find a new job. Seriously.
I did the long hours + long commute routine for years. I can't believe how much better I felt, and how much healthier I was, when I moved and got a new job with a reasonable commute and slightly fewer hours (50-55 instead of 60+). That's even though I was hardcore about ensuring I got 30 mins of aerobic exercise 5 days a week when I had the long commute & hours.
Of course, then I started having kids, so any time savings I had are out the door, and I've packed quite a few pounds back on due to lack of exercise.
But seriously, something's got to give with your schedule. You can give up your health, your commute, or your job. Pick one.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
You have to decide if you can create a situation where you CAN work out for 30 minutes a day on the schedule you've described, or, you're going to have to change your schedule. I imagine you take time for lunch? Eat at your desk and spend 30 minutes on a bike or treadmill or something. I suggest this because it seems like people don't just get up and run outside anymore. If you're at a weight where running is bad for you, start with walking. You also say you 'unwind' when you get home. Make that time exercise time too.
You've really put yourself, though, in a position where all you CAN do is work this sort of job with the hours you say it demands and the distance you live from it. If you truly want to be fitter, you will have to make necessary adjustments. There's no quick fix here and you'll have to understand and accept that. I might also say that as an engineering consultant, I work the same hours you do and live an equivalent distance. I make the time.
Meth. I have yet to run into a fat meth-head.
That appears to be your entire (current) life. You can't sustain that.
But in the short term, for exercise, look into biking. No, it doesn't have to be ALL the way to work. Split the task. Drive, and bike in for the last 8-10 miles or so. At the end of your shift, bike back to the car and drive home.
Or do the same but walking. Walk the last mile to and from work.
Do what I do. Bring a workout bag and run or crossfit during your lunch hour. Find a shower in your building or nearby and use it. Or use wet paper towels. Don't laugh it works. Eat your lunch back at your workstation after you workout. I was in a similar situation to you about two years ago and was slowly turning into a slug. I made friends with some one in the building who ran every day rain, snow, or shine. I hurt for about two months but it got better.
Wait, you say you don't have a lunch hour, work in a city can't run, or a myriad of other excuses. It's all B.S. and I used them all too. If you are working 60 hours a week and being productive you get at least an hour break in there unless you work in a gulag.
It's worth it, and life is short. I wouldn't trade the fitness I have earned for just about anything.
It is not enough to succeed, others must fail. - Gore Vidal
Meth will help you lose weight and stay away during your long work hours. It will also help lessen your dental bills in the long term.
Often times my brain is tired before bed, but my body is not. If that makes sense. This makes it hard for me to go to sleep. Lifting some light weights (dumbbells that can easily be put in a corner when not in use) and doing things like pushups and situps before bed makes me more tired and lets me go to sleep better.
Also, doing weight training in any form helps you burn more calories when you're just sitting around doing nothing. Your body has to support those muscles and that takes energy.
You'd be amazed how much you can do with just a chair and a pair of dumbbells.
Count them. If you don't know how much you are eating, then you don't have any clue if you are eating too much or not. Figuring out how much you are eating is the first step.
Simply counting the calories you consume may be enough to make you realize an easy way to cut out a few hundred calories; remember, 115 extra calories a day is equivalent to about 1 pound gained a month.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
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Funny to read your post I was just thinking about this before going on Slashdot. I've found it very difficult to find time the past year. I normally like to exercise in team sports but found it difficult to work since not being flexible if I also want a bit of social life and time for the misses ;-) I work between 50 and 60 hours a week and find myself drained at times.
The first thing was to recognize that I need to prioritize this in order to function properly and secondly tried to minimize the time by combining activities or finding something more appealing than just working out (tried that and ended up quitting after a month).
Here's what I've come up with:
1. I bike to work (12 km each way)
2. I go for a walk/run/threadmill early in the morning (6:30-7:00). Hate doing it that way but enjoy listening to podcasts.
3. I found a sport I really enjoy. In my case kite surfing, but it could be anything. What I like about it is that it's individual, but at the same time very social and I can do it when I have time - or when the weather allows it.
4. And more sex ;-)
Hope it helps.
Is there a swimming pool near by? How about a park?
Excercise is a good way to wind down and can also help you sleep better.
I'm lucky the building where I work has a shower, so I can cycle to work 45 mins each way.
What are the options for moving closer to cut the commute time?
There is no way that you are being paid enough working first level support at night in a NOC to justify a three hour daily commute. I know the economy is in the shitter right now, but you are simply abusing yourself. Your question doesn't say what your personal situation is like (do you have a spouse/significant other, what does she do, etc...), but your first priority needs to be to relocate as close to work as possible, or, alternatively, to find a job in the same zip code where you currently live. That three hour commute is essentially three hours a day of unpaid work. Over the course of a year of 4 day weeks, that is almost an entire extra man-month dedicated to your job, for free. Don't be a sucker.
Blogging Weight Loss, Distance Education, and more at verlin.com
You are in a bad situation, with respect to fitness. You are quite right that work and sleep, and a bit of down time, must come before an exercise regime.
The danger will be that as weeks of this turn into months, and you haven't exercised, that you'll become so lethargic that you can't bring yourself to exercise when you get the chance
My recommendation is that you make a point of each week doing at least some exercise, however light. Better to go for a walk around the block, than to resolve to run a mile, and not do it.
Even better, would be to get some small exercise every day. If at all possible, try to go for a 20 minute, or even 10 minute, walk at lunch time. It will keep you in shape (somewhat), and clear the head for the rest of the day.
Eventually, as your body clock adjusts to your new schedule, you will be able to do some more demanding exercises, but that time will come a lot sooner if you keep doing regular light exercise.
I'm a software visionary. I don't code.
I have the same problem and I must tell you all what I discovered 3 weeks ago. C.L.A. is an Omega 6 oil that makes your body burn more fat MAINLY around your belly. It also slows degradation of muscle if your work-outs are farther between. It's only $10-$15 a bottle. Then there's arginine; although most sites boast it as a "Herbal Viagra" you should check wikipedia. It has an amazing list of health benefits. Take it for 8 weeks on, 4 weeks off, etc. Lastly, Green Tea works really well in combination with CLA, because it gently speeds your metabolism, helping CLA burn your belly fat. DO NOT take anything else that speeds your heart, ephedrine, etc. I've tried all of these in the past and the gentleness yet effectiveness of CLA is unparalleled. I hope this helps. If you only take one of these three, make it CLA. And keep weights near your desk. I use them during wait times, keeps my energy up, and keeps me lean.
Do you have six minutes a week?
Might as well just keel over and die.
Sorry. ;-)
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
Look up Hacker's Diet, in that book, there is a 15 minute workout routine that works great for me. It starts out easy, but it gets much more difficult as you progress, however it only takes 15 minutes, ever, if you do it right.
I used to commute 70 miles to work daily. I found it soul crushing. IMO life is way too short to lose 3 hours of it every work day in a car. If this is your dream job, find a way to move closer to it. If it's not, then spend whatever time you have worrying about finding a closer job. Once you've eliminated the commute you can find a way to live more actively. Maybe you can bike to work like I do.
In the meantime just try to eat the best you can, lots of raw vegetables is my suggestion.
What about working out during lunch? At my old job (that had a fitness center) I'd spend the first 30 minutes of my lunch working out, then the last 30 minutes to run somewhere to get lunch and eat it at my desk when I got back. That worked out nicely for me. As an added benefit, the endorphine rush you get from working out does wonders for making the remainder of your shift more pleasant.
I commute to work on a bicycle almost every day. That's 2x11 Km each day. Some of my colleagues have longer commutes.
I enjoy it a lot, and consider that in Finland there is a ton of bicycle paths, so one doesn't need to risk his/her life while cycling.
Of course, if you're in most of the US or Canada, you're shit out of luck, but there are some cities that are cyclist-friendly even in North America.
BTW, as a general comment about your life: I think your lifestyle is deeply fucked. You basically don't have a life. If you are married, you are sacrificing not only yours, but your wife's and your children's life as well. You'll die just like the rest of us, buy you'll wonder where did your life go.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
TAPEWORM...These little suckers will keep those pesky pounds off with minimal effort.
1. No elevators, no escalators - ALWAYS take the stairs if you can.
2. Go out to lunch, don't bring your own. This might be hard when working at night; at least walk to a convenience store to buy coffee on your food breaks.
3. If you drive, park in the farthest place on the parking lot. Walk fast or even run from/to your car if you can't spare the time to walk.
4. Exercise while at your desk. Get those "stress balls" to exercise your forearms. Do some sit-ups when no one's looking. Go to the bathroom or another floor so you have an excuse to use the stairs. I made a habit of walking up and down 4 flights of stairs every day at work (in addition to using stairs for legitimate things like getting to work)
5. Drink black coffee, tea, or diet soda. Caffeine increases your metabolism.
6. Do fast but intense workouts at home: push-ups, sit-ups, stuff that will tire you in 5 minutes if you can't spare more time.
7. Make up your lost workouts on the weekends.
I workout during lunch. If it doesn't happen during lunch for me then it doesn't happen at all. Find a workout place close to your job.
Schedule some maintenance work or emergency preparedness exercises where you have to move 2U+ servers around the facilities. Work yourself up to 4U+ as you go along.
Or you could just bring a couple dumbbells to work and lift while at your desk.
Weight loss is a matter of willpower, but it's also a matter of having the right technique. All the willpower in the world won't help you if you're doing the wrong thing. And weight loss isn't about exercise (at least for me), it was about eating right.
I spent two years running 30 miles a week, and eating bad foods. I lost 15 pounds in 2 years (and wore my knees out in the process).
I spent six months eating healthy food and weightlifting 2 days a week. I lost 30 pounds in 6 months.
Notice the difference.
1. Cut out sugar, flour, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes from your diet. They spike your insulin and give you that gnawing hunger.
2. Give yourself 3 skip meals a week where you violate the first rule, but not too much. Only a bit.
3. Eat a portion of white meat two meals a day. It slows your digestion, and keeps your body from starving itself of protein.
4. Eat salads, fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts until you are full (but only after eating your protein.
That's really all there is to it. No secrets. For the first two months, my "exercise" was reading the newspaper in the sauna and I lost 15 lbs in that time. I did start weightlifting after a few months, and have almost doubled my benchpress and legpress weights in only 4 months. My waist has gone from a fat 40" to a loose 34". I feel like a million dollars.
Maybe after your condition necessitates back or heart surgery you'll re-think how much you value this job.
I did for mine.
stronglifts.com 5x5 strength training program
I started this program 4 weeks ago. If you can take a 1 hour lunch, you can do this program. I was struggling with a 12 hour day 5 days a week, wanting to get in shape but not sacrifice my precious time with my wife and 2 small children for a workout routine. I was also finding that I was very slothful and lazy on my time off on the weekends because I was so out of shape and worn out from the week...
I now work out 3 times a week, 1 hour at a time, over my lunch break. It is an effective workout that encompasses a great range of muscles and brief cardio (which I intend to supplement with runs over the weekend). I feel tremendously stronger and more energetic on the weekends, much more ready to tackle those home improvement projects that come with owning a fixer-upper...
The workout is short, but terribly hard, and always getting harder and moving towards heavier weights. You alternate between 2 different sets of 5 exercises per workout. It includes squats, deadlifts, press, benchpress, and other bodyweight exercises...
I highly recommend it...
As someone that experiences back pain if I don't exercise regularly, I will tell you this.
You have to make time for the things that are important to you: exercise, spending time with your children,
spending time with your spouse, etc. If I let my job work me during every second of the day, that is my own fault.
I am entitled legally to x amount of minutes for lunch and breaks and I use those to exercise at a gym during
my lunch hour. The more I exercise, the better I feel, so it is always worth it to make time. My company offers
these benefits, and I would be a fool to not take advantage of them.
music lover since 1969
I understand this predicament all too well. And working out substantially is critical to your mental and physical well-being. Try asking yourself what you can do at the gym in order to save time at home (or the office). Here is what I recommend:
- Find a 24/7 gym, or at least a gym with very good hours. Preferably on the way to work.
- If, for example, you shower in the "morning", then don't shower at home. Wake up. Bring a change of clothes on way to work. Use gym. Shower / shave. Head to work.
- Do this for 2 or 3 of your work days per week. And work out on the 2 days that you get off. Obviously, this varies.
- Plan on working out for an hour or so.
- Bring the paper if you typically read this at home.
- Or bring journals, reading edification, potentially email on a smartphone, etc., -- anything that gains back a little time for you at work or home. - I'll leave the specifics (cardio, weights, stretching) up to the professionals.
I know it's obvious. But nothing is going to give you a good concentrated workout quite like 60 to 90 minutes at the gym. And since you shower there, you are discussing 4 to 6 hours / week... well worth it. I gained back about 1 hour of that time per week reading the paper in-between sets. And I do answer critical, quick emails on my iPhone. Yes, get up and walk around and stretch at work and all that, but it's going to be hard to come anywhere close to this regime using any off-the-cuff or "creative" solutions.
Period. Even if you could find a way to manage to work out around your current schedule, you wouldn't be keeping yourself healthy. You would simply be wearing yourself down even faster.
Talk with your supervisor or whoever you can about getting a shorter work day (8 hours) and being able to work more often (say, 6 days a week, if you need to work around 50-60 hours a week). If they can't understand why that is a good idea (seriously, this is actually even better for your company due to the productivity boost and overall morale boost), then you should not be working there. Go find a job somewhere else, preferably somewhere closer to home that follows some sort of ethical guidelines about human labor.
It is not worth the years of your life you will kill off by trying to work out and keep up a 12-hour work schedule at the same time. You'll just be throwing away your life if you do.
You work a 60-hour work week. Apparently, you also get a poor amount of sleep. Working out involves recovery time. Adequate sleep is paramount to a sound body and mine.
You can't do a workout program? You can't wake up early? You really can't do anything outside of your days off. You want a magic fit pill? You want longer days? You want what does not exist.
The answer is blatantly obvious: find a new job or face the fact that your mental and physical state will erode over time.
It is comforting to know that IT doesn't require common sense.
Night shift all by itself will greatly degrade your health. If you want any semblance of normality, don't switch back to days on your weekends! Of course, this will destroy your social life, which is very important to your quality of life. Either way, you're screwed.
Your job sucks. get a new one, or demand to go to days.
Move closer and bike to work.
Consider that your exercise and your unwind time can be combined into one. See biking to work.
Take your lunch break and go to the gym. Every Night. Do It.
Get really good sleep.
Bring your own healthy food to work. This will take extra effort. Don't eat out of the Spinning Wheel of Death (vending machines).
You're pretty much screwed unless you can get a treadmill attached to your cube. If you can, then a nice slow walking pace through the day will take care of most of your problems. Good Luck getting your boss to OK that one....
Seriously... Get a new job. It's not worth it. I did it for 8 years and it turned me fat and grouchy. It had a good part to play in my divorce. Oh, and I lost touch with all my friends who didn't work nights. All for fleeting money.....
-T
-Tony
Ask for (or purchase yourself, if need be) a keyboard and monitor stand that will allow you to work while standing up. If your employer is likely to balk, couch it in terms they can understand. Let them know that the sedentary nature of the job may lead to poorer health, and that poor health costs more (in health insurance and lost work). Note how a very inexpensive accomodation (some sort of podium/stand) would allow you to model healthy behavior at the office, and that healthier employees cost less to insure. It may seem like a pain when you first start out, but you'll grow accustomed to it, and your body will burn more calories just because you are standing. In the course of a week, that can add up to a significant amount.
If you can eventually add a cordless headset, you'll have greater mobility, too, allowing you to keep moving while working (when possible).
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
Get a portable EMS unit or 5. With an ample supply of batteries you can twitch youself back into shape. If your really strapped for time you can throw an electro ejaculator in the mix which would help with the social aspect of your slavery.
Do you want to stay alive or do you want to die? Work out.
[signature]
I keep a 45lb dumbbell in my cube. Anyone says something I ask them to preacher curl it. That shuts them up quick.
The body will adapt to it's lowest activity threshold.. Just make that harder and your body will adapt. Also watch the junkfood.
Seriously.. get a workstation that you can stand at and work from there for four hours a day.
Just the act of standing for say four hours a day will help your metabolism. The extra activity will help burn away mental cobwebs too.
Rumsfield had a standing desk in the pentagon. He did a lot of his work from it. If that 70 year old guy can stand most of the day you can stand some of it.
But "Move or Die" can mean many things. First you can move your body: exercising in the simplest ways. Walk a mile when things are slow. If you have time to do push ups and sits ups at work, then you have time to walk as well. Work out every day you aren't at work. Accept that your life is about Work and working out and that you don't have time for anything else. If something else is getting in the way of working out, then accept that working out isn't important enough. unless you're willing to do the second or third move.
Next "Move where you work": you have to decide if you wish to continue working at a company that appears to have no concern about your physical or mental health and well being. The Company may not care if you're burned out and dying from heart disease in 20 years, but you should be. If you can't do the first or third "Move" you have to decide if the loss of physical health is worth the financial compensation you get.
Finally: "Move where you live": If the first two options aren't viable, then perhaps you should consider that a 90 minute commute is insane under these circumstances. I personally have an hour commute after a 9 hour day. And I'm seriously considering moving much closer. If you're in a house that's devalued because of the economy, then it sucks, but you have to decide if the financial hit you take from moving (and remember, you'll save a ton on gas every month not driving that 100+ mile trip every day).
In the end if your health is that important for you, you'll have to figure out what sort of move you want to make, and if none of them are viable, then accept you'll be slowly dying until you change your mind.
"The bass, the rock, the mic, the treble. I like my coffee black, just like my metal" - Mindless Self Indulgence
I've actually been doing a little bit of dieting over the past couple weeks because I want to trim off some pounds. I've been doing only calorie reduction without any real exercise. Using the free web site fatsecret.com, I log everything I eat and all my activity (which right now is sleeping and resting). My goal is to maintain a 500 calorie deficit each day, but some days I haven't even done that well. Nevertheless, I've lost 6 pounds in 2 weeks. Staples in my new low cal diet include: cottage cheese, fruit, Clif bars, yogurt, chicken. Make sure to get plenty of protein. Unfortunately, I do have a habit of eating out a lot, so I've done some research to determine which items I can order at some of my regular restaurants that fit into this goal.
My first suggestion would be to make working out a priority. By that, I mean get into a mindframe where you will do whatever it takes to get a workout in each day. To the point that it is unacceptable to you if you don't. It has to be at least the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd most important thing to you each and every day. No exceptions.
Once that happens, you will start getting creative about when and where you can work out. You'll be surprised how much time you can actually find once you put serious thought and effort to it.
I travel a lot and I face many of the same problems you do. The first step to getting any kind of normal pattern going is to work out whenever and wherever you can and be flexible about how you work out. If it's a high priority, then it will pre-empt many many other things. That's OK. In fact, it's kind of the point. It's precisely what I mean by making it a priority -- it has to be important enough that you can't imagine not doing it.
If it's a "choice" each day, then you won't be consistent and most likely, you won't make it a month. But if it's a non-optional thing for you, then I think you'll FIND a way to make it happen. Whether that means you jog to work each day or not....you'll find a way.
There is no mystery to weight loss. Turn in your geek card if you believe you spontaneously gain weight while eating less than your energy requirements.
3500 kcal (aka Calories) above or below your your BMR + activity level corresponds to 1 pound gained or lost, respectively.
If you're 30 years old and 5'10" at 200 pounds, with a sedentary lifestyle, then your BMR is about 2000 kcal/day, and your activity level brings that to about 2400 kcal/day. If you eat 100 kcal/day more, you'll gain a pound in about a month, but if you eat 100 kcal/day less (or just run 3.5 miles/week), then you'll lose a pound in a month. If you do light exercise a couple times/week, you'll probably burn about 2750kcal/day and lose 3 pounds/month.
That feeling you get that you're "starving" yourself is a product of the fact that you've conditioned yourself to eat when you feel stressed. Learn to tell the difference in hunger and stress. Drink lots of water, take your vitamins, and get plenty of fiber. Focus on eating "filling" foods with little caloric value.
I'll leave it as an exercise of geekdom for you to figure out the rest. You have to earn back your geek card, OP.
When I worked shift, We'd do sit ups and push ups on the hour every hour. sometimes just for a few minutes each, and sometimes until failure. Sure if your in the middle of a crisis you can't do it, but its good for when you aren't. You can always bring a yoga mat if your floor is to dirty.
The time you take to unwind when you get home is probably what would become your exercise time. Exercise IS unwinding for those of us who do it regularly.
I worked a ridiculous schedule years back. My rule of thumb is - if you have time to brush your teeth, you have time to exercise. I was working 60 hours a week, and spending another 40 hours training for ultramarathon.
My advice:
1. Get rid of your TV. Don't turn it off - get it out of your house. It will change your perception of time and slow things down. Can't explain it any better.
2. Keep a time journal. Every 15 minute chunk in your day needs to be accounted for. Why are you spending an hour each day getting ready to leave?
3. Start managing time like money. Where can you cut 15 minutes out of your day?
If this sounds drastic, it is. There's no magic pill solution to trying to work 12 hour days and living 1.5 hours from work.
Support microSD: in a post 9/11 world, it is unwise to carry your data on media that you cannot comfortably swallow.
Try Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Most cities have a few places around that teach it with schedules during the day and at night. Try a few hours at a time (as little as 1 or 2) a few days a week. It's great cardio.
You can make much more money with the kickbacks from
the health care lobby.
Send us an update after your election.
Regards,
Kilgore Trout
Between wresting with compilers' obscure error messages, documentation that doesn't document, project management that doesn't manage projects, customers that cuss, and all the other ills of the trade, my body is in great shape.
I'm also former department champion of the self-hair-pull. Unfortunately I lost that title when I ran out of hair.
Get one of the desk yoga books or desk workout books, there are excercises you can do that wont leave you all sweaty but get the heart and metabolism going. Eating healthy will be the key component. Less activity means you need to be more careful as to what you put in your body and the amount you put in as well. if you get the urge to snack then take a veggie or something or drink lots of water.
when you wake up drink two glasses of cold water that alone will boost you metabolism by up to 30%. Working out before you go to bed is not prefered but is better then nothing. Make sure you get up and stretch every once in a while too, something as simple as stretching can keep your metabolism going.
you really only need to do 15-30 minutes of cardio/resistance 3 times a week to maintain a good weight, assuming you arent eating 5 huge meals a day and packing in like a million calories ;)you can do it, just seek the advice of a nutritionist and trainer, not the slashdot crew.
I worked IT for +10 years and for the first few it was awesome but eventually I got sick of having my life revolve around my job.
I quit and got a job as a concrete form carpenter. Total blue collar working in the sun from 7am to 3pm stuff. Almost like something out of the movie office space.
40 hours a week. A straight eight and out the door every day. Never work weekends, never get calls in the middle of the night. There is some physical stress involved but ZERO mental or emotional stress. I am healthier and happier than I have been in years.
I work out quite a bit, but I mostly weight lift and lead an otherwise stationary lifestyle. Recently I have been walking to work which I am staying near work for a few months and its only about a 10 minute walk to work. I have actually been seeing improvments in my overall appearance about 2 months after just walking back and forth to work coupled with exercising in a gym. Try moving around more, also diet is about 80% of the equation. Its all a numbers game, you need to actually track what you eat and be aware of how many calories you are eating, a coke here and a handful of M&Ms there REALLY adds up. Diet soda is not much better either since it robs your body of nutrients it needs, and fills you up and then empties out quickly making you hungry and crave sweet things.
Make a list and track everything you eat, if you really want to change the way you look you need to change your lifestyle and most people won't change the habit of eating poorly and not exercising. Its a multi sided problem that I think you can do, you just need to put some effort into it. Think of all the years you haven't worked out and all the junk food you have eaten it takes time to get rid of these things. Keep at it and stay focused. I wish you success.
So, how does somebody who works a minimum of 60 hours over 4 days, often adding another 12 another day, and sometimes working 7-10 days straight like this, stay in shape? I can't hold a workout schedule, (which every person I've talked to in my history says is necessary to stay in shape) and I can't 'wake up early' or 'work out before bed' because I need sleep. Any thoughts/opinions/suggestions?"
Any thoughts/opinions/suggestions?"
Yeah, don't be such a "oh it's so hard" EMO dude.
Seriously. You can't hold onto a workout schedule? How about when you drive back home, you immediately put some shorts and a pair of tennis shoes and go for a 10 minute jog?
You don't have energy for a 10-minute jog? How about a 10-minute brisk walk then? And how about setting a timer at work that rings every 30-60 minutes as a reminder to get off the chair and stretch (flexibility is part of being healthy, perhaps more so than being lean.)
And on your free days, whichever free days you get, regardless of the the frequency, go jog some more, do some push ups. Even if it's only one day every two weeks, you sign up for a gym and you go.
Better yet, find a gym close to work (and not close to your home). That way you forced yourself to work out even by a little after work (as opposed to drive 1.5 hours and be too tired as shit to work out when you get home.)
Get a Billy Blank's Tae Bo DVD and do, say 15 minutes of it on your free day, then little by little increase that. Wake up 10 minutes early and do some jumping jacks and push ups.
Yeah, yeah, I know, it's nowhere near to be an ideal workout schedule, but then again, there are people out there who can't study full time, but take one class at a time, and after twice or trice the amount of time, they get a master's degree. Which brings me to the following: how bad do you want it?
Educate yourself about your eating habits, and work out whenever you can, even if it means just one set of push ups and 50 jumping jacks every time you wake up. At the very least it will provide you with the mental boost that you DID something.
In general, long hours, commutes from hell, and a fucked up schedule is not a barrier to work out. Having children usually is. I KNOW BOTH. So, from the bottom of my heart I'm telling you to change your mentality - a mentality where you feel there is so much going on in your professional life that you cannot work out...
Also, I'd say that you need to re-evaluate your working conditions at some point. I used to work like a fucking drone, and in the end, it's not fucking worth it. So you gotta do whatever it takes to get to a professional and financial point where you indeed, really and truly do not need to work like that. 50 hours top per week, anything else is just hamster-running-in-circle bullshit.
People who work like that ALL THE TIME, specially those who do it on purpose to get some retarded executive career objective are just retarded slaves to the grind.
Unless you have your own company which is struggling, or are a single parent or are a recent immigrant with a bunch of kids to support, you don't need to work like that. You should not. Get some balance in your professional life so that you can better take care of your self, physically, educationally, socially and emotionally.
Good luck brother.
unless of course you have mandatory drug tests. If not, every person I've ever met that did meth was anorexic skinny.
if( !changeJobs() )
{
what works for me....
you need to workout at least 3 times a week (at least i can say that for my body).. 1 hour - not more, not less (so you don't burn yourself out)..
at the end of your workout you need to be exhausted.. or you're not working out hard enough.
that said.. you have your weekends.. with a schedule like yours, you should NEVER miss a workout on the weekend.
if you can regularly workout on both weekend days, that leaves you with just 1 day to workout during the week - which makes for a much more manageable goal.
}
goodluck.. and really you should change jobs. because, it must be reaking havock on your social life...
Staying in shape is easy. Round is a shape.
The key sequence to access my Slashdot bookmark in Firefox is Alt-B-S. I don't believe this is a coincidence.
I have found over my years that you will burn out if you don't take breaks. For me taking at least one break a day and devoting that break to walking is a great way to keep your metabolism functioning. Sure, you won't drain the calories by simply walking, but you will burn a few, and you will have the bonuses of keeping your legs moving and helping your mind clear itself and refocus.
Combine that with the other suggestions about regular aerobic exercise (at least 3 times a week) and healthy lifetime eating habits (cut out all regularly consumed sugar drinks for one!!), and you will slowly see pounds drop.
There is simply no other way to do this in a healthy manner... don't procrastinate start today! All those stupid motivational slogans are right. You have to be the one to take action for your life.
...making excuses.
BTW Great start!
I recently started doing the 5 factor diet. Very easy - all you have to do is eat high glycemic index foods (unprocessed, so no flour, sugar, etc) five times a day. Eat every 3 to 3.5 hours. Exercise 5 times a week for 25 minutes.
The net effect of all of this is that your body's metabolism is set by what you eat. Call it optimizing your metabolism.
My current plan is to put the following into plastic containers:
2.5 ounces of chicken, either purchased or grilled, or whatever
3/4 to 1 cup of steamed brown rice
A few vegetables
Some meals, I'll have a few cashews so I can have a little fat in my diet.
I prepare them at most 5 days ahead of time and throw them in my refrigerator. In the morning I eat one (or prepare something more appetizing than chicken and rice but with equivalent nutrition). Three and a half hours later I eat another. Three hours later, another, and repeat and repeat. Five meals down, and I was NEVER starving during the day.
I'll walk for 25 minutes when I get home from work. During work, I do a few exercises that require nothing but my body. Every other day I do a single set of lunges, pushups, situps, calve raises - all fairly simple. They all take less than a minute and I can feel the results very quickly.
Once a week, on Saturday or Sunday, I eat whatever the heck I want. Cheat day. Then back at it again making my meals, packing them away, and getting ready for the work week. Never have to worry about what I'm eating next as long as it's prepared ahead of time!
I'm losing a good amount of weight on this, and it's maintainable.
5 factor diet or not, just remember to watch what you put into your body during the week and you'll do just fine. If that is too hardcore for you, try weight watchers or if you love crunching numbers, take a look at John Walker's (creator of AutoCad) website. He had the same problem at work. Took it upon himself to figure out the equations behind the weight. Worth a read at the least. http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/
This is going to sound harsh because I'm sick to death of whiners like the OP who know god damned well what the solution to their problem is, but it's not easy enough to meet their level of motivation.
There are 4 options available to you, and only 4.
1. Find a job that lets you work humane hours. Keep in mind that by working those kinds of hours you're perpetuating the cycle not only for yourself, but those around and who come after you. Can't find a better job? Then there's something wrong with your resume, fix THAT. "This economy" is not an excuse as there are plenty of jobs waiting to be filled, "my skills and resume sucks" is the excuse you're looking for.
2. Move closer to work. Don't pretend that's not an option. The real world sometimes is a pain in the ass, deal with it.
3. Make time to exercise. Sleep less, watch less TV, etc. By my math a 4 day work week means 3 days to work out all freaking day long if you really cared about doing so. The fact that you can't/don't feel like working out before or after work doesn't explain the lack of exercise on the days you don't work. Hell, just throw out your desk chair and stand up during your shift...let me guess, you don't want to do THAT either?
4. eat less. doesn't help the overall physical fitness but will reduce the weight gain. Yes, I know you're magical metabolism will produce weight gain by converting ambient sunlight to fat or whatever it is you think happens. Eat less you jackass, your body can't make fat from nothing...you have to eat the food first.
I've been an IT professional for over 15 years, so yes I really to sympathize with this issue. I put on 40 lbs my first few years of IT. Now I run, 4 miles every day. It sucks, it takes a lot of time, and it's not easy. So cry me a river you p**sy.
A lot of people gain weight. The ones who didn't were all very dedicated to staying in shapes. A few things I picked up that helped me out.
-Don't just grab chipotle/mcdonalds/whatever takeout before your shift starts. Bring a salad and a sandwich, or other food you make at home. You get to control the portion before you are hungry, you can make it healthier, and you save money.
-Take some breaks during the shift. Obviously this might not be possible depending on your job, but I used to go on about 1-2 mile walks during my night shifts at 3am. If you walk briskly you can easily do a mile in less than 20 minutes, so you don't even need that long a break.
Even if you don't want to do something like that, I would sometimes just spend 5-10 minutes jogging up and down the 6 flights of stairs... just anything that gets your blood pumping and doesnt involve vegging out in a chair is a good thing.
-Going back and forth between nights and days sucks and destroys your energy and your body. Stay on one schedule as long as possible. For better sleeping I got addicted to earplugs and an eyemask. Good sleep (and ENOUGH sleep) makes a big difference.
-Lastly, and this is the part that sucks the most and I could never manage...I knew people who after 13 hours on shift would go to the gym and jog for 45 minutes, do some light workouts, etc. I never felt motivated enough to do that, but all those people were in good shape!
I absolutely loved shift work and night shifts, but it DOES take a toll on your body and mind (which is why I stopped that job).
http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/10_minute_trainer.do
There's a ton of good advice in this thread surprisingly. Hershal Walker was one of the most ripped guys in the NFL for a long time. People were scared of this guy because of his fitness. He ate nothing but garbage too. I read an ESPN the Mag article that said he basically got ripped from sitting around watching tv (soap operas) for like 8 hours a day and doing nothing but pushups and sit ups during commercial breaks. So obviously it doesn't take much. I work about 60-70 hours a week in IT spread over a 5-7 day work week. In light of the responsibilities that I have and the demand of the job, I asked management if I could have an extended lunch break 3 days a week. They agreed and 3 days a week I take an hour and a half lunch break and go to the gym. I feel that this was a very fair compromise for both the company and myself. Me staying healthy means less sick days and less medical problems therefore lowering my medical expenses and raising my reliability. Just bounce it off your supervisor/manager/HR departments head and see what they think. It doesn't hurt to ask at all. Sell it to them as an investment in a valuable resource (you).
I work a similar situation to yours, with one important difference: I live 15 minutes from my office.
When my commute hit one hour, I found a location that was still convenient to friends and such, but a closer commute to work (in fact, it's a counter-flow commute, which is pretty nice). Thus, I'm only "work" for about 13.5 hours a day on work days, which allows me time to eat, unwind, exercise, shower and get to bed and still get my sleep.
Bicycle + generator + power cables + workstation = full shift work out...
Eric
Eric Aitala
www.f1m.com
Oh wait a minute, I had a job like that once, and I did quit!
I worked 6PM to 6AM doing Mainframe Operations for several years. If something went wrong over the night, I would have to stay until both my manager came in and for the 8AM conference call, making for a very long day. Add in that I had a 45-60 minute commute, and I was in the same boat as you. IF you have the option, move closer. For family reasons, I did not have that option.
The money was extremely good for me, and it's what kept me going for so long, WITH overtime, I was making in the low six-digits and since I worked nights I never had a chance to spend my money. I used the money to set up a CD ladder (12, 12-month CD's), and I built on to them until I was tired of putting up with the work. If you aren't making enough money from this position, look for another job.
I loved working the night shift. I was always going the opposite way of traffic, and sleeping all day was something I loved. If you hate these house, find another job with better hours.
After I gained weight, I wanted to lose it so I could fit into my clothes again. I had a favorite pair of khaki pants, and when I went to wear them after a several month hiatus, I popped the button off. That made me serious about losing weight. Cut your calorie intake. NEVER eat fast food, if it's the only thing available, go hungry (drink water or straight black coffee to help with hunger pains). Buy fresh fruit from a grocery store and eat that.
Find a secluded area (I know I was self conscious), and do squats, slowly, look online for the correct way. Form is better than amount.
Also use that area for pushups, and situps. Make a map you can do for a walk (if available, not everywhere has this option).
If your routine is interrupted, CUT THE CALORIES. If you don't get a chance to walk or do the squats, don't eat. You might hate the answer, eat less, but that's the one. If someone puts pizza in front of you, or hands you junk food, throw it in the trash without thinking about it. They will stop taunting you with food eventually, and you will be hungry and thin.
That's what worked for me, and I feel I was in an extremely similar situation. I left that job over 3 years ago, I make less money, but I work a day shift for only forty hours. Remember the CD ladder I wrote earlier? The monthly yield from my CD ladder paid off my car and is now working on my mortgage.
What kind of miracle solution do you want? Its easy...
For a given workday, after N hours work and M hours sleep, is anything left? if yes, make the decision to work out or to fuck off. If not, then wait for your days off and work out hard. Also decrease caloric intake.
There is no other solution (aside from changing work schedule).
This.
I will first tell you to stop being a lazy fuck and use google to find the information you need. You can't tell me you're working every minute you're at work. And what about your "unwind" time at home?
Now obviously that isn't going to help you too much since you are lazy and you wanted this handed to you. Here's some real helpful advice:
First find out why your metabolic rate is the way it is. Thyroid problem could be possible.
Obviously muscle will burn more energy than fat. This is a given. However weight training might not be too much of an option for you. There are foods you can eat to boost this. I've read that spicy food in particular does this (but the source never mentioned why). I assume it's because of the acidic content of spicy food. It probably helps to break down what you've eaten faster. If you're a fan of spicy things, this is good. Just don't go around giving oral. Your partner may nott like their parts feeling like burning.
Drastically change your diet. You don't necessarily need to go on something specific like low carbs, and even then diets like that are just to start you out. You can find calorie counters on the internet that will ask for your gender, height, weight, and general physical lifestyle (you would be sedentary). From that, they will calculate the approximate amount of calories you will need to sustain that weight, and then recommend a caloric intake to lose weight. Usually a safe bet is 400 to 500 calories less if you are overweight.
Those two pieces of advice are obvious ones, and big ones. Changing what you eat can't be too hard. Don't like certain foods? Too bad. Don't be a bitch and suck it up. Learn to like those foods that are healthier.
Whatever you decide to do, it's going to be a lifestyle change. If dieting will be your answer, well, it's hard at first, but once you stick with it for a decent amount of time you'll feel better. Honestly though, you need to decrease the amount of hours you work anyway. People are significantly less productive after 8, and more so after 10. You could also choose to move closer to your work. You never said why this wasn't possible.
Find a new career. Work shouldn't be your life.
Seriously. Allowing an hour for lunch, you're describing a schedule that's 44 hours per week minimum. Even in the US, full time is 40 hours per week. If you're working a 4 day week, the standard is TEN (10) hours per day, not 12. And you claim you sometimes work a week or longer on this schedule without a break? Your salary had better be well into 6 figures to put up with that kind of crap.
Second, why the hell do you live 1.5 hours away from work after 7 months? That's absolutely insane. MOVE! I could understand waiting a month or two to see how things go or even until a 90 day probationary period is over but 7 months?
You're getting fucked. Right in the ass. With no lube. And, as long as you continue to grab your ankles and grit your teeth, you'll continue to get fucked. Stop it.
I've know people who worked 28 or 32 hour "days". That is you just treat 28 hours as you circadian rythm. it means your sleep/wake schedule drifts from the day/night cycle, but it still overlaps it so you can have productive interactions with regular humans. IN your case since you claim you are working all the time, it's obviously not a big deal if you don't perfectly sync with others socially.
if you go to that cycle then you will now have 4 or 8 extra hours of wake time in which you can exsercize. you are actually awake slightly more of the time so it's a net gain for waking activity.
people I've know who did this find it sustainable for an entire year.
if you are really productive working 15 hours a day then you probably are a candidate for this regimen.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
It sounds like you indeed need to consider both your priorities and your resources. I have had a similar experience over many years, but due to my high metabolism my symptoms had more to do with back and neck pain and a distended stomach. Now I feel much better after following much of the advice here.
Ask yourself:
Do you need or want this job? How much money can/will you spend to improve the situation? Are you willing to enlist friends/others to help?
Specific ideas:
* Blog/twitter to all your friends that you are changing your lifestyle significantly to become healthier; ask for their support and to hold you accountable
* Visit a doctor for ~$25 to generate ideas
* Visit a personal trainer for ~$100 to generate additional ideas
* Do a cardiovascular workout during lunch at your company or close-by gym or hotel; arrange for showers in remote location if necessary; working out will decrease the amount of sleep and food you crave/desire
* Get a core exercise ball for ~$8 and sit 10-20 minutes of every hour on it at work:
http://exercise.about.com/cs/abs/l/bl_core.htm
* Or upgrade to a Swopper office chair for ~$800:
http://www.relaxtheback.com/wheeled-swopper-office-chair-product-6390350-6389773
* Increase raw green vegetables, lean meat, tofu/beans, non-wheat whole grains, raw fruit
* Eliminate/reduce sugar/fructose in all forms, fried food, caffeine, aspartame, soda, refined flour, wheat, spicy food, tomatoes, juice, citrus, ibuprofen and other drugs
* Take a food allergy test for ~$500; this alone may completely solve your weight problem
* Take a thyroid test; this also affects metabolism
1. Don't snack. Just keep track for a few days.... 1000+ calories is really easy. 2. Move closer. Dude - An hour and a half. That's two gym workouts a day. 3. Get a sport motorcycle. Three hours a day in the "front leaning rest" will burn energy. 4. Did I mention - moving closer. Fuel must cost a fortune. Finally, Quit and pimp your skill frelance via VOIP and LogMeIn for about 20 hours a week and make the same money.
That's no way to live, the fact you ask this over here means deep inside you already know the answer is to get another job.
I rather get paid less (as long as it is enough) in exchange for free time to live life.
HTML is obsolete. It's time for a new, simpler and richer markup language.
How about biking a portion of your commute to and from work? Put a bike rack on your car and drive all but the last 5 miles, find a good place to leave your car (parking garage maybe?). Bike the last three miles into work. Reverse the process going home and you have 2 good work outs each day. Depending on the terrain (hills, highways, and so forth) you might need to adjust the actual route you take. At the most, this should cost you about 1 hour (avg 15-18 mph plus set up time). With that being said- I'm all about working with the circumstances to produce the best outcome..... but none of this will matter if your job requirement (not weight) kill you first. After all - sleepy drivers and/or people who routinely cope with high stress levels have a very high mortality rate.
xxxxxxxxxx
It's your mess. YOU clean it up!
It doesn't take any time to simply not overeat.
Overeating is taking in more calories than you burn. The guy who created the company AutoDesk made this great free e-book ( he sells nothing ) for geeks to control their weight that way. It is called the Hacker's Diet:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/
I have a fuel efficient system too. I used the Hacker's Diet to take off 48 lbs and I have kept most of it off for several years.
Maybe you can combine managing your calories with a brisk walk or a run for 30 minutes everyday on meal break?
Off the bat, learn to drink water, diet soda, plain tea or plain coffee while you are at work. Regular soda, tea & coffee condiments, juice, milk and sweet drinks can easily pack on weight. It only takes an extra 250 calories a day ( typical of most drinks ) to put on 52 pounds a year. Most of those other drinks easily have that many calories.
Good Luck
Get a different job ASAP. I used to work for EA and had the same problem. If you are health conscious you'll start to notice undesirable changes to you other than just simple weight gain and loss. In my opinion no amount of money is worth your health.
I haven't been in a situation quite as extreme as yours, but I was in a long-hours and high-stress job with a long commute last year. My only workout was bicycling long miles on weekends. I held my weight steady, until at the end the craziness hit its peak and I put on ten pounds in two months. (And I don't mean ten pounds of muscle.)
Like other posters, I urge you to change something if you can. Get a better job, move closer, something. What you are doing is crazy. If the pay is golden, do it for a while. If it is a stepping stone to something better, make sure you actually get there; don't burn yourself out forever waiting for an opportunity that isn't coming.
All that said, if you must do this, be sure to eat a healthy diet. It's a pain, but you probably need to bring your own food, so you know what you are eating. You need to eat lots of protein, and high-quality carbs (not white flour, white sugar, white rice...).
A book called Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is my bible for this stuff. It's sold as a PDF over the Internet; see the web site for details. Here's an old Slashdot posting where I summarize the ideas of the book.
That book tells you how to measure your body fat percentage, then use that information to calculate how many calories you should eat of what foods. One of his testimonials is from someone who said he is paralyzed and cannot exercise; by following the diet recommendations of the book, he was able to lose some body fat and improve his health.
By the way, I changed jobs and I now am in a lower-stress job. I still bicycle on weekends but now I'm working out at a gym two nights a week; and I've lost all the extra weight I put on in my previous job. I can tell you: it's easier to keep it off than to lose it again after you gain it. If your job is making you fat, that is a very good reason to get a different one.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
I willing to bet that your idea of "staving yourself" is what I call a healthy diet.
Don't get me wrong, I know people have different metabolisms and it can be a struggle eat right. It's important to not only eat the right amount but also the right kind of food because it can be different for everyone. But still, whenever I see the excuse "I can't do it without starving myself" I get highly suspicious about how much they are actually consuming.
Have your thyroid checked. You want a TSH level of 1.0 or lower.
If you live less than about 20 miles from work, you could begin riding a bike to work and back. It will take about an hour to an hour and a half to cover 20 miles (in a fairly flat part of the country, after about 2 weeks, you should be able to hold about 15mph average). If you make good money, you can easily cover the $800 for a good "commuter" bike. Look at trek, cannondale, specialized, masi, or felt bikes. You will trim down in no time and feel a lot better about yourself physically and emotionally. Of course, this doesn't help if you live where it snows, but in the winter you can stay in shape other ways like running on a tread-mill at home or in a gym 3 days a week, that will get you thru the winter.
Caveat: Your question was essentially time- management-themed. This answer is slightly off-topic: Assuming you just can't drag yourself out there to burn off calories, attack the problem from the other direction.
You're on slashdot. You must have at least some hacker mentality. Take the rules you're stuck with and work around them.
1. No time to exercise
2. Your body needs x calories per day to maintain its weight
3. If you eat more than x, you gain weight
4. If you eat less than x, you lose weight
Go to http://walking.about.com/cs/calories/l/blcalcalc.htm and punch in your stats as "sedentary". The resulting number is your target. Keep a spreadsheet where you track all of the calories you consume. (Get this data from the label or from restaurant Web sites.) Consume fewer than x, or at least no more than x.
You'll be surprised how many calories there are in the foods you eat. Some macro tips:
1. Lots of soluble fiber--makes you feel fuller longer
2. Diet soda only--for obvious reasons
3. Reduce sugar overall--your body's insulin response to sugar can make you feel hungry even when you're not
4. Drink lots of water--makes you feel fuller longer
I have had several jobs with hours that left me too tired or busy to exercise. This method has always worked for me. There are also online calculators to determine how many calories you burned by exercising for x minutes, so factor that into your equilibrium point if you do manage to work out.
If Jason Bourne can do pull ups on a fishing boat at sea, I'm sure you can do push ups or sit ups in the hall.
Eat 6 times a day in small volumes to increase your metabolism.
Get an exercise bike and mount a laptop to it to workout while working. You couldn't even geek it out to power the laptop with a DC converter.
Your nerd card has been revoked for lack of imagination.
I don't envy you. The amount you work isn't healthy and will lead to health problems and/or burnout.
If they're paying you good for all this, move closer. If not look for a different job.
In the meantime. Use your breaks and mealtimes to fit in excersize. Walk up and down steps.
Kick (juggle) a soccer ball or hacky-sack around. Take a long walk. Keep a couple barbells at work.
Any muscle mass will help burn calories. Get a slip-n-slide for home. It cools you quickly, is fun, and can really burn calories.
Try finding a healthclub near where you work and go there right before or after you work.
If your company was nicknamed "Big Blue", move your e-mail to public, I'll let you know who I am and really make you mad.
easy.... sell your car and buy a bicycle
Seriously, I bought this thing when it first came out, and I lost 20 pounds in a couple months. I know it seems silly to think that such a non-game will hold your attention and keep you working out, but if you have a desire to work out and lose weight, it will help. If you don't really have an interest in working out, it probably won't hold your attention long. But if you do, it will teach you some basic workouts, and the videogame-esque style may give you that extra ambition to get to it.
The easiest way to avoid gaining fat is to decrease insulin production by avoiding carbs; no bread, pasta, or sugars other than those naturally occurring in fruits and vegetables. Then, eat more legumes and greens.
I'm going to assume you won't change your job or location to create more time in your life to actually do the exercise your body needs.
The next best thing you can do is tune your eating habits. Because you're fighting calories in/out imbalance, and you have no tools to improve the "out" part, you must focus on the "in" part:
* Don't buy calorie-dense foods. Slowly wean yourself completely off cookies, cake, desserts. If they're around, you'll eat them.
* Start shitfing towards a more "vegetarianish" diet. If you eat out, make sure it's a salad, bean salad, tofu dish, stir-fry veggies. Learn to skip the meat and load up on the fiber.
* Replace those 300-calorie Coolatas with a mug of low-fat low-sodium chicken broth. Broth really does kill the hunger pangs and has close to zero calories (30 calories in a 48-oz can).
If you want to avoid buying ever-larger clothes, you're going to have to re-tune your eating habits for the reality you've put yourself into. But you can do it -- it's all about being consious and making choices. Do it one little step at a time, and keep doing it.
Good luck!
"3500 kcal (aka Calories)..."
AKA a dietary calorie = kilo calories; that is, 3500 kcal = 3500E3 calories.
Find another job. Slavery and staying in shape doesn't go together, unless you're in some manual labor kind of slavering.
I've been in your shoes...even made it to 300lbs before I made some changes. [1] Eat small to medium size meals 6 times a day. It's not about quantity of a single feeding, but quality of what you eat and how often you eat. Split food into groups - protein, carbs, fats, vegetables. One serving of each at every meal, 6 times a day. (About every 3 hours.) Just get in the habbit of slaming it down at your desk during those 10 minute slash dot breaks. [2] Buy an adjustable bench. Not a bench/rack/whatever combo, just a padded bench. You should be able to adjust the bench to lay flat, and to 45 degrees up. If it can do 90 degrees up, better, but not necessary. This should cost about $100. [3] Get you a decent set of adjustable dumbells that allow you to dial up a weight with slip on, slip off plates. A good set will run about $400 - $500 dollars but is well worth it. It should allow weights between 10 and 60 lbs or so. [4] Buy a $30 book on weight training to learn good technique. The Schwartzeneger encylopedia is a good one. [5] At this point, you've spent about $600, less than a yearly gym membership and have something that fits in your place, even if it's a 1 room flat. You can work out on your terms. [6] Work out 3 to 4 times a week for 45 minutes. No more, no less. You should do 15 - 20 sets of a variety of exercises with 30 seconds to 2 minutes rest between sets. [7] You can do flys, pullovers, presses, and abs from the bench. You can have dumbells in hand and step from the floor to the bench to work legs, or dumbel between feet and extend. If you do this - only asking for a 2.5 hour comittment per week here - you will be exercising effectively and go through some amazing changes. Me? I lost 100lbs and now do inclined benches at over 315 lbs. The personal trainers ask me for help.
Don't starve yourself. That will further slow down your metabolism. The key is to pack lots & lots of healthy small snacks and snack throughout your shift. I lost 42 punds in 8 months that way. I also pace a lot while on the phone.
My typical snack items include cheese sticks, yogurt, granola bars, fresh fruits, fruits cups, pre-cut veggies, 1 cup of mixed nuts etc, small salads, turkey or ham sandwiches etc.
If you keep your metabolism burning food it won't have a chance to slow down or go into starvation mode. Eat light but eat often and bee sure to drink lots of water.
Another trick is after you drink a cup of hot coffee is to slam a glass of very cold water. Your body can't process any of it until it becomes body temp. You'll remain full longer.
With the schedule he's laid out, he barely has enough time to sleep. By my count, he's got just one hour a day to prepare meals, read a book, date...
You're going to get fat and lonely with a schedule like that, and the loneliness is only going to make you fatter as you try to fill the void with food, and the kind of food you'll have access to with only an hour to prepare and eat is not going to be very slimming, even if you use peapod.
If he can't change the 12-hour days, at least get a small apartment near the business, or even on premises. I guarantee that a company of any decent size is going to have an executive apartment somewhere that goes mostly unused. Even if he has to clear out half the time, that's still saving three hours of commute on every evening he can avoid going home. That's three hours you could be cooking, relaxing, working out, working out with a partner, keeping up on professional development, getting drunk, learning to sing... the list is literally endless.
Check the classified ads, also. Sometimes people are looking to rent a room, and the price is therefore pretty good (well, crappy for the sq. footage, but fine for "a place to get some sack time") They'll love you, because you won't even be around half the time, let alone making noise or commotion. Obviously, you need to be careful there, but it's not like you just start renting without even meeting the people first.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Sorry to say it again, but get a different job.
This kind of schedule isn't only preventing you from staying in shape but will eventually kill you. You need to live in moderation.
I've been working in IT for 9 years and working out for the past 7. On my concerns on every job I've taken is what is the work/life balance.
From my experience there is not workout/diet program that can work with the schedule save for the combo of steroids and Dexedrine.
you should start your day with light exercise after you've eaten breakfast. you should also take a good isotonic vitamin supplement with B-complex.
breakfast should be a whole complex carb like oatmeal. you should eat this within 30 minutes of waking up.
eat a mid-morning snack like an apple.
lunch should be 2 parts vegetables to 1 part meat and one part healthy complex carb like a whole sweet potato.
mid-afternoon snack should be vegetables or healthy whole fruit.
dinner should be light with more vegetables than meat or carbs.
try to wean yourself off caffeine over a week. with this type of diet, you shouldn't need caffeine. I don't mean diet as in starving yourself, I mean diet as in what you eat every day.
You should also really pay attention to your body more. Mind your body while you're eating and listen to it. When you feel satisfied, NOT FULL, satisfied, stop eating.
A lot of us feel tired and crappy because we're not eating the right types of food or too little or too much.
Within a few weeks, your digestive system should start working better for you and you'll feel more energy. If you continue to choose better at meal and snack times, you will automagically lose weight until your body finds equilibrium. But the benefits aren't weight loss or your figure. The benefits are health and energy.
The less processed your food is, the better. That means it should be fresh or frozen, not boxed or canned. As a rule, try to avoid the aisles in a supermarket, try to stick to the outer ring. When you eat like this every day, you are going to be truly amazed at the level of energy you start to have. The trick is eating meals and snacks. Your metabolism will speed up and you will start using the energy in your food instead of storing it. As a rule, avoid simple carbs, high sugar foods, and anything with corn syrup.
Fruits are the exception. Bananas are the perfect accompaniment to breakfast, and apples with the skin are the perfect snack because they take more energy to digest than they contain.
They're using their grammar skills there.
The most important part to keeping fit is to eat healthily. The less you eat, the less fat you have to burn off later. Stick with whole grains, fresh fruit, and eat a lot of vegetables. Stick with water instead of juices and sodas. Don't smoke or drink too often.
Try to do exercises that do not require a gym membership. During downtime, do push ups and sit ups at work. Buy a bench and some weights for home. Do lunges, squats, and bench presses. Buy a jump rope. You'd be surprised how exhausting ten minutes of jumping rope can be. If you can't spare 45 minutes twice a week to work out, then you're not prioritizing your health enough.
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
If you go down this path, working jobs like this, you might find happiness, but odds are that you won't. You will end up with poor mental as well as physical health. You will have no friends, your family relationships will become distant, and after 10 years and X kids your wife will tell you she doesn't love you any more (and you may realize you don't love her either). What's more you may be too depressed to really care.
You can additionally draw the unlucky straw of a bad health problem (either induced by your lifestyle or just plain bad luck, genetic or otherwise). You may find you won't ever be the same again, you can never get your youth back and your life will have been wasted so far. Sure you'll maybe make some changes and get back to a semblance of a healthy lifestyle, but even so you can't get back all the things you lost and suffer extreme difficulty in the meantime.
I'm painting a pretty bleak picture here. Some of it may never apply to you, you may never marry for example, or even be a playboy and be happy with that. Regardless, your well being will suffer.
Making a lot of money isn't really an objective in and of itself. There usually isn't a sacrifice now for an easy life later (not to the level you've described, obviously sacrificing a bit for things like school is a smart move in many cases). Everyone I know who's ever tried that, even bright, intelligent folks, has failed and been worse off for it. Don't fall into that trap, get another job.
I'm telling you, it's 100 times harder to fix it after you've let it happen, stop now.
I'll add to that - drink lots of water. Not only is it good for your system, but you have to walk to take more bathroom breaks.
Good food - make smart choices, and E a t S l o w l y
Do simple, quick exercises throughout the day that will burn some extra calories...
- drop and do 10 pushups. Once those get easy, increase to 20, or do them slow/fast/hold.
- do 10 squats. Increase to 20, or hold them when you get better.
- stretch. It'll warm your body up.
- get some grippers, or stress ball. I would *HIGHLY* recommend the Captains of Crush grippers from IronMind. I have the trainer, #1, and #2. They have since come out with weaker ones than the trainer, but they are all great.
Will all of this replace a good 30-60 minute workout in a gym? Not at all. But it is better than doing nothing.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Jesus Christ. And I definitely have the problem too so I am not pointing fingers at "everyone else but me." It is HARD to eat less, especially as you get older. I used to shut down pizza buffet restaurants in my 20s. But when I hit my 30s, things started to change and I should have paid closer attention but the change was gradual. So while I continued to eat the amounts and types of foods I was accustomed to, my body was changing the way it handles things.
Initially I compensated by placing a weight bench next to my bed. Every morning after waking up, I would almost literally roll over onto the bench and start doing reps. The results were good. Not only did I wake up better getting the heart moving and being more alert, but immediately following that, I took my morning shower and was fresh as anything without any serious interruption of my morning schedule. That didn't last long after I got married. A weight bench in the bedroom did not go over well. But let's face it; if it wasn't for being convenient, I NEVER would have done it in the first place.
So now, I simply make a concerted effort to eat LESS. And believe me, it is HARD. For those who know what "Whataburger" is, who could say no to a double-double with bacon? NOT ME!! That is a hard habit to break let me tell you. But my body reminds me a lot lately when I am overeating -- I get FULL and uncomfortable... but that is only because I am actually making the effort to eat less and my stomach has literally shrunk allowing less food at any one time.
Changing habits is a really hard thing to do, especially when it's something as pleasurable as food. But that's what it means to be human -- smart enough to know better. Just make the effort to eat less. Just do it.
Pretty much the same job as you, about the same commute.
I work out about 3 times or so a week.
Exercise changes depending on the weather, the access to sporting goods (bike, Rollerblades, long board etc.) and my mood. i use the Gym very seldom.
Heavy exercise for shorter period of time. ( I make it longer, what i consider "ME" time)
You can also work out while you are seating at work. (contraction and relaxation techniques are quite easy to do, and no one can see what you are doing)
Make a conscious effort to seat properly.
DON'T eat junk food, and drink water NOT Soda.
Have a breakfast in the morning. (not big)
And take a late lunch.
You can eat anything, But eat it slowly, take your time and enjoy the flavors, condiments, sauces, etc.
Your body takes about 15 minutes to tell you it had enough food, if you eat the hole plate in that amount of time, you are just making your stomach bigger.
The most important part is "Listen to your body", it is not going to send you an email, or a text message, you have to take time and do what it tells you, otherwise you are wasting your time.
This works for me, but i have been doing it for years, and this is what my body told me works for it.
You may need to make some changes to make what works for me, work for you.
have fun.
Geekangel
Get another job. That's not facetious, either. There isn't any amount of money that's worth doing what you're doing to your body, and by the time you realize what you're giving up it will be too late to do anything about it. I assume you're still young enough that you don't feel it yet, but with that kind of schedule you're looking at hypertension in your 30s and heart disease by your mid 40s.
Get a bike, a wheel generator and connect a few racks to the generator. You provide the motive power. Heck, if you get really fit, you could feed energy into the grid and PROFIT!!!!!!!
As someone who has worked in a stressful job with little free time, I understand how hard it can be to stay in shape. While I am in a better situation with regular weight and cardio workouts, there was a time I saw my weight go up and up. I did finally take charge and started doing "mini-workouts". Whether while brushing my teeth or during bathroom breaks at work, I would do pushups, squats, lunges, or calf raises. Body weight, of course. While this does nothing for your cardio health, I was able to increase my strenght and lose a bit (5 - 10 lb) of weight. I was up to 2 sets of 40 pushups twice a week. Squats and lunges were 50 at a time. I did 90 calf raises per set. I even managed to do some neutral grip pullups using stall doors. Each "workout" lasted at most 5 min on top of my bathroom break (people have smoking breaks, I have workout breaks). And i know, pushups on a bathroom floor is nasty, but there's soap and water nearby. Point is, if you want to squeeze in workouts, you can. Even though I go to the gym now, I still take stairs going up at my workplace now. Sometimes I toss in some body weight squats while brushing my teeth. Watching TV? Crank out 20 pushups during commercials. If there's a will, there's a way. Also, diet is actually the most important part of losing weight. Minimize sugar, salt, junk food. Soda? Drink diet. Coffee? Drink black no sugar, or at least milk and artificial sweetener. Need a snack? PB&J on one slice of whole wheat bread. So many ways to cut down. Good luck.
I don't mean any offense but it sounds like your life sucks. Do you really need to be working that much? I suggest getting a different job. I don't really believe you dont have any time to work out but if you honestly can't find the time to exercise at least try to form a healthy diet. You wont gain weight if you dont eat anything.. You should get a different job and find a hobby to get you in better shape life rock climbing.
Weekends
Bike into work, problem solved. You will be thinner than Lance Armstrong in no time.
robots obey what the children say - TMBG
I am reading an excellent book called Body by Science, by Dr. Doug McGruff and John Little. It picks apart traditional wisdom regarding "cardio" training, calories in vs. calories out, and a lot of other conventional wisdom. I would highly recommend watching Dr. McGruff's series of videos on YouTube as well. Here he takes critical look at what exactly constitutes "health" and "fitness." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3nt6XPhEZw
I recommend Lipitor and Lisinopril. Because, lets face it, you aren't gonna get to exercise.
If you're working in Silicon Valley, there are lots of places where you can bike as fast as you can drive.
I live in a rural area in Colorado, and work 25 miles away. It takes me 45 minutes to drive in, and 1 hour 20 minutes to ride my bike in: by adding an hour onto my commute time, I get 3 hours' exercise in. When I was going to school, my commute was 12 miles and taking into account the traffic and parking situations it took me 5 minutes less to ride my bike than to drive.
This may not be the case for you, especially when you first start riding: you'll be riding much more slowly than you'd drive. However, you might consider driving in, biking home, then biking in the next day and driving home. It's hard to get in a decent workout when you've spent several hours working at your job and then have to switch gears over and go lift weights or do pushups for your entire break, and then go back to work -- not impossible, obviously, but I find it difficult. But the time spent driving to work is truly wasted: that's part of your life that you're just burning. You're paying for it and getting nothing. If you can turn some portion of that time into exercise you win twice: you turn time you have to pay to waste, into time that's useful. It'd be even better if you could move closer to work, obviously, but that might not be possible.
And as everyone else says: that lifestyle will eat you alive. I don't think anyone should be working 60 hours a week unless they're making over 120K and saving more than half that every year, because then they'll be able to retire at 50 instead of 70, and when they die at 70 from the after-effects of all the stress, they will have had nearly as reasonable a retirement as people who lived lower-stress lives.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Either will reduce your weight significantly and keep you awake.
Short of that, reduce your intake. Most Americans overeat. If you have a relatively sedentary lifestyle then adjust your intake down to what you burn each day. Your body will compensate after a few days, so you'll need to do something to counteract that. You can either do desk exercises (google it), make it a point to go to the gym, or develop a cocaine habit. You can also change jobs too. It depends on how serious you are about getting healthy and whether or not your job is just an excuse. After all, it's easy to whine about how you can't work out than actually work out. But whining is pretty annoying.
That feeling you get that you're "starving" yourself is a product of the fact that you've conditioned yourself to eat when you feel stressed.
Actually, its a very common symptom of type2 diabetes, along with dehydration that gets worse when you drink sugar-soda, thirsty all the time, tired out, heavy central body buildup of fat, perhaps you have foot problems to some extent, etc... Conveniently the treatment for type2 boils down to lower carb diet, exercise, and lose some weight, at least at the start, which seems to be the treatment plan everyone else is suggesting for merely being fat. There are of course expensive pills that may or may not help you, but would absolutely make someone a lot of money.
Needless to say I'm not a (medical) doctor, although I can diagnose that anyone asking for medical advice on slashdot is obviously showing clinical indications of mental insanity. A MD can quickly and trivially check your blood sugar levels to either prove this or rule it out, more or less. Probably worth checking out. Probably a good idea to visit your MD before beginning an exercise routine anyway.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
If you have the Wii, Wii Fit is excellent. I too work in a high-stress IT job, and I use the wii fit for ~33 min per day - it seems to be a big help.
Physics happens to disagree with you...
People vastly overestimate the number of calories you burn when you work out. In fact, short of running marathons, you probably can't get away with eating an extra 500 calories without gaining weight, and much much less if you have a more moderate exercise routine.
And no, cutting a couple hundred calories out of your diet won't starve you... You'll be a bit hungry for a couple weeks, as your body gets used to the different routine, but that's about it. Then you'll get used to it, and will have a hard time stuffing your face as you're used-to.
I think you'll find, even if you do add exercise to your routine, your body weight won't change... Exercise is good for your health, of course, but it simply isn't enough to notably alter your body weight.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
I can relate to the kind of situation you've found yourself in. However, I found that you can get pretty creative when it comes to squeezing in some cardio WHILE AT WORK!
Try parking in a spot as far away from the building as possible, do this everyday and just those added steps help make a difference. Also make sure that if you are given constant steady 10+min breaks, walk around your building/parking lot and that will make a difference as well. Use fax machines/copiers/bathrooms that are as far away from your current seat as possible, eat a good breakfast in the morning and find something high in fiber for snacks throughout the day (which will also make you find a bathroom more often, which in turn will help combat fiber deficiency issues!).
Also, there is also the frequently stated, "make time", even if you only walk 20 mins in the morning or at night (preferably both) that as well makes a difference.
Good luck, I know it sucks, but try a few of those and I'll bet it'll help
"This is the value of a summer spent and a winter earned"
Some people where I work sit on those exercise balls. While you're not busy, you can do mini crunches, and even while you're just sitting there, you will be using your ab and back muscles much more to support your posture. Also, stand up and stretch for a few minutes every hour. It's better than nothing.
You have chosen an unhealthy one. EOM.
It is good to hear some of the "find another job" responses.
I have seen so many friends go down that road and for what? To get outsourced when someone will work for 5 cents an your less? The OP has a twelve hour shift because his company doesn't want for another person/shift. Is that company really going to care about or respect him?
The OP may not have another opportunity at this point and time, but I agree, get another job as soon as you get the chance.
Even if this company turns out to be wonderful you can only do a shift like that on a temporary basis.
Unfortunately I'm pretty sure I have a very slow metabolism, ever since I was a pre-teen I would gain weight fairly quickly if I didn't actively work out, regardless of how much or what I eat.
Just from that, it'd be a fair guess to say you likely don't have a good genetic hand of cards when it comes to predisposition to Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, [insert diet/obeseity linked illness here].
YOU more than anyone else you really need to cut out junk food, excercise more, and work to get serious nutrition, because your genes won't provide natural protection relative to average, but rather a disposition to a shortened life with years of suffering thrown in.
Don't consider multi-vitamins. Very few people are actually deficient in vitamins and minerals, however pretty much all of western civilization at the momment is deficient in dietary fibre intake and omega 3 and other fatty acids. There is pretty solid research to show supplementation of these has compelling health benefits, if not are the root cause of many ills - whereas the jury is still out on vitamin pills. Incorporating a range of vegetables and fruits (*DAILY* not just now and then) in your diet will get you all the vitamins and minerals you need and many other valuable fringe nutrients, fibre, roughage and antioxidants. Stuff that isn't in pills.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Anything with high fructose corn syrup in it (most anything you'd get at 7-11 or the like) is tough for your body to digest.
That's ridiculous. HFCS is trivial for your body to digest, just like any other sugar. HFCS is simply free glucose and fructose is a roughly 50-50 ratio. It scarcely gets any easier than this, aside from specialized sport foods (which you absolutely should not be eating you are in the middle of a hard, long duration workout)
I was introduced to Kettlebells by my martial arts instructors when I was in the active duty military. I was the Unit Fitness Program Manager at the time, and I can tell you this:
Kettlebells are extreme and effective, and I can't over-emphasize both.
Training with Kettlebells on the side a few minutes a day enabled me to maintain and improve my overall fitness. It's portable, requires no electricity, no maintenance, and it's even weatherproof.
They are ballistic - you can seriously hurt yourself - but the "impact" is equally great.
Don't get me wrong, it's not a magic bullet, but it's damn close.
Some people only go running. Some people only like to do strength training with weights (which in my opinion is no good if you don't have endurance), or only aerobics, only cardio-kickboxing, or whatever makes you feel good. Kettlebells are also just one well-rounded solution. Don't limit yourself to one option.
If you want to be fit and healthy for the rest of your life you have to start with the mindset of having and keeping a healthy lifestyle. No sudden changes of any kind will have any effect if you eventually go back to your old ways.
You may have to make sacrifices - like no more snacks from the vending machine for starters.
Think of how much money you'll save by bringing healthy food to work instead of buying junk food out of convenience.
Good luck comrade.
http://www.russiankettlebells.com/
Figure out how many calories you eat in a day (doesn't have to be exact) and see how that stacks up with average for such a sedentary lifestyle. While you won't be "in shape" per se, you can at least help to curb weight gain by not eating more than you need, and making sure what you DO eat is high in fiber, contains more complex carbs than sugars, and lots of lean protein.
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
Mike Rowe does it with his busy schedule, so you can do it with yours, but it probably won't make you as badass as Mike Rowe. But 10 decending sets of burpies. For better understanding.
Just because you are wrong and I called you out on it doesn't mean I am a Troll.
Last August, I started eating the "paleo diet" and purposely put off all exercise, keeping my lifestyle as sedentary as possible. At the same time, I ate whenever I was hungry. The pounds just flew off, and I was practically skin and bones in couple months. Stick to lots of red meat, fish, cheese, eggs, bacon, milk, cottage cheese, some vegetables. You may have to supplement with omega-3 fish oil if you're buying cheap eggs and meat that are high in omega-6 and low in omega-3.
Get your blood tests with HDL and VLDL / triglycerides to confirm that your blood lipids are improving. Get a check for liver fat deposits before starting the diet, and get another check a couple months later. You'll be shocked at all the improvements. HDL up, VLDL and trigs down, fatty liver gone.
Staying in shape is quite easy.
nope, i'm not kidding.
one of the biggest differences between overweight and skinny people in equal environments is skinny people have a fidget.
make a fidget part of your habits and you wont have a weight issue.
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Most of the comments so far have addressed the lifestyle impacts of your job, and for the most part I agree with them. I would recommend a fitness regimen like P90X (yeah, it's sold via infomercial, but it does work), but you seem to feel you don't have the 1-1.5 hours a day to devote to it. If you really feel that pressed for time, I would recommend getting a kettlebell. A kettlebell is basically a shotput-sized ball with a handle on it. They come in all sizes now, but traditionally the 'standard' one is 24kg, a 'heavy' is 32kg, and a 'junior' is 16kg. I would recommend starting with the 16kg junior size. I have a 16kg and a 24kg, and that 24 is a heavy bastard. I can't imagine what a 32 is like.
Learn to do snatches properly (there are videos on the web) - 100 total, 50 each hand in sets of 25-15-10, alternating between each hand. Short breaks between each set (like 1 minute). That one exercise works almost all major muscle groups in the body, particularly core muscles. Is it a magical replacement for all other exercises? No, of course not, but I can't think of another exercise that gets so much done in so short a time. You can be done with the whole thing in under 20 minutes. Of course, be careful and start slow - if you lose your grip on 16kg of cast iron, that can put a big dent in almost anything, including your skull.
Kettlebells used to be a specialty item, and you could only get them at places like http://www.dragondoor.com/, but they have become much more popular, and you may be able to locate them at you local sporting/fitness stores now.
Shovelglove seems like it fits perfectly, especially the "schedulistically significant time" concept.
That is, if you're in America, you won't find a calendar with a granularity of less than 15 minutes, so you have no excuse for not working out for 14. If you have any time at all, including the time you wasted submitting this Slashdot article, you have time.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
VIGOROUS MASTURBATION
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
Here is what I would do if I were in your position: 1. Leave your money in the car/at home. The less easy it is to run to the snack machine, the better. 2. Bring your meals. For 12 hours I would bring 4 meals, and eat 2 more meals at home. You want to eat small meals regularly to keep your metabolism high. 3. Drink enough to piss every hour. Not only will you be properly hydrated, but getting up to piss every hour is you getting out of your chair and walking. 4. Take the long way to everything, and never the elevator. 5. Do a set of push-ups and sit-ups every hour.
You will feel better in just about every way for however many years that you do happen to live.
The best shape I've gotten into is from a diet which REQUIRES you to sit around (i.e.: low caloric). Also, when working out, it should never take longer than an hour at the gym. Any longer than that and you're wasting your time. Anyone can spare a fucking hour. Stop your bitching and get your ass in shape. Or don't, and just stop bitching.
There are already several intelligent posts here, about increasing activity and decreasing caloric intake. Read The Hacker's Diet for a good engineering perspective on the ins and outs (as it were).
You have a problem of insufficient activity to burn calories. I had the same problem, which has been solved by A) going to the gym, and B) standing while I work. I think the latter point here can really help you.
If you can wrangle your work space around to allow you to stand -- either by piling your computer on top of additional shelving, say -- you can burn an extra 60 calories an hour. And more, if you take that additional standing time and throw in extra movements during your work day. When standing, it's easy to just walk away for a minute, throw a ball up and down, heck, do some jumping jacks. When standing, you're that much closer to any kind of physical motion, and that has to be of help.
It's hard on your legs and knees at first, but you will build the muscles to support it. Good luck!
Cheers,
Aaron.
You can have my one-button mouse when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
I've been in the same situation you're in. I used to down a slim fast on my way to work and then during lunch drive to the gym for a quick work out and on my way back to the office, down another slim fast. Eat a very light dinner...a small meat and a small side. Drink a LOT of water. Now, with this job I skip the slim fast and bring my own meal to work. I still go to the gym at lunchtime but I eat my lunch at my desk throughout the day.
Honestly, Crossfit has been the best boon for me as far as staying in shape and having a horrid schedule is concerned. I work 40 to 50 hours a week, but I also go to school fulltime. (2nd time through college mind you). Between that, and my time with my girlfriend, I don't have a lot of time. Crossfit can either be done in groups, or solo. It is quick, intense, and burns far more calories than you'd burn with hours of time on a tredmill or some other crap. Many of the exercises can be done anywhere, even in an office, and dont' require you to go to some big Globo gym. Just check out www.crossfit.com, and you'll see the daily workouts, free videos describing various movements, and all that jazz. Long story short, it's helped me get back in shape, and still have my insane and stupid schedule. As other said, eating right is key as well. I bring almonds with me to work, and try to eat along the lines of the Zone diet.
When I worked in an office I thought I wouldn't be able to work out that much but I ended up finding ways.
- When walking through a hallway that you cant be seen well thats perfect for situps, pushups and jumping jacks, anyone comes by just think up something funny.
- If there's a door where everyone smokes have a "smoke break" (but dont) go out the door and run a few laps when your not crazy busy.
Thats a couple I did, be creative and find a few that work for you.
I'm doing a program right now, 4 days a week. It's called Enter the Kettlebell. Art Of Strength http://http//www.artofstrength.com has a good work book to do the exercises. The site has a lot of good stuff on it, like how to pick the right size bell, etc.
As for the workbook workout, 2 days the work out lasts 22 minutes, the other 2, 15 minutes. You get worked hard in that time though. it's not easy. I'd using 24kg to do the work. That's the first 4 weeks. I haven't been able to make it to the second set yet (8 weeks).
You can also get the AOS follow along DVDs, which take between 45 minutes to an hour to do.
It's not hard to stay in shape. You just have to be willing to work hard, and eat clean.
Of course "change job", "14 hours a day too much" etc., etc., are coming in, but in these times it can be difficult.
From your schedule, since you need sleep, you will have to fit exercise in your work schedule.
Basically, you need one 20 minute break, and another 2 breaks of 10 minutes each.
Can you extract that much time out of your job?
If yes, do this
first 10 minutes break, do 3-4 minutes brisk walk followed by mild jog.
Later after an hour or so do 5 minutes of fast walk, light jog. and then run properly for 10 minutes and then spend 5 minutes to cool down.
with 2 minutes for stretching. You should be able to do 2 miles in this time.
Your last 10 minutes should be stretching and some stuff like situps and pushups.
Getting away from your desk for these ultra short breaks will refresh you.
When you get home, just try to sqeeze out 15 minutes, and jog in those 15 minutes.
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Cycle to work. It's utterly amazing. It may involve you moving closer to work, but seeing as you seem to be spending most of your time there, it's probably worth it.
I ride to work every day - 15km each way. Cycling to work / home is the most amazing feeling, it makes you feel so good, and I've been doing it for years.
Now, if I'm too tired / sick / etc to ride, it means I'm too tired / sick / etc to go to work. I wouldn't miss it for anything. Finally, one of the best things about it, is that if you get into the pattern of cycling every day, it's no longer a 'chore' to exercise, it's just what you do. Yay!
Burpees. Google it. Surely, you have a few minutes while compiling/rebooting/installing to get some in.
This is going to be a first[1] ...
Calorie Restriction Diet
Normally, I dismiss the idea of dieting or coerced exercise (gymns) as the wrong answers to what are fundamentally very simple questions, but the concepts behind a calorie restricted diet may be rooted in our physiological makeup.
At the very least, it might encourage the submitter to question and possibly re-evaluate how and what he eats.
If he needs to improve on a sedentary lifestyle (and job), then he'll have to take advantage of what time he does have. Becoming more active while at work and doing such things as walking, running up and down stairs, or even Yoga might work, but I wouldn't rely on those approaches as anything more than brief respites as most workplace environments aren't conducive to anything but work.
By contrast, walking or biking all or a portion of the way to work would be a no-brainer.
------------
1. I have an excuse (honest!). Note that reading the article will spare you the estrogren-overloaded environment I experienced.
Talk to a doctor or a nutritionist. All you're going to get here is a bunch of fat nerds arguing about real diets they don't understand and fake diets they pretend work for them.
"Round" is a shape. So is "ovoid" and "pear-like". "Bulbous" too.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
This may sound uninspired, but I think your best bet is to embed your exercise during work and spread them out throughout the day.
If you're in front of a desk often, another method is to stand during some or all of your shift. If you know how to sit in something called a horse stance, you can work at the same level as you normally sit in a chair. Simply standing switches on something in the body to burn more calories.
If you walk around a lot, you can change how you walk to get a better workout. Namely, bend your knees while keeping your back straight and your head level. Try not to fall into the forward steps. You end up walking like say, the animation in Counterstrike or Rainbow Six. It works your quads (similar to doing squats).
You can do mini-exercises, taking no more than 5 minutes at a time. Some exercises burn a ton of calories, such as Indian squats. 50 reps generally take less than 60s to do. Pushups are OK if you do the right kind. If you have your own office, you can get one of those as-seen-on-TV pull-up bars: attempt a quick pullup everytime you walk out or walk in through the door. The big downside to this is that you will sweat. If you're actually losing weight, your sweat will smell from the aromatics trapped in the fat you've accumulated. I generally do this onsite. Instead of taking the coffee break, I go off to a corner and run through a couple exercises. Then again, I work in software development, not IT.
You just have to make the time and keep the workout efficient so it doesn't take 2 hours.
Park as far as possible everywhere you go. These walks from your car to the store/work/home will add up to several extra miles in the week.
Use the stairs instead of the elevator when you can.
Do 10 minutes of push-ups and sit-ups before work in the morning.
Put ankle weights on when you leave the house in the morning and walk around all day with them.
Go for walks at lunchtime
Take the long way when walking from your cube to someone else's at work.
People who say "money does not buy happiness" are just people without money trying to make themselves feel better.
During your "lunchtime", take 30 minutes for a brisk walk (not stroll) every day. Around the parking lot or wherever is convenient.
You'd be surprised how much weight you can lose, and quickly, this way. I lost 25lb (210->185lb) in less than 6months.
You can help buy cutting out any snacks, but no need to change your diet. Just the walking will do it.
If you can't find the time to walk for 30 minutes a day, then you don't want to.
...where there normally isnt. For some people, it's just a kitchen, but to a workout freak like me, I practice the refrigerator door pull, about 3 sets of 12 reps each, burn those calories. Open the door, you think it's just a 6 pack, but each one in that pack for the workout fanatic, means a hectic fast paced 24oz wrist curl for each wrist, about 3 sets of 12 reps each. Practice restraint by tensing the muscles to prevent unnecessary rushed gulping. You get the idea; just take another look around at the house...
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Perform some Ba duan jin's. You can do them at work, throughout the day. You do not need much space, It does not build muscles, but it will relax your muscles so that blood circulation is improved, and if you do them regularly it will do wonders for your health.
Also, change your eating habits. Replace anything that contains carbohydrates with fat & proteins, and you will shed body fat very quickly. Read the excellent book Life Without Bread, written by a guy who is now 96. Ive replaced all sugary snacks I normally ate throughout the day with almonds, peanuts (unsalted!), and 90% chocolate. Especially unsalted almonds are the perfect finger food. They are highly addictive AND healthy, and although they contain lots of fat you will loose weight eating them.
Open Source Alternatives
You have to do a workout, there is no other way. You can't be sedentary that much and be healthy.
But if you do a brief workout in the morning, in a way it will continue all day. You'll change the way your metabolism functions for that day in a postive way. When you start the day, your body has enough sugar throughout to burn that and get through a sedentary day. If you burn that sugar off in a brief morning workout, then your body burns fat all day instead, even when you're sitting and working.
Also, fall in love with some kind of salad with a chicken breast on top and a light dressing on the side. It takes about an hour of chewing to eat, which wears you out for other eating, and at the same time it's like taking your protein pill and fiber pill for the day.
The problem many nerds have with health is not so much the hours sitting at a computer or other focused work, but rather many are not able to adjust to the slow pace of getting healthier and try to exert too much control over the process. You have to make some changes like eating better and more exercise but be willing to wait for the results for 6 months. If you are 20 kilos overweight it is very tempting to want to take off 2 kilos a week for 10 weeks with some miracle science diet, but it's a thousand times better to take off that 20 kilos over the course of a year with many small positive changes in your habits. By then your whole body adjusts, not just your fat reserves, and you're much more likely to stay at the lower weight and see positive health results.
It's your job that's going to slowly kill you as you gain weight, lose muscle mass, presumingly while your blood pressure and cholesterol increase. You'll be dead by 50 max with years of medical issues. You need a new job that can allow you to be healthy. What's more important, that job or your health? I choose health easily as life is too short to spend it sick and miserable. Seriously, get a more flexible to home, it'll save your life.
What does that even mean? Your resting metabolic rate is determined almost completely by what it is that you're powering: if you're fat and have larger organs, you need to burn more to support those systems. Two people with identical body types and activity levels will burn the same amount of calories.
The "regardless of how much or what I eat" sounds wrong and defeatist. If you truly believe what you're telling us, that there's just nothing you can do, and you'll always gain weight no matter what you try, then you're never going to get anywhere. Of course changing how much or what you eat will change how much weight you gain or lose.
This basic equation always holds true: If calories in is greater than calories burned, you gain weight. If calories in is less than calories burned, you lose weight. That's all there is to it. Balance the two however you want.
A can of soda has ~150 calories. Running 1.5 miles will burn ~150 calories. It's far easier to forego that can of soda and drink some water instead, than it is to commit to a 20-minute jog, yes? Both will have the same impact on your weight. The latter, though, will improve your health in other ways. So if you simply can't find time to exercise and increase the number of calories you burn, focus instead on decreasing the number of calories you consume.
If you have a weakness for food, such that you feel you have to "fill up" all the time to curb your hunger, look at the energy density of the foods you eat. Avoid foods that are energy-dense (fried foods, sweets, sodas, processed foods) and start buying foods that have less energy for the same volume, like fruits and vegetables, and anything with a high water content. Drink a glass of water before every meal. Eat more slowly. Don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry. When you do go grocery shopping, don't buy lots of snacks in the first place and you'll never be tempted to eat them. Switch to 2% milk. Don't feel like you have to count calories, but do be aware of how many calories there are in the things that you buy.
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that's a total of 23-26 hours per day. Congratulations, you have no life. Unless your work is your life, in which case let's roll with that.
First off really consider getting a place right next to work and right next to a gym, that way you can go to the gym after work instead of commuting for 3 hours... This is thinking strategically.
Let's pretend that work is fun for you and you are enjoying yourself all of that time (if you are not, it's time to re-evaluate your goals and figure out what you want in life).
Then the problem becomes simple, you love your life the way it is, but you know you need to get in some exercise. There is only two places to put excercise in the time your life allows, either during work or during your commute. During Sleep is out of the question.
The good news is there is one very effective exercise you can do while driving, it's called isometrics. you can also do this while in your cubicle. Basically you just sit there flexing your muscles. Nobody will even notice you are doing it. Flex your left leg 10 time, then your right 10 times, then your left arm, and so on, with your abs as well...
There is also some easy exercises you can do at work. You don't need an hour straight to work out. It takes me about 2 minutes to do:
10 hinu squats 10 pushups 10 sit-ups 5 pullups
That's only 2 minutes. If you are able to take a 2 minute break every hour while at work and do this, after only 10 hours of work you have done
100 hindu squats 100 pushups 100 sit-ups 50 pullups!
Combine that with sitting isometrics and you will be in better shape than most in no time.
Of course, you must practice this, you need to develop the habit. It's not going to be easy.
And if you are working so much that you have no personal relationships, you might be damaging your brain. I would talk it out with a licensed psychologist.
Talk to a nutritionist about a meal plan (carb and calorie counting) if you can't make the time to work out. I found out I was diabetic last year and the nutritionist measured my BMI, ran the numbers and put me on a 2100 calorie diet, with 75 grams of carbs per meal. I lost 30 pounds just from eating normal meals over six months. =/ Previously, I had switched from regular Mountain Dew to Diet Dew and lost 15 pounds. That was quick weigh loss without working out.
Every freaking thing is a carb: starch, pasta, bread, sugar, fruit (a small apple has 15 grams of carbs,) rice, beans, etc.. A 20oz Mountain Dew contains ~75 grams of carbs which is an entire meal's worth of carbs for a 6'2" person with a desk job. Four slices of whole grain bread is about 80 carbs. Every time you quaff a 20 oz 'Dew you're eating nearly four slices of bread.
Knowing what I know now about food, when people say that meal portions in America are too large, they aren't kidding, and they're understating the problem. Personally, if I were elected Dictator of the US, I would mandate that schools teach the six hours of nutrition information, training, and planning that I received, and that restaurants provide nutrition information for their meals.
Of course, YMMV, results may or may not be typical.
at every job interview I ask my employer's
Do you offer smokers smoking breaks?
They always say yes. Second Question
If unhealthy people can take smoking breaks. I want to take exercise breaks.
I bring a jump rope to work (cardio) and vary my exercises times everyday to meet deadlines / meetings.
You'll be amazed at how much exercise you can get from a jump rope. Though there are many things you can do..
(just make sure you have good sneakers if you go with a jump rope, if you start getting pain in the muscles on your feet, stop jumping for a week or two. Always alternate the muscle groups you target. Track machines are worthless when compared to real running. Run around your building. Bring in spray deodorant and an extra shirt if you need to. Try to avoid doing only X of exercise Y. If you want to IMPROVE your body you need to keep making X a larger number until you get to the body you want )
I do mini exercises 1-3 times a work day. On really frustrating days I do a lot more. (it helps)
Honestly the hardest part for me is remembering to stop what I am doing and take a few min to exercise. I've found it helpful to set up reminders on my machine that go off every few hours.
There are several different training regiments that follow the high impact, low duration approach, but this is the one that I've been using for a while now: http://www.amazon.com/Body-Science-Research-Program-Results/dp/0071597174/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246480756&sr=8-1 It takes only a few minutes a week and in conjunction with a reasonable diet you'll at least stay in shape.
I'm over 40, a volunteer firefighter, run my own IT business, have a second IT startup on the side and have three daughters. I still find time to get to Karate class 2-3 times a week (taking a shared class with one of my daughters).
You're not busier than I am. The only suggestion I have is -- get off your butt and go do something.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
Do this every morning. Not only will it make you fit, it'll also make you feel great during the day.
Your post includes a negative answer to every reasonable way of dealing with your problem. *YOU* have already given yourself permission to become a fat weak ugly slob. You have a slow metabolism, bull shit. That is just permission for being fat and staying fat. I need sleep, just permission for being lazy. I live so far away, so what move.
You have decided to be a victim (why else would you take such a piss poor job?) and now you are hoping that we will give permission to be the lazy fat slob you want to be. You have reached out to the whole geek world to ask us to enable you. In just the same way drug addicts look for people to enable them.
BTW, that is why I am being so harsh. To let you know that at least one person does not give you permission to be a victim.
When I was in a similar situation I bought a mini trampoline and used it during for several minutes per hour, just jumping is good exercise, running in place is also good. Look up tension exercise, you can get an amazing work out with using a rope with a few knots tied in it. Buy a book an stretching and begin a flexibility program. Holding those stretches is remarkable exercise. Oh, but you don't have time... DO IT AT WORK. Your job doesn't exactly keep you pinned in a chair 100% of the time. Get up off the chair and run in place in front of your monitor. At the very least get an exercise ball and substitute it for your chair. Sitting on a ball for 12 hours will give you an astonishing core muscle work out. Get rid of the chair and put the monitor on a stack of books and do your job standing up. Standing or sitting on the ball will only hurt for a few weeks.
Now, after all that, I'm going to tell you to sign up for a supervised weight loss program. One that makes you log all your eating. Buy a Dr.'s office style scale and weigh your self and keep a log of daily weight.
Remember that *YOU* went on /. *asking* for permission to be a fat lazy slob, you asked for permission to be a victim... If that is what you want, you will achieve your goal. In a few years, you'll find yourself unable to climb stairs, you'll be too fat to fit through a door, you will be taking 6 or 7 pills every day for you diabetes, your cholesterol, your high blood pressure, your acne, your broken down feet, your social anxiety, your depression.... You'll be a very happen victim then and even happier when you die and a buried in a double wide coffin. Your choice.
Stonewolf
make time to exercise (make it part of your social activity, eg. running)
i started working at a NOC ~ 7months ago, drive 1.5hr to work as well.
i spend my work days: drive, work, drive, run (made this part of my social life as well).
you NEED to exercise. watching what you eat aint gonna do it.
And more Caffeine...
It speeds up your metabolism (and heart) and burns the energy you intake.
(but you will live fast and die young (like MJ))
If you have time to get up and grab a snack at work, you have time to exercise instead. A few five minute strolls while at work add up. If you don't have time to even get up and get a snack, I doubt you are going to have a problem with food at work. Make sure you have snacks that are healthy and filling for the commute, and nothing else to eat or drink. I might have made the same claims as you, except that the time I spent "exercising" (dancing and dance lessons) was also time I didn't have access to food, and didn't think about it.
Well, he can do what lots of us here do when we're too slammed to work out "properly":
Crunches and pushups. Use you body's mass as your weights. bonus points if you can install a pull-up bar somewhere.
just do 10 or 15 reps at a time, as time permits.
you can do this almost anywhere (aisles between cubes, DC floor, etc.
"The Hacker's Diet" is based on this simple principle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker's_Diet
Its exercise regiment is based on an old RCAF system:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5BX
1) Quit. Find another job.
2) Move closer to work.
3) Give up on exercise and go with diet. Given a choice between diet and exercise, your body will function better from choosing diet, than exercise alone. In fact, I recommend that people lose weight BEFORE working out. Simply because bigger people are less able to work out. The workouts produce more strain and are less likely to result in successful behavior as well as the risk of the whole system breaking.
4) Eliminate the carbs. Fast storage can only happen as a result to insulin. Insulin (barring a medical condition) is a reaction to too much blood sugar. That only comes from food. So low carb and slow carb (complex carbs) it. get as close to eliminating them as possible. When you don't eat carbs, your hunger fades because rather than eating for right now, you instead eat for your next meal or your next day. When you do this successfully, you will notice you only get hungry after eating a lot of carbs. Also, never, ever drink your carbs. use diet sodas, if you use sodas at all. But its best to avoid them all together.
The FDA and most places have yet to do a competent scientific study that tests only diet OR excercise. All these "diet and exercise" studies are not scientific because they change two factors at once, and both have thermodynamic repercussions, so you can't actually tease out what is more effective. But if my own experience is to be anything other than anecdotal, I'd say eating "right" is far more important. *right = for your metabolism.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
I work for a company doing the exact same thing as you and the same shift. As is the case with most NOC's you don't really get a lunch break. A "lunch break" consist of you grabbing whatever you have in the fridge and bringing it back your desk. The solution that my co-workers and myself came up with worked pretty well for us. Since it was the night shift 8pm-8am there was little or no supervision, so what we did was bring a change of clothes for running and we would take turns going out for a half hour run while the others covered the workload. As long as your co-workers don't mind covering this works great.
It's all about the bodyweight exercises. Crunches, pushups, L-sits, handstand pushups, squats, pistols, etc, etc. Pilates is a pretty decent way to get into bodyweight workouts; if you have a decent baseline level of fitness check out http://www.beastskills.com/ for awesome bodyweight gymnastics tutorials. Stay hydrated and remember the power of interval training. When you exercise, go all out for a short period of time, rest, then do it again.
Adding to the water thing, drink ice water if you can get it. The colder the water, the better. Your body has to expend energy to raise the water to body temperature, in fact, the definition of calorie (little c) is the amount of energy required to raise one ml of water by one degree celsius. Granted, you're trying to burn Calories (big C, 1000 little c's), but every little bit helps. If you drank a gallon of ice water a day, you could burn more than 200 Calories from that alone. Explanation and mathematics here.
I use this site and it works wonders:
http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/users/myplate/
Go this page to calculate your calorie intake, and I chose Lightly Active, sounds like you should too.
http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/users/myinfo/
Then record everything you eat. Their food database is extensive. I also don't exercise, and sit on my ass doing computer work all day, and I lost 11 pounds using this site. met my goal.
I ask because that sounds like a horrible job. You might be better off moving to a cheaper place and getting a job as a barista.
However, if that solution doesn't work, then the next question is, is there a public transit option that will get you most of the way there in one ride? If so, get a folding bike, and ride to and from the transit option. You can chill while you're riding, so you won't have to unwind when you get home. Even if the public transit option takes longer, it may be worth it because you'll spend less time decompressing, and you won't be in that amped-up driving state of mind at the beginning and end of your work day.
I have a tikit from bike friday, and I love it.
Don't listen to the people who tell you that you should just make time for exercise. You wouldn't be asking us for help if that were true. I can never get psyched up to exercise for no reason other than to stay in shape, so I can relate. Figure out a way to work the exercise into your life, and you'll do it. Otherwise it'll fall by the wayside when things get busy which, it sounds like, they are.
If it's too far or too long of a commute to ride a conventional bike, get an electric bike that makes you pedal. I recently started commuting with an Optibike, made by a company in Colorado -- it's electric-assist, sure, but I still have a heart rate in the 170-180 range (and maintain a 75-85 cadence on the flats and uphill sections, which I hope to get higher) for my 20-mile round-trip commute... while getting each way in only about twice the time it took me to drive. The Opti is geared such that the motor isn't running efficiently unless you're maintaining a pretty quick cadence, so you can't just sit back and coast without pedaling if you want to go fast -- so there's plenty of motivation to get your exercise.
So -- it's good exercise and low-impact on your time; the only place where it's higher-impact is the wallet... but if you're working so many hours you can't find time to exercise anywhere, you ought to be bringing home some good dough, right?
Seriously. That's one of the worst job descriptions ever. No amount of career passion is worth that. Get an "any job" close to home till' something more logical comes up. And frankly. If your interested in making money as an IT monkey that was last decade. You missed the boat completely, unless you start your own IT business and hire a bunch of Cert. encrusted knuckleheads at $15/hr.
Seriously, exactly what is it about your job that makes it worth sacraficing anything resembling a personal life? I hope you don't have a family or kids and don't plan to with the schedual. your employer needs to higher more people so they can have reasonable work hours and the employees should insist on it. I mean I occosionally work 60 hour weeks , sometimes for a month , but not permanently , what would I do with the money? I'd never have time to spend it on anything fun.
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
This is how I pulled it off. I found a gym that was with in walking distance from work. I would go in early; park my car at the gym. Do my morning workout; take a shower then walk to breakfast then work. After work I would walk back to the gym; work out again and drive home.
Yes.
I personally dropped 110 pounds of bodyfat over the course of a year. The first 50 or so was straight-up exercise (2+ hours/day on exerbike while playing GTA3), then I found Hacker's Diet, did my own math from H.D. principles, and dropped the last 60 with combo exerbike (and GTA...) and caloric counting/restriction - worked great.
In the 6 years since, I've gained about 30 of it back - entirely because I haven't been counting calories and exercising right. Started back up on HD with exercise program, have dropped 10 pounds in last 4 weeks so far.
Our bodies are thermochemical engines. That is simple reality. Effective fat loss efforts implement the resulting math. Ineffective efforts do not.
Everything else after that is dealing with the physical and emotional effects of suffering the pain of fat loss. Once you can deal with the suffering of fat loss (said suffering experience varying from person to person), then it's just a matter of grinding down the number your scale shows you over time until you get to your target number. For me personally, the key is to get as much sleep as possible - 8 to 10 hours a day. When I get full sleep, I can function just fine on less than 1000 calories a day. YMMV.
Good luck, fellow fatties - may you one day join the Former Fat $gender club.
I have a similar situation. Riding a bicycle is my primary form of exercise. I find that I can stay in shape by doing short, intense interval workouts on the long work days. I have got in the habit of doing the workouts right after I get home. Interval training works like this:
10 minutes of warm up to get heart rate above 130 bpm
2 minutes at anerobic threshold (163 bpm in my case)
1 minute of recovery
repeat this 5 - 8 times
10 minutes of cool down
in 40 minutes, you have done a work pout that will sustain your fitness level until you can get in longer calorie burning workouts on your days off.
Also try to reduce the carbs you eat while at work. Try grapes instead of chips. Eat half a sandwhich with more lean meat and stuff. It reduces the carbs from the bread, but you put more filling in the sandwhich.
Try to eat your carbs like rice or pasta within 1 hour after working out. In the hour after a workout, your body is going to be converting those carbs into glycogen to replace the glycogen you burned up during the work out and storing that glycogen in your muscles.
Try to drink a lot of water, and unsweetened drinks.
Just accept that you need to take 1 hour per day to get your system going. You can do intervals with running or swimming if ou don't bike. It is all about the intensity of the workout.
You cant. Like the impoverished you are now a slave to your wage. You dont have time to do anything personal, gain, health, well being.
Of course its easy for an outsider to just say, get a new job, lift yourself out of your situation.
Buy and learn how to use a kettlebell (from dragondoor), a kb workout can be as short as 5 mins. And you only need one 35# bell. Keep it in your car. Bring it to the office. I used to keep one at my desk. During long days when I couldnt go home to train, I would do a 5-10 min set of swings. KB swings offer you the best bang for your buck as far as any type training goes. Also. http://worldsstrongestlibrarian.com/542/how-to-get-stronger-at-work-while-your-boss-isnt-looking/ http://www.russiankettlebells.com/#whytrain I am not in any way affiliated with these sites...
my job doesn't seem so bad. prioritize. job or health.
A lot of this advice tells you to go out and basically create a radical lifestyle change all at once. That generally doesn't happen. Changing things like diet, exercise, spending habits, social habits, etc., tends to work best if you slowly make small changes.
Lots of people find that diet / exercise tracking software can help them meet goals. I have a few friends using MyFoodDiary.com, and I like it pretty well. It does a nice job of giving you warm fuzzies for doing the right thing (fiber, produce, low cholesterol, etc.).
Exercise is really really important. It tends to improve mood and focus. It improves your cholesterol profile. Current thinking is that being fit is more important to overall health than being at the proper weight. So your goal is to get more exercise into your daily life. From what I understand, you can do this in 6 minutes every few days; you can walk 10,000 paces (about 5 miles per day), or do something in between.
Personally (I'm in IT too) I find it really hard to regularly go to the gym, and I hate the rigid schedule of having to go to the gym for 1 hour 4x per week or whatever. I like the suggestions of you doing small bursts of exercise while you're at work. In addition to strength / resistance training, how about:
Any of these would increase your overall activity level -- and then maybe you just have to do one strenuous exercise session on the weekend or something, like a vigorous bike ride plus weight training, or a 1x per week cycle to work.
Oh, you could also work with a trainer who could figure out a workout for you to do while at your desk.
A true geek would know that anything like BMR (such as BMI) is based on a statistically calculated average value. In this case, the BMR is based on the 3500 kcal value which is calculated based on what experimental results show to be the metabolism of the average person. The problem is that not everyone is even close to that average value. There will always be people that stray towards the extremes of humanly possible values. People with hypoglycemia can eat like crazy and never gain weight. People that make it to being among the world's fattest people, most likely, have the other extreme for a metabolism (it's one thing to get fat, but most normal people would have a hard time reaching 1000 lbs even if they tried). As I alluded to above, this is similar to how many muscular people have horrible BMI values even though they have minuscule percentages of body fat. They break the scale because it's designed to assume that the person has "average" musculature. Specifically, the military is known to make exceptions for this, specific, problem when muscle-bound applicants fail the BMI requirements for entry into the service.
Also, the feeling of "starving" may have more to do with the quantity of food he's conditioned his body to expect rather than any feeling of stress.
Feel free to get behind the OP in the line to turn in your geek card...
Rules of Conduct:
#1 - The DM is always right.
#2 - If the DM is wrong, see rule #1
I know you weren't looking for an answer like this. but what can I say?. I pass most of my day sitting in front of a computer, I also have a tendency to be slightly overweighted .
I read about Montignac Diet, found the book, downloaded it, read it, got convinced by it, tried it, and now I'm a fanatic. (in the good sense). it worked. actually It's more a change of food habit than a diet "per se".
anyway, enough with the spam. good luck with whatever you decide.
Slashdot tends to attract a lot of technophobic posters who cling to "conventional wisdom" and reject new technologies and research which is weird given that it originated as a technology discussion forum.
The most common response to an article like this is "nothing new can ever be done, eat less excercise more you fat jerk".
I wonder why there is no discussion of biotechnology and "futuristic" developments. For example, why are my fingers numb most of the time I'm in the office? Why do I have to bundle up in so many layers in the winter and still I'm miserable for half the year? I've got plenty of food available so where is the research that biologists and doctors ought to be doing on getting my body to turn that food into heat?
My motorcycle has a little knob on the side that I adjust ever spring and fall. When the weather gets cold I have to turn it up or the bike stalls whenever I release the throttle. When the weather gets warm I turn it back down because the bike burns more gas with it turned up.
So where's my little knob to adjust my own body's temperature regulation? I'm supposed to be warm blooded aren't I? Why should my body pack on pounds when I'm sitting in a 65 degree room feeling miserable and wishing I weren't so cold? And how about those muscles, why do they increase in strength so slowly as I lift weights regularly but lose strength so quickly?
It took several months of doing squats to increase my ability from 135 to 205 but then I got busy for two weeks and I lost practically all the gains I made over 3+ months. Where's the research into engineering the human body to make better use of the ample food supply? Why is it considered "normal" for my body to behave like a prehistoric cave man packing on every ounce of fat possible at the expense of comfort despite the fact that I haven't faced a lack of food or risk of starvation in 30+ years.
Why are so many Slashdot posters so eager to accept the status quo and think that the human body can never be improved and we're stuck with these prehistoric "verge of starvation" responses to caloric intake and expenditure.
We do 20 pushups an hour:
http://www.delphicsage.com/home/blog.aspx/d=534/title=20_pushups_an_Hour
A keen mind and keen body go hand in hand. Tech work is often exploitive. In reality it is not so dramatically different from any other kind of work that going for such long periods is excusable. Tech workers need to organise themselves. If anything you need MORE breaks in tech work as the physical situation is so limiting.
Don't listen to nonsense about cutting calories. Diets are an industry of lies built on lowering self-image. Same with "working out." We should use our bodies regularly, not just exercise (practice) using them. FAT!SO? by Marilyn Wnad is a great book full of good ideas if you need more deprogramming in that department.
Ride your bike and use that time to clear your head. Increased blood flow helps mental agility. You will realise that you are more valuable than to be exploited in this way. If the company really needs you THAT much then they need you enough to give you decent hours. And if they don't want to give you that they are cruel jerks who you should get as far away from as possible.
Stupidity is its own reward.
Make a sensible, rational exercise and eating plan and just go for it. I recommend at least browsing through Triathloning for Ordinary Mortals by Jonas even if you have zero interest in tris per se. If you've got an hour at lunch, you can get in 45 minutes of quality exercise every work day, and you can make VERY good progress with just that + longer session(s) on the weekend if you keep them fairly high intensity. And ditto to all the posters talking about walking, stretching, doing quick body weight reps between calls in the halls or wherever. Oh, and if you're ever watching TV, you've got time- it's simply a matter of choosing not to sit.
You will have to be ruthlessly organized to get the most out of your time. Pack a bag with everything you need in the morning and leave the essentials in it all the time. Fruit, yogurt, energy bars, raw veg, etc. can be thrown down the hatch every 2-3 hours fairly unobtrusively- get stocked up on the weekend. And remember that alcohol cleaner can do more than just your hands and dries very, very quickly.
Lastly, I guess beggars can't be choosers- especially these days- so I'm sympathetic... but I just don't see how you're going to be able to keep up that schedule long term. Even if you can physically survive the grind, humans have social needs that are every bit as real as sleeping and eating, and to be honest exercise is going to be vastly easier to shoehorn in than people.
Note: sorry if any of this is badly formatted, I don't post often
Health is a broad topic and it really comes down to what you're actually trying to achieve, 'staying in shape' is a really broad area (gain lean mass, reduce heart risk, age well, endurance, fast-twitch response, weekend athlete, don't throw my back out doing the lawn, etc), however, here's some general advice on overall directions:
Focus: Work can bring you down, and when you're sitting down it can be hard to focus (or the opposite, if you've ever done a 10 hr marathon coding session, looked up and said 'damn'), relax, or keep a stable mental state (depending on your user base) ~ http://www.guidetopsychology.com/autogen.htm ~ is one method of staying focused and giving yourself the reinforcement that will help with the other steps (you can get it down to about 3 minutes front to back by the end of the cycle).
Nutrition: Other than a balanced diet (there's too much info on google to address that here) a good vitamin pack ~ http://antiaging-systems.com/a2z/beyondchelation.htm ~ can go a long way to stabilizing your diet and 'rounding off the rough edges'. I like the chelating package because it helps cleanse some of the crap that gets into the food lifecycle out of our system.
At work exercise: http://www.amazon.com/Isometric-Power-Revolution-Mastering-Lifelong/dp/1932458506 ~ is a solid reference on isometric exercises (many of which can be done at work) - optimally spread out throughout your shift (and some can be done discretely on an hourly basis). There are many isometric references out there so if you find this trend working for you then you should continue to do research until you find a series (with variations) that meets your specific (and evolving) needs.
Day off exercise: 2-3 30m cardio sessions are good, but I also recommend 1-2 yoga sessions as well (or in place of perhaps). Yoga is an excellent method of flushing your lymphatic system and has solid health benefits for arterial plasticity as well (make sure you do your own research however), a good at home example guide is: http://www.amazon.com/Bikrams-Beginning-Class-Second-Edtion/dp/1585420204/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246481279&sr=1-1
You can get the info in the books above on the internet as well, but I like books for my library. The above require the lowest investment in equipment that I've seen and still allow for considerable improvement and variation. There's no magic pill here, you have to really define what you want to achieve and keep learning to adapt your regime to your lifestyle/goals. Keep in mind there's a difference been an 'optimum' workout strategy and 'making a difference'. Doing 5 minutes of isometrics or a breathing exercise or two every hour at work isn't an optimum way to build muscle, but every little bit helps.
Best of luck
Get a total gym and work out 8 minutes per day utilizing all the major muscle groups. Eat less. Drink lots of water.
As an IT guy, you can appreciate basic math. If you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. If you burn more than you eat, you will lose weight. Eat the right foods that aren't just a waste of calories - there are a gazillion references to what these are. Don't eat more than you can burn. If somebody brings in donuts at work, take a pass. Drink lots of water, not caffeine-laced drinks. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park at the parking spot the farthest away from the door. Remember, you have to burn calories and every calorie helps. You can also search online (wikihow for example) for lots of exercises that you can do while sitting at your desk or while driving.
I'm in in a similar situation. I work two jobs plus school which means I'm away from home 14 to 16 hours every week day. A year ago I was a flabby 250 lbs. Today I'm a fit 180 lbs (I'm 6'3"). How? First, if you're not working out as much you should be eating less. I have a program on my Treo that I use to track my daily caloric intake and expenditures. If weight is your biggest concern, that's all you need. Seriously, your metabolism has nothing to do with it. Eventually you'll get used to the right amount of food for your activity level and you can stop counting every calorie.
If you're also looking to be fit you should sneak in a little bit of exercise. For me, I do pushups, situps, and pullups every morning. It only takes maybe 10 minutes to do, which anyone can fit into their morning routine. I have an exercise ball for the situps and a bar for the pullups - less then $50 for the whole setup. I also go to the gym every Saturday in the early afternoon. I'm usually still exhausted from the week, so I never make this trip optional for myself.
That's it. It really is just a matter of squeezing a few minutes a day and watching what you eat. Good luck.
Your schedule basically means you cannot work out on days you work. You can do yourself a lot of good by working out vigorously for 1 to 2 hours on the days you do have off. Finding an extremely demanding sport like singles tennis, mountain biking or skateboarding, that really puts a strain on you cardiovascularly will help boost your metabolism through out the week. Weight lifting is your other friend, doing real strenuous intense weight lifting on the weekends will help you also. You'll be burning calories as your muscles rebuild. Finally, the only other thing you can address is your eating habits. Any sugary or starchy food is going to hit you hardest, next is other high calorie foods like fats and meats. You can fill up on raw and cooked whole vegetables and raw fruits. Cut out all prepackages foods and snacks. If all that fails metha-amphetamines is your only recourse. You could just be happy being fat, too.
I hope you have excellent health insurance because your going to need it.
Otherwise, dump the 12 hour schedule and the job, and let some other poor sucker get heart disease or diabetes.
Not only that, your skill sets are declining.
When you go to a I.T. job you deal with the same equipment and same issues everyday. That is OK if you are just starting out, but if you are 2 years into the job, start looking for a different job once you get the idea of this one.
After you get some experience start your own private practice and make your own time to exercise.
I can't remember the last time I worked 12 hours, and if I did it was because of some disaster, or a boss that could not plan his time correctly, which I fired. (Got a different boss.) I usually work 10 hours with lunch.
I hope to god you are only working like 4 day weeks as even blue collar people I know do not work those sorts of hours and you better be making huge amounts of cash.
I bill out at $120 an hour right now for a typical 40-50 hour week.
-Hack
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
You don't have to follow it. Just read it. It's very short. Most of the book is recipes, which you can ignore. You can read it at Borders over a cuppa.
Fiber, glycemic index, etc. Full of reasonable diet info. It won't keep you very thin, but it'll arm you understanding your diet and how you can control it.
Look into some type of prison workout with body weight exercises. You could work those in during breaks, lunch, bathroom trips, whenever. Now, if you don't get breaks, lunch or bathroom trips, then why the hell are you working in such a piss-poor circumstance anyway? You'll die young at that age regardless of what you try to do.
Never argue with a man carrying a water buffalo
See subject. Everyone spells it out in different ways, but basically, exercising is a way of life, like making your bed, or flossing at night. You do it or you don't, but the more you do it, the easier it gets and the more a natural part of your life it becomes. No longer feels like effort. You say you have no time, but that's never true -- you have 10 free hours a day. Use 45 minutes of one of those to run, do some situps, pushups, and some curls or shoulder exercises with one of those rubber band things. Even at work, instead of playing cards with your buddies during those 3 AM breaks, tell 'em you're going for a run, or just to exercise.
Nike was right. Just do it. Gets easier.
by a generator driven by a stationary bicycle
First, tackle weight loss. Most people's metabolism can do this on a low glycemic index ("low carb") diet with no exercise. Your heart will still reward you for not carrying the extra body mass
You should be able to maintain your weight this way. Then, add exercise, primarily cardio. Look for opportunies to get incremental exercise. Park at the back of the lot. Use the stairs instead of the escalator. Get out of the office at lunch or breaktime for a walk. Find a set of stairs and do a couple of flights a few times a day. And on your days off, get your workouts in the morning before you come OBE (overcome by events) later in the day.
But honestly, I think you need a new job / lifestyle. What are you living for? I hope you're squirreling money away for leisure time later, otherwise you're just grinding your life away (as another poster put it.)
You stereotypers are all the same...
[ ] Your Health
[ ] Your Family
[ ] Your Job
Pick up all the loose change you can, park farther away and walk a bit more, always take the stairs, don't delay a walk across the building until you can take care of 2 tasks at once just go over twice... walk to lunch.
Second, either first thing in the morning or last thing at night, exercise. Wake up 20 or 30 minutes earlier and start working out, you'll be amazed at how hard it is at first but how dramatically better your day will be. Stop watching TV, stop screwing around on slashdot, cut back on the xbox or whatever, or sleep 20 to 30 minutes less. Then on your off days and weekends, do like a 2-3 hours of decent physical activity, go on a hike, do something.
There is a giant difference between feeling like not exercising and not having the ability to do so. Put yourself first, it's your body and your life, nobody else is going to make the time for you, you just have to start doing it. Personally, there is something very very satisfying exercising in the morning before I do anything else, before I even give a shit about the news I take care of my body; you deserve it too.
Pick up a book or two detailing exercises that don't require you to have anything other than your own body.
I'd recommend you learn what Qigong is, and learn Da-Mo Wai Dan sets. Xingyiquan Wai Dan sets are really good too - you don't need to have more room than you'd have in a small office.
Solo Taijiquan can be very rigorous depending on your posture/how low you squat in your movements. There are many Chinese martial art exercise sets that were *specifically* created with this kind of situation in mind, for incumbent monks that did not travel outside the monastery and had other daily work keeping them busy. Long fist, and Shaolin Lohan sets are good in this situation. I suggest you do some digging - there are a lot of good self-instructional books out there where you can (reasonably well) learn and practice these kinds of exercise sets from. Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming with YMAA press have put out a lot of good reference material in both print and DVD form.
Finally, there are isometric exercises you can perform even while sitting, standing, etc. They work. Isometric exercise books from John Peterson are good references for that. All of these things work, and work extremely well - but give you exactly what you put into it.
Find a Crossfit affiliate gym somewhere near your office and go there over whatever lunch break you get 3 days a week. Classes are an hour (20 W/U, 20 WOD, 20 W/D) and you'll end up in the best shape of your life.
http://www.crossfit.com/cf-affiliates/
Plus it's kinda like "Open Source" exercise... they publish workouts for free, but you pay for support (a gym to do it at if you so wish... and in this case, you do)
Most of them are going to give you advice you can't implement. I understand where you're coming from and I can actually help you as long as you don't mind the possibility of looking slightly foolish at work.
You work 12 hours a day. I know that you aren't continuously engaged in productive work. No one is. So start there. Every 3 hours take a 15 minute break and do the following:
Set a timer for 5 minutes then do:
100x Jumping Jacks
50x Pushups
50x Bodyweight Squats
50x Leg Raises
50x Crunches,
50x Russian twists (Russian twist is going halfway up in a crunch, then turning left to right, each direction is one)
When you first start out you will probably not finish this in 5 minutes. It doesn't matter. Stop at 5 minutes. Go get some water, walk around for 5 minutes and catch your breath.
Now go eat an apple and a handful of peanuts or sunflower seeds or some other healthy snack.
When you eat lunch eat a sandwhich, or a big salad, or a chicken breast, not a bigmac or a whole cheese pizza. Keep a GENERAL IDEA of how many calories you are eatting and keep it somewhere in the 1600-1700 range. You don't have to be precise here, just don't knock down the Triple Whopper and you should be ok.
Do NOT drink sodas. You drink WATER. Nothing else. Vitamin Water or Life Water is acceptable, Powerade and Gatorade are not.
Coffee is acceptable, but not recommended.
Eat every 3 hours, a smallish meal, approximately 6 times a day. Your target is an average of 300 calories per meal, but it's flexible.
And if you want to know what makes me qualified to give this advice and why you should listen to me:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kintanon&search_type=
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
Are you working at 100% every minute of every shift? Take out 10 minutes and do some sit ups. Another 10 minutes somewhere doing pushups. Another 10 minutes doing stretches. Replace any of these exercises with the ones of your choice (take some small weights to work?) and you've got your recommended half an hour per day. Granted, you're supposed to do half an hour straight but 3 x 10 minutes is better than a kick in the face.
You list about 10 disadvantages in your question. Why not focus on your advantages instead?
- You have 2-3 days off per week (Great time to exercise!)
- You work in an office (Every one I've been to has a fridge/microwave that can be used to store healthy foods).
- You probably have a lot of down time at work (Why not do push ups or run around? I used to think this would look silly in the office until I realized that being fat looks far sillier and letting others determine my success was foolish.
I bet you could list a lot more yourself, like maybe you really enjoy playing a certain sport
You will NEVER be succeed with your current attitude.
Check out the Shangri-La Diet, at sethroberts.net. Trick yourself into being less hungry.
Easy to try, and it's worked for me, as well as a heck of a lot of people on their forums.
You don't need the book, it's more an explanation of why it works. Just get some extra-light olive oil and start by taking a tablespoon in the middle of a 2-hour taste-free window (no gum, no toothpaste, no cigs, no food, no soda).
FAQ post at forums: http://boards.sethroberts.net/index.php?topic=3398.0
Seems that all those can'ts are more likely won'ts. I work long hours and I can tell you diet is more important than exercise. I've moved to a low-carb diet with very little exercise and have lost 45lbs in 5 weeks. If you want results, those can'ts need to be wills.
Smoke cigarettes. If you're unsure on whether this is a good idea, consult Bill Hicks (rather, his recordings - he is dead). Also put a lot of sugar in your coffee to get your ATP, and then drink it all day to block your AMP. This also keeps something in your stomach. When you get hungry, drink more of it. Maybe eat lunch but not breakfast, and then have a small dinner, but stay busy to avoid vegetation. Don't forget beer or eggs for protein, multivitamins, iodized salt. Try to sleep on a predictable schedule, even if it's just 5-7 hours. Back in the day when I was working general support, I was hauling computers everywhere, which helps. Just carry a mid-tower around with you all day, and then occasionally open the case and close it - just for exercise...
i understand that you need sleep to function. i posit that it might be the case that you need *less* sleep for the same amount of function (energy, alertness), if physical activity was part of your day. i know it's the case for me that there are 3 factors i can tune and a couple i can't that affect how much sleep a "rested" me needs (not nodding off at work, in good spirits by default).
tunables:
- amount of intoxicants i consume. alcohol is not the worst offender here. can make a difference of up to +2 hours in my "how long do i sleep before i wake up naturally" number
- getting some exercise: at about 45 minutes, i take an hour off needed sleep to feel right. it also serves similar to a cup of coffee--doing it at 4am will rarely leave me able to sleep before 6am.
untunables:
- sickness
- stress
both lead to more sleep needed, or less good sleep being gotten in the same amount of time.
i am a sounds sleeper, so the following statement doesn't apply. but perhaps it is relevant to your situation, even if you've never realized it? are you getting good sleep? do you have apnea, do you have a dark room, a comfy relaxing bed, a quiet place? could be that moving off the main street would be all it takes for 6 hours of sleep to feel as good as 8.
luck++;
You got 2-3 days of NO WORK. Do 60-90 minutes of a high intensity workout and those days and you will be fine.
Since your commute is killing your time, and your car (assuming you're not commuting on a train) - consider staying in a hotel near work with a workout room a few times a week. You basically save your commute from and to work, giving you 3 hours back with which to workout, and with the savings to wear and tear on your car, and the gas used, it'll at least subsidize the hotel stays. Canceling an existing gym membership might also drop the total cost to where so many hotel stays a month becomes a monetary wash. Anyway, with working so many hours, you can probably afford to spend a bit on fitness.
This topic's been on my mind, so I have a longish / digressive comment. Read at your own risk!
My constraints aren't exactly the same, but I'm lazy, find it easy to sleep too much, eat WAY too much, and exercise too little -- and would like to lose some weight. (5'10" or just over, around 190 lbs.) I realize that something has to give. My arbitrary goal is to shed 10 lbs over the next month; some people say that's a lot, but I'm not aiming for 10 lbs *every* month, and I'm not concerned about the number except that it would be a cool one to reach. I won't tear my hear out if that's not the final result, etc; I want to just get healthier in my intake / outgo of calories, to fit my pants better, etc.
My approach, which is neither well-tested yet, nor especially scientific (but seems like it should work), is basically to do simple things that I can't give up on the basis of complication (like counting foods to the molecule, keeping super-careful exercise notes, etc).
This is not exact, but I'm essentially trying to estimate what I *would* eat (unconstrained, as in "how I've eaten for 34 years") and select approximately half of that much, for any given meal / day. I know I'll go over sometimes (which is fine, if the overall reduction is still substantial), and I hope to sometimes go under, in order to get used to not being completely sated.
For instance, here's my lunch today: https://slashdot.org/~timothy/journal/232517
It's not starving myself, I realize (and try to tell myself), but it's also about a third (maybe a quarter) of what I would ordinarily eat. Getting used to a smaller amount is tough; since I'm only a few days in to the current project of eating better / smarter, I hope it gets a bit easier.
I am pondering the Tim Ferris advice to eat whatever I want one day a week (probably Sunday); perhaps that's just seductive nonsense; I suspect that coarse analogies about the body ratcheting down to account for lower calorie intake are ... well, coarse. There might be something to it, but it seems like a case where the model may eclipse that which is being modeled, leading to the physiological equivalent of spurious precision in math. However, I can also see it as a psychological aid -- if I eat my old norm once a week, then it means I've still cut down substantially.
wrt exercise: I have been jogging / walking (more walking than jogging, though yesterday was nearly equal between the two) in an attempt to be less of a slug, get the aerobic exercise going, etc. I find running boring, and have never in my life experienced the "runner's high," don't expect to. However, it's still satisfying to know that I've completed a few miles without dying. I use the time partly to listen to interesting podcasts, too. Uptempo Bach, or Clash, or New Order ... I don't listen to music as general background sounds very much, but with exercise, it seems to help distract from pain, and provides some rhythm. Maybe should try some old-time work songs, incl. sea shanties :) *Pure* running, with no distractions, though? I am amazed that anyone does it for pleasure, even though I admire the athleticism and determination of my friends who run long distances.
In truth, I'm still evaluating running as exercise; the satisfaction from it is pretty good, esp. since my starting point is so low that running 1/4 mile feels like I've accomplished something great, even though that's precisely diddly/squat to people who actually run. However, besides being pretty boring, it's not great on the joints, and not as calorie intensive as, say, swimming. Good things, though, are that a) the equipment is right (and here in Seattle, it's decent weather for it most of the year) and b) I like the fact that tracks are measured in nice little increments, so I can fairly say "OK
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Quit.
Those are unhealthy work conditions, no matter how you work out the math. You cannot live a healthy lifestyle while working 12 hour night shifts.
The choice here is very simple: Your health, or your job.
Every Mixed Martial Arts club (usually offering some mix of BJJ, MT, boxing, wrestling, judo) I have seen offers classes or open mats at least 6 days per week. This guy has minimum 2-3 days per week. That's all he needs. He just has to make a rule that every day he has off, he goes to his club, aiming for 3 days per week min.
If you pick something with some live sparring (e.g. any component sport of MMA as opposed to Traditional Martial Arts (TMA)), you will get in shape, guaranteed. If both people sparring are wanting to win (which is natural), there is no choice but for the level of energy output to be high enough to provide good exercise (and it will be at 100% at the beginning). Another way to gauge this is to look at the members of the club. Are there few fat slobs in among the belts higher than the first? If there aren't many (of course, some will have come back after taking an extended hiatus), that's a good sign. I'm not as familiar with the various TMA other than karate, but if it has more than a 10-20% max slob/stud ratio, it may not be intense enough.
Choose something where you are not going to be whacked in the head (e.g. if you do any boxing or MT, no head contact) so that you don't end up feeling the brain damage in 10-15 years. You make your living from your brain and damaging it is not an option. Or just do something grappling based - BJJ, Judo, wrestling (freestyle, greco, folkstyle, college). If you want to save money and live in North America, you could probably just train wrestling at your local high school.
I find that of those people who stick to BJJ, many/most of them are intelligent people. A lot of college graduates, people in IT, academics, etc. You almost have to have a good memory to learn all the different moves required to play the game and recall those moves as required, and their counters. Becoming somewhat competent takes hundreds of hours, excellent requires thousands. But the upside of this is that you will probably never get bored. BJJ is a very cerebral activity, which those in IT can appreciate. It's continuous problem solving. If you can get addicted to RTS games, chess or anything like that, you can get addicted to BJJ (pitting strength against weakness, recognizing openings, tricking the opponent, recognizing when to give 100% output and when to conserve energy).
It also offers something for the RPG gamer - the endless progress, gaining new abilities. Instead of monsters of varying strength, you have people in class who you can gauge your abilities against. As long as you are intelligent about how you measure your progress (e.g. time to get submitted versus someone better, a submission against someone of equal talent, or maybe minimum energy output required to submit someone of lesser ability), you can see progress and it will motivate you. Even learning new moves and pulling them off is a form of advancement, kind of like getting proficiencies in an RPG.
Of course, it will suck in the beginning. You will wonder why on earth you ever started. You will feel like the biggest fish out of water. But give it 3 months, if you last that long you will probably get hooked. The bonus is that you get yourself addicted to an exercise where you aren't counting the clock until it finishes.
If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.
Utilise your right to work no more than 48 hours / week under the EU working time directive.
If you can't, I suggest you change country.
In the civilised world we've figured out this is bad for you and we guarantee your right not to be exploited in the way you are.
Oh, while you're at it, get a legal minimum of 28 days / year holiday - that's the *lowest* in the EU.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. (Einstein)
quit. That's the only solution I've found. Find a job with flex time so you can create a practical workout schedule during your day.
jg
It's simple... Get a new job! Get a job in which you don't have ridiculous work hours and don't have to commute 1.5hrs.
Get a private conference room or find a private place at work and do 50 push-ups everyday like I do.
"throw in almost an hour to get ready to leave" - why not start getting your stuff ready before you're off work and have your workout stuff ready to go? I prefer to have my workout bag ready to go the night before so I don't have to spend so much time in the morning getting ready. Isn't that why parents help their kids set out their clothes the night before? Makes it easier...and hopefully it would get you into a healthy habit of being prepared and not wasting so much time being lethargic.
If you don't know how your body works best then you need to learn. No exercise, diet, weight loss plan out there will do you good unless it works for you. What works good for one person won't work good for another. Each and every person is an individual with different circumstances. Take a look at what you're currently doing activity wise and putting into your body energy wise. If you're tethered to your chair for the whole time of your shift and cannot break away, you'll have to find a time that best suits some form of physical activity. If you find yourself munching on food throughout the day because of the lack of ability to get out of your chair, make sure it's healthier food. Find time to do anything you can. Five minutes per day is better than 0. Eight minutes is better than the 5. Make conscience efforts to change and stick with it irregardless. Don't set too high of goals right away. Aim high enough to be attainable but not too hard to reach. Something you know you can do. Like set a goal to lose 2lbs and THEN maintain the loss for a week. It's so easy to lose it and then fall back into old habits. Also don't deny yourself simple pleasures. That's where every single diet will fail, but be cautious. If your normal breakfast is 3 donuts and 2 cups of coffee and a candybar, cut out the candybar or 1 donut. Minor changes over a long period of time, constantly updating is easier on the psyche and a much smoother way to transitioning out of bad habits. Most importantly, listen to your body though. If you're constantly hungry, find satisfying foods that will curb the hunger pains while giving you nutrition. If your body works better on 3 large meals vs 10 small snack sized meals throughout the day, listen to it.
Get tested for hypothyroidism if you have not yet done so. Also possibly diabetes. These can both affect weight gain.
Other than that, as other posters have said, you'll have to work it in to your day. You probably live too far away to bike commute the whole distance, but you may be able to park the car a reasonable distance from the office and bike the rest of the way in. Do a search for bike commuting to get ideas on how to deal with the logistics of clothing, cleanliness, etc.
Hi there.
I used to weigh 250 pounds. I now weigh 165. All the weight I've lost was fat, caused by eating too much and not exercising.
What worked for me was cycling to work. I end up burning 800+ extra calories each day, and it adds just 15 minutes to my daily routine. (It's a 25km daily ride.) Yes, I also drop kids off at daycare.
The question of you being an hour away - is that due to traffic or distance? If it's distance, then this probably wouldn't work for you. If it's traffic, you'll end up getting to work faster.
Otherwise, you have 3 other days in the week to exercise. Do it or die early.
Oh, and cut out the soda. That'll add mass faster than a black hole.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Commute by Bicycle.
Rain or Shine
a) typo in there. You can read it as "I won't tear my hair out," or, at your option, "I won't tear my heart out." Both are true!
b) Also trying to remember to take a multivitamin each day. Mine are shaped like little animals, with some sort of shape I can't make out -- perhaps bears, since they come from a container shaped like a bear. Until someone gives me compelling evidence that kids' vitamins are any worse than the adult kind, nyeah nyeah nyeah nyeah.
c) Echoing practically everyone else: water. I find water boring, I crave sugar and fruit flavor, but I know that's where a lot of my calories come from -- delicious drinks with tons of sugar. Whether or not you believe the conventional wisdom that HFCS is especially bad (I'm skeptical, but not a food scientist, medical doctor, or Merlin), there's certainly a lot of sugar there. Adding lime / lemon wedges helps, even though it won't turn water into wine, or even fruit punch.
I know water by itself will drive me a bits buts; therefore, I'm allocating to myself, on ordinary days, 8 ounces of orange juice. OJ is about 15 calories an ounce (less than I'd expected), has vitamin C, and tastes pretty good even diluted to 1/3 water.
Have not had any coffee or tea in a little while, but that's not doctrine, just fact; I might have some coffee (today, even), but with very little or zero sweetener.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Looking at the previous comments, everyone seems to agree that there are only 24 hours in any given day. Staying in shape takes about 1 of those 24 hours about every other day. In the end it's all about choices. Is it really worth it sacrificing your health for some shity night shift?
Ok, not that helpfull...
You say you need time to "unwind", well my friend, to me anyway; working out IS unwinding. It makes even the most stressful day seem a little bit better just knowing that I still managed to do something good for ME. It's also been demonstrated (citation needed) that healthy people get promoted faster, talk about killing two birds with one stone... Taking your health seriously could indirectly get you out of that shitty job one day!
Whether you think you can or can't...you're right.
I'm surprised no one seems to have mentioned a solution I tried - get yourself an under-desk mini stepper or bike, along with a non-rolling chair, and you can pedal or step away while you sit at your desk. Even if you're only doing it very slowly, doing it for hours will certainly help you lose weight, and probably get you in better shape than you're in now.
I have a sedentary job with very long hours. I just let myself get fat. It isn't that bad, really.
So, how does somebody who works a minimum of 60 hours over 4 days, often adding another 12 another day, and sometimes working 7-10 days straight like this, stay in shape?
The best option I see is to work out efficiently. Most of the popular stuff wastes your time.
For strength-training, avoid isolation-exercises. They are designed to train as few muscles as possible. Unfortunately the design is successful, they train as little as possible. Prefer compound-exercises that train many muscles in one go.
For fat-loss, long cardio-workouts are overrated. Short, intense workouts save lots of time and even work better. The Tabata-protocol works pretty well with workouts of just 4 minutes (8 intervals of 20 seconds of intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest) and has a scientific study to back up that claim.
One possible workout would be a regimen of push-ups and pull-ups for strength and warm-up followed by five minutes of kettlebell-swings (possibly in Tabata-style intervals) plus a gentle cool-down. The whole thing is over in 10 or 12 minutes and will do wonders if done about three or four times a week.
EAT DIRT!
For some reason, smokers get four or five 10-15 minute smoke breaks a day, outside of the normal break schedule (this holds even more true if the boss is a smoker). So claim smoking, then string all your alotted smoke breaks together, and go to the gym for an hour mid-day, or split it with a 30 minute walk/run, and a 30 minute self-directed calisthenic workout. A fake unhealthy habit is your ticket to good health!
place two terminals on the far sides of the building then for every new task switch terminals and run between them! Work harder not smarter!
One day, we will have robot dogs. Until then, my wife and I can maintain separate hobbies.
Just eat candies, meat, fast food meals, and do the minimal exercise. That way you not only will keep your shape, will improve it till it gets perfectly round.
I'm in a similar situation, I have actually managed to lose weight by doing the following.
- Listen to dance music and tap your feet, hands etc, it keeps your heart rate up and your metabolism going. If you can't listen to music then just tap your feet to an imaginary beat.
- Walk to talk to people rather than ringing them on the phone.
- Frequent small meals rather than large meals.
- Don't eat anything after 2 hours before you go to bed.
- Have your biggest meals at the start of the day and get progressively smaller as the day goes on. Dinner should just be a snack not a full meal.
I lost 15kg following this without stepping a foot in the gym.
Get a life, get another job. Seriously...
You may also want to look at this:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/can-you-get-fit-in-six-minutes-a-week/?em
Even 6 minutes a week, with the breaks described and the equipment, may be more than is possible for you. But you're going to need to find some kind of optimization obviously.
Innovation makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old regime... -- Machiavelli
Helpful timetable: http://xkcd.com/320/
I didn't realise people had actually tried it :)
It's not clear to me how this actually *gains* you time. Sure, you have 4 extra hours a day, but there's now only 6 days in a week. The number of hours in a week obviously doesn't change, so you can't magic extra hours out of nothing. The extra hours staying up awake is compensated by sleeping for longer (unless there is evidence to suggest that people don't need to sleep extra on this cycle?) My understanding was the benefits weren't more time overall, but that it fits in better with people's desire to stay up later each day, as well as meaning you can go out all night on weekends (but it doesn't sound like the person here has much time for partying...)
If he really wants a sleep pattern that gives him vastly more time, then he might like to look into polyphasic sleep patterns, which involves only taking short (e.g., 30 minutes) naps several times throughout the 24 hour period, requiring in only a few hours sleep in total each day. (I have not tried this myself, nor AFAIK is it known what the long term effects of this might be!)
I know it's not easy in a down economy, but starting immediately, look for something else before you die from this schedule. Your employer is killing you.
And tell us who your employer is so I can avoid ever doing business in the future with them.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Take up a competitive sport, preferably something athletic such as running or bike racing. I'd imagine bike racing would have lots of geek appeal because of the level of tactics and technology involved. I'm a competitive cyclist and I can assure you that being competitive concentrates your mind in a way that the more mundane goal of 'trying to avoid gaining weight' never can. When you sign up for those races and find yourself on the starting line with your teammates, you're going to make sure that you've put in the training necessary to get in good enough shape that you can compete. You're going to want to avoid the humiliation of being dropped off the back of the pack or being dropped on a climb. That's one hell of a motivator. The part about losing weight and staying healthy just comes as an incidental by-product of the more intense need to WIN!
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Someone mentioned CrossFit. The workouts are often/usually less than 20 minutes, and you'll see great results. In a similar vein, read this article. It's in the same general spirit: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/can-you-get-fit-in-six-minutes-a-week/?em
I haven't done a workout over 15 minutes in a couple months (not including warmup), and yet my endurance has improved an impressive amount. This won't prepare you for a marathon, but it'll get you in shape. The drawback is that you have to stress your system fairly dramatically in order to reap the benefits. Some people can't do that for health reasons. Others simply aren't comfortable with it. Also read up on tabatas. Do them with situps, pushups, pullups, squats (air or other), etc. Bodyweight exercises can get you fit.
Having said that... I'd move or get a different job, as many others have suggested. However, the article doesn't indicate any unhappiness, so... maybe just cramming in quick, hard bouts of exercise three times a week or so is the way to go. Good luck!
you don't really want to stay in shape.
Default human nature is to eat about 10% more then you need. This is hardwired.
So, you hve to controll your calorie.
Eat less fats and exercise more.
oh and this line:
" I can't hold a workout schedule" is lame. Of course you can.you work 12, and dless 8, you can fit a half-hour areobic esercise into that time, IF you really wanted to.
The best suggestion I can make:
Get a better Job. One that doesn't lways consume your time. Unless they are paying you enough to retire in 5 years.
In the mean time, eat good food. No candy or 'snacks' At least if you are still eating enough to gain weight you are minimizing the damage to your liver, gall bladder, and pancreas.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
they all stink and noone wants em that sounds like a regular day in a busy armory like mine. its all about time management. i love to sleep in as late as possible (0610 usually for me) so i prep my stuff to the point where when its time to get up, im out the door in a minute tops. adjust your diet to include a healthy breakfast and many small healthful snacks. if you cant find the intestinal fortitude to sacrifice some of that me time for some real productive time, then do something to up your heartrate every time you get up to get a drink, a snack, a smoke, or go to the bathroom. as mentioned earlier, find a way to get a pullup bar near you and bang out a max set every time you do something. the better shape youre in the more energy youll have and the better youll sleep, so you can use those as building blocks to help you jump outta bed and do a quick workout-maybe a mile or two on the eliptical/exercise bike (if youre not already used to working out id advise against running because its high-impact), some situps, flutter kicks, jumping jacks, pushups....the process is continuous.
get a sponge-ball to play with. stand up while working. walk around as much as possible.
Burpees and kettlebells. Both require little room to do and work out the entire body. You can do them at work during some downtime.
"No longer feels like effort. "
Bullshit, it always feels like effort. If it didn't you wouldn't need discipline to do it.
Even Jack LaLanne talks about what a pain in the ass exercise it, and he is the exercise king.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Stand at your desk rather than sit. Do pushups every couple of hours. Do crunches during a 5 minute break. Do stretches as you can get 1-2 minutes. If there are stairs at the office, run up and down a flight of them for 10 minutes during a break.
Basically, incorporate a little activity into your day while you're at work. It won't turn you into an elite athlete, but it'll help you not totally blob out.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
I can't believe some of the responses. Read In Defense Of Food, find a new job, and stop giving your life to a fucking company. You don't need to buy any special rip-off machine to get in shape. Eat lots of plants, less meat (white included), stay away from processed fake food. Put as much variety in your diet as possible. Favor foods with fiber, good fats, and good carbs. Shun sugar like the plague. Fruits are fine, eat those. Drink lots of water throughout the day, especially in the morning. It should be the first thing you do. And for god's sake, give yourself some time to enjoy the good things in life.
"Now go eat an apple and a handful of peanuts or sunflower seeds or some other healthy snack."
Apples are as fatty as a piece of chicken, and peanuts and sunflowers are right out. Why don't you also recommend olives?
Idiot.
fat intake, try to never exceed 60G per day. Talk to a doctor about the nuber right for you. A min fat diet 20G per day will cause weight loss.
There is nothing in that link that qualifies you to give nutrient advice.
Don't confuse the two.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I do about 10 reps of masturbating by night time each day.
WORK LESS.
If you spend so much time working that you literally can't afford to stay healthy, then YOUR WORK IS BAD FOR YOU. Don't start fooling yourself just because everybody is forced to work that much. Cut your hours.
The secret is methamphetamine! Start tweaking and stop eating and sleeping! Then you'll have plenty of time to work out when you get arrested and end up in prison!
Cough, hack, spit! That was a joke!
Stop snacking, stop sugary crap, stop chips, stop fast food. Try and get 20 minutes a day of activity as a starter and you'll be fine. If not become a vegan! LOL!
If you are out of shape, your brain is not functioning at its best. So be a true geek and optimize your system!
Excuse me now, I need another beer!
http://gymnasticbodies.com/
- Burns calories
- Avoids slouching and back pain
You will have to convince your boss to get an adjustable table, or your co-worker(s) to stand also, or use a stool when they are at your station.
But overall, it's cheap.
ps- You live too far away. Those 3 hours a day ruin your plan to work out. Just getting an hour closer gives you 2 hours a day to stop at a gym on the way home and fix this. I did this for almost 9 years, first working 8 hours at a site 2.5 hrs away, and then at another site just 2 hrs away but 9.5 hours a day (don't ask). It's not pleasant, and I moved an hour closer once. Then my assignment changed and I was 1 hr away from the new site, instead of 15 mins. Grrr.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
It sounds like you can't go to a gym, but you still want to workout. There are numerous books on bodyweight training so pick a few exercises and do them during your lunch break or everytime you go to the bathroom. I used to sneak off a few times a day to do pushups and other exercises in the breakroom.
During your lunch break you can set off a timer every 10 minutes and do a set of pushups every time it beeps. If you can do 10 each time that's 60 in an hour.
Find a gym nearby and cut the day in half, work out (cardio) during a lunch break at least every other day you work. Then, work out at least 2 more times (again, cardio) on your days off.
I can advocate working out once a week, lifting as much as you can, 1 set about 8 reps. Its pretty easy doesn't take much time and builds muscle pretty well. Mike Mentzer was the most famous advocate of the technique. It seems to me the best way to stay in shape just using 30 mins a week.
Quit. That job will kill you.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Lack of exercise can be compensated for easily, but depriving your body of sunlight by working a 12 hour night shift is harder to rectify. You run the risk of developing cancer and dying. I would take vitamin D tablets or get another job.
- Take 5 minutes before getting out of bed to do light exercises (sit-ups, back stretching, things that are good for your posture) Don't get out of bed without them and after a week, it will become an effortless habit.
- Drink only water. No juice, no coffee. It will reduce the amount of consumed calories (Might be counter intuitive, but its a necessity for IT jobs)
- Replace coffee with a stress ball (it keeps you focus and somewhat warmer)
- During 2-3 hours a day, trade your chair for an exercise ball.
- Eat a little something every two hours. Don't let yourself be starved, you'll only eat too much the first chance you'll get.
These rules by themselves should be enough to prevent anyone from gaining weight. But to get in better shape, you'll need to find the time to do sports. I would personnaly suggest stopping for 30 minutes somewhere when you return home. Try different thing (get in a soccer team, run somewhere new, try wall climbing...). You'll eventually find something you like enough to stick to it and even train to get better at it.
Good luck!
If you have to go out of your way to work out you probably get sidetracked. Its easier if you have equipment nearby.
Let's start of with your residence. A jump rope and punching bag are relatively cheap and compact. The bag is also good for venting stress/anger/etc. Free weights will cost more than the rope and bag but take up less space and cost less than weight machines. Don't push yourself too much with those though.
As for the office, a pull up bar and a pilates ball are unobtrusive and won't distract your coworkers during use. The ball also doubles as a spare chair. You can also get a medicine ball to toss about in the hall or parking lot with your coworkers while brainstorming or just socializing. It's less likely to dent a car door or break a window than a baseball, football or frisbee. A soccer ball works well too, but tends to be more disruptive. Finally keep a duffel bag with running shoes clothes (don't forget socks and underpants) and a towel. You might also want to keep rinseless soap of some sort in there.
As others have said, you might just be making excuses. You should get a work out when you can, and if you really want it, you will find time to do it (push ups, sit ups, or google for the 5bx plan from the RCAF). So, there are plenty of activities you can do to build up your physical activity. The only missing thing is some cardio, in terms of raw activities.
But, there is something else missing overall, which is having fun! For some people, being in shape is supper important, and that is enough to motivate them to exercise. For the rest of us, we need to find the exercise itself fun, or we won't do it.
I don't have specific advice, but for your cardio activity, you should maybe play a team sport (social networking sites may help you find a game, like meetup.com).
For the days you work, try using it to wake up. Or maybe try to be more vain: take a minute every day and look at yourself in the mirror (I actually forget to do that. I loose motivation to have a nice looking body, and I wonder why. Well, its because I _never_ take time to look at my own body. Why should I workout if I haven't a clue how out of shape I'm in?). Anything to get you motivated.
asap.
Hopefully you're doing more than lip-service to wanting to stay healthy (many folks use kids/schedule/commute as an excuse to be unhealthy, but it's no excuse).
First, make sure to use your off days to get some excercise. Even just half an hour on each of your off days is likely to stabilize your health, even if it doesn't improve (your mileage may vary). Try to find something you enjoy, so it's not a burden.
Also, just make sure you get up and walk around or do something mildly energetic periodically to keep your body operating while at work. If it's at all possible, take a half hour to actually excercise (run, bike, pushups/situps, whatever) one day of the week as a holdover until a day off. That day will be longer, but you may be able to manage one longer day a week especially if you do something fun.
In the end, if your job is truly inflexible (can't take any time even once a week to excercise), then perhaps it really is killing you and you must decide how much you want to let your health decline before changing jobs/where you live is *less* painful.
You wear the Gozone, it keeps track of your steps, then you download the steps via a USB port on your computer. and see your progress over time on the web page. You can win prizes for doing it as another incentive. If you have a business, you can incentivize your employees and use the data as evidence to lower your health insurance costs. A win win win situation.
http://www.virginhealthmiles.com/
I do not work for Virgin but I have to give them some credit for getting me from potato to marathon runner.
-- Each tock of the Planck clock is a new world and here we are still life. --
Run around the server room!
Put a treadmill in front of your console and walk while you work.
welcome to the "adult" world!
Try eating small amounts more frequently. Make sure you stick to a schedule and restrict your intake every time you eat. See http://www.askmen.com/sports/foodcourt_60/69_eating_well.html for some more details or google "eat small meals throughout the day" yourself. And, try to be active during your breaks from work, step away from your desk. Always take the stairs. Bike to work if you're able.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is fairly well-known activity for general fitness and weight loss. It's been found that 15 minutes of HIIT will get you better fitness and weight-loss benefits than 60 minutes of medium intensity running, biking, etc. Google "HIIT" you'll learn a bit about it.
The downside? It's tiring as hell. If you do it correctly, you only spend 15 min exercising, but you should hardly be able to walk when you're done (so add 5 minutes for catching your breath). This explains why some people have trouble losing weight through jogging, treadmills and stationary bikes. But playing soccer, basketball, or [in my case] kickboxing results in a very quick fitness results. It's been proven that HIIT raises your metabolism for a full 24 hours after you finish, even only doing 10-15 min.
The goal should be 15 rounds, 30s on, 30s off. Start with like 5 rounds of 30s on, 90s off, and try to improve to the 15-min goal. The activity can be anything you want: punching bags are great, or you can do sprint/walk intervals on a track, etc. But it is vital that you go 90% to 100% intensity for the "on" intervals. The only requirement for the "off" intervals is to try to stay standing/pacing (don't sit down/go to 0%). It is absolutely exhausting, but the health benefits are phenomenal. I do a variation of HIIT 2-3x per week in my kickboxing class, and I lost about 20 lbs and endurance went up 10-fold in the span of 2 months.
If you're going to ever have time for any kind of exercise, you'll have time for this, unless you're trying to figure out how to get exercise in front of your steering wheel or your desk. Come up with an exercise that you can do, or a variety of exercises you can do that will take all your energy for about 30 seconds, and alternate between them. In my case, I wrote a short python script that just dings ever 30s so that I don't have to try to watch a stopwatch or anything.
My recommendation is to alternate between 4-6 activities for the "on" intervals, using different muscle groups for each, so that you are working 100%, but different muscles. Try clapping pushups, speed burpees (google it), doing full squat jumps as high as you can, full crunches/situps/veeups, etc.... or get a punching bag and go nuts punching and kicking it. That's what I do, and it's very satisfying.
Here are my tips for adding some extra exercise or cutting calories:
After I came back from a trip sponsored by Red Bull, where they handed out the stuff for free, I was hooked. At work I swapped snacks, sugary milky coffee and lunch for sugar-free Red Bull. I had about 4 per day and then a normal meal in the evenings. Horrible for your health I'm sure, but it does keep you going throughout the day with virtually zero calories :)
as an abnormal geek who not only embraces the sun, but also runs around in it, i must say i'm upset to see no mention of intervals or tabata after a quick ctrl+f. traditional endurance based workouts such as long distance running or sustained aerobics not only burn calories but also increase your metabolic efficiency, but only as long as you are working out. intervals have been shown to increase your metabolism ALL DAY LONG AFTER ONLY 20 MINUTES OF EXERCISE. sorry to shout, but i feel it deserves the emphasis. any exercise you choose, be it sprinting, sit ups, push ups or intense fapping will work, so long as you try hard enough to raise your heart rate to the limit.
i suggest googling it, since you know how to do that if you've made it here, but to make it easy, here's a simple breakdown, feel free to do any other exercise, so long as it makes your heart beat quickly.
three or four times a week, try this:
1. stretch
2. do as many sit ups as you can in 90 seconds (the harder you push the more you gain)
3. walk around the room for 60 seconds (don't relax completely, remember, you're exercising)
4. repeat steps 2 and 3 until you've done them 4 times each
5. stretch
6. shower and get ready to lose weight while sitting at your desk
that only took 4*(90+60) seconds plus 5 minutes or so for stretching, and you just did more for your body than most slashdotters do all week.
once you get a feel for it, start decreasing the duration of the sets while increasing the amount every few weeks. your goal is to be doing 10 sets of 20 seconds of your best effort then 10 seconds of just barely trying, but i suggest you take your time reaching it. if you really push yourself, you'll notice great results without losing much time out of your day. try alternating different exercises each week/day to keep from getting bored.
Sounds like it's about time you started asking yourself what you really care about.
Are we here to slave over machines our whole lives for companies that don't care about anything but their bottom lines? Or are we here to do our best to live a happy, fulfilling life? What's your motivation to stay at this job, anyway? It sounds to me like they're running you too hard. What exactly are you doing with your salary? Spending it all on a home you're never in and a car you're always in? (but never enjoying)
When you die it doesn't matter where you worked, it matters who loved you.
On a more immediately helpful note, I've been getting more exercise and easing my stress levels lately by brown-bagging lunches that will be good cold. Then when my lunch hour rolls around I grab my lunch, start a 1 hour countdown timer on my phone and start walking. Because my lunch is good cold I don't even have to stop in the break room to microwave anything. When I find a nice place to sit down I have a seat and eat my lunch. Then I walk back to work feeling refreshed and ready to face the rest of the day.
Porquoi?
Four words. Move Closer To Work
Oh my God the comments here are awful, they're all wrong, every single one of them. I didn't read your post very carefully, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and venture a guess that your long work hours don't consist of being a member of a focus group set in a "natural living-room setting" whereby you must sit on a couch in front of a large-screen TV with the other focus group members screening six movies per day, you know, just zoning out, you don't even have to pay attention if you don't want to, by all means, go ahead and nap if you want to, and refreshments will be continually provided should you choose to pig out, for that full at-home experience. Further, I doubt your commute takes place in the dining car of the fucking Orient Express which you're on via all-inclusive tickets you paid through the nose for and by God are going to take advantage of.
I guess what I'm getting at is : YOU ARE EXERCISING. If you're working 12-hour days in an office setting, you are LABORING.
The answer to your question is as simple as the answer to the bellboy's dilemma who doesn't want to get fat while he's carrying people's luggage: the only way for that bell boy not to get fat while working long hours carrying luggage around is to avoid buying a twenty-pack of Snickers and a three-liter soda every morning, to be eaten while he's sitting around waiting for guests to check in.
You think you can avoid doing that smart boy? Is it in you?
Get a fucking sense of style. Eat when it is becoming to eat, at breakfast at home (not on the road), something small and becoming at lunch time (don't pig out), and dinner once when you get home (something filling and reasonable). In between drink water or diet soda. Eat a desert with every meal, of which have three (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Eat only stuff you can look forward to eating. IE GET A SENSE OF FUCKING STYLE.
As for working out, I just told you: you are. The only thing missing from your workout is weight training. The first month, twice, do 5 slow pushups, 5 slow situps, and 5 slow pull-ups. All of the following months do 10 of each, twice a month. Total time investment: 2x45 seconds the first month (as you will in fact not come anywhere near being able to do 5 -- it was just a lie on my part), 2x2 minutes the other months. You think you could somehow fit those 2 minutes into your schedule somewhere twice a month? Couldn't you, like, I don't know maybe like set your clock forward by two minutes the night before so that it looks like you're getting up at the normal 6:00 AM but in reality secretly it is really 5:58 and you quickly do the workout, ending at what looks like 6:02 AM but you wouldn't freak out because you've bought a second alarm and set it with the real time behind it so that when you're done you just in one really fast, fluid motion pull out the second clock from behind the rigged one and use it to push back the first one, so that you see the real time of 6:00 and you can proceed through your morning routine without having it get all fucked up by the insertion of the exercise? Think you could do that maybe?
Hook an exercise bike up to an armature/inverter unit at work and reduce your NOC's environmental footprint while also getting a few fat burning workouts on company time. Get your employer to cover the cost of the bike, or claim it as a tax deduction yourself. It takes a small amount of practice but pretty soon you'll be able to type and use a mouse while pedalling.
I would park the car 10 minutes away from work. That way, you get a total of 20 minutes to walk to work and then back to the car. I can't say how far that should be, but you don't need to park at the same place all the time, change it up to change the scenery, just don't forget where you parked the car or park in a bad neighborhood. As you get more confidence, you can start to park further and further away.
Cocaine is a hell of a drug?
Calorie burn varies from person to person, sometimes by quite a bit. Come on, haven't you met someone who eats a ton and is still skinny? There's also a genetic factor, which is why Chinese and Indian people are less likely to be overweight.
You haven't said how far away you live. I myself live 8 miles from work, which is 45 minutes by car during rush-hour or 45 minutes by bicycle. (Actually I choose to cycle the scenic route, 25 miles each way, 90 minutes).
So: if your job is within 25 miles of home, then cycle. (maybe cycle one way every other day).
Turn in your geek card if you haven't performed the proper energy in / energy out comparisons.
A 65g chocolate bar contains about 250 calories or about 1000kJ. To do 1000kJ of work you could lift a 10kg weight from waist height to head height about 12,000 times. If you did one rep every 2 seconds, that would take you five and a half hours.
Of course this is meaningless since your body isn't a 100% efficient machine and energy is lost both through the digestive process and the mechanical process of using muscles.
You can't neglect differences in the conversion efficiency of different people when performing these comparisons. One person could produce the same energy output but be able to eat many more calories as a result of different conversion efficiencies.
This has a bit more on the subject. http://www.mb-soft.com/public2/humaneff.html
Insanity: voting in the same two parties over and over again and expecting different results
Thanks guys. I didn't think this would actually make it to the front page, it's my first 'submission' and was expecting maybe a few responses from interested people.
Great advice from (most) people, short of the few that told me to keel over and die.
Few responses I have:
1. The job is very high stress. Bad.
2. I have a girlfriend who lives with me... so the little time I have daily, I spend with her. Besides her, yeah, my social life has suffered very very badly. And she hates it when I'm gone all the time. (No, she's not alone in the house overnight, and it's an insanely safe area - which I like)
3. I work in a very congested city type area which is NOT very safe outside. The building is VERY secure (full security staff, I get my laptop and bag checked every day...) and I'm far from alone in here, so running around would just piss people off.
3. My dad is a Type 2 diabetic with multiple heart attacks.
So... yeah, I think most of your advice above in regards to this job are correct. I also understand that I need to fit time in to do it, so unless I can remedy the job situation, I'll start lifting freeweights in the car during breaks and going on a diet. (I will take breaks regardless of the situation... the stress is starting to get to me pretty badly)
Thanks all, and thanks for the honesty. It really is in my own hands, but the advice helped.
Working out is indeed extremely important, but what a lot of people don't realize is that your weight is determined by 75% diet and 25% exercise. 8 years ago i was 5'9" and was extremely skinny at 125lbs. I've maintained a weight at around 170-175 for the last several years mostly due to changes in my eating habits. As a fulltime software engineer who only works out 2x a week now, I maintain my weight mostly through several key points that other people may have already mentioned: 1. Cut out all refined carbs/sugars. Stick to whole wheat grains and brown rice. 2. Minimize, but don't eliminate, fat intake. Obviously this means staying away from fried foods, but you can get healthy fats from sources like fish, nuts, olive oil, and vinaigrette salad dressing. 3. Make sure you eat a good amount of protein (the exact amount will differ according to how much activity you can actually do), but protein builds muscle and will help you to feel full longer. 4. Don't let more than 3 hours pass without eating something. This usually means you'll eat 5-6 meals in a day. 5. ALWAYS have a substantial breakfast. This will jump start your metabolism for the day and actually reduce the likelihood you'll overeat later in the day. Of course, if you can find time to exercise when you can, you'll have the best results. Otherwise, following these guidelines should make a pretty big impact by itself.
1.5 hr commute?
consider moving closer
or get a crashpad closer to work
ride your bicycle
Crack cocaine! I'm guessing you work in a fairly urban environment, shouldn't be too hard to find. Look for the guy on the corner looking around nervously. You'll find it's cheap, greatly increases your metabolism, eliminates the desire (dare I say need?) to eat, and has the added benefit of eliminating the need for that morning coffee! Those 12 hour night shifts have you feeling drained? No problem, try crack! You'll be lean and mean in no time!
Sleep on your days off. After a year or so you'll adjust to having 2-3 hours of sleep on workdays.
Get the book. A Whopper has 200 more calories than a Big Mac. There is a whole lot of shit that is supposed to be healthy that isn't. That "lightly sweetened" "strong heart" Smart Start cereal? 10 different kinds of sugar and so many chemicals that it might explode if mixed improperly with other foods.
Lose the carbs. I agree 100% with the parent (I am diabetic). All of it is shit. How much sugar do you think is in a small 12 oz can of soda? 2 teaspoons, 4? Try 10, almost a 1/4 cup of sugar in one can of soda . For carbs, get whole grain bread, pasta, etc. The fiber will help prevent insulin spikes.
Get a bike. $100 will buy you a lot of bike at K-Mart and nothing says "don't steal me" like Huffy. Or got to a flea market at the end of the day when you might be able to pick up one for $5. Use it for all of those short trips that are a few miles or less. You can probably keep it at work too. You will also save a shitload of gas money in addition to getting the exercise.
Aerobic exercise is great, but you need anaerobic as well. And there is no better way to get that than free weights. You need nothing more than a barbell and weights, which you can get at the same K-Mart or swap meet that you got your bike at. All of the fancy, expensive computer controlled machines are shit.
And there is no better weightlifting exercise than parallel squats. They are are a royal PITA, and you have to make sure you do them right. Get Starting Strength and Super Squats. Combine Super Squats with your bike rides and you are golden.
"Be grateful for what you have. You may never know when you may lose it."
"(or just run 3.5 miles/week)"
35. Not Even Michael Phelps would burn 1000 kCal / mile of running.
Hawaii Chair
I'm a private investigator I work for insurance companies 5-6 days a week, typical 10 hour work day, not counting driving to job and back home through Washington DC and Baltimore. Company vehicle and gas, so I'm not paid to drive to and from home, typically drive 2 hours each way.
Oh I make 12.00 an hour.
Walk your way to office and back. Climb stairs and do walk as often as possible during work.
Get in 5 sets during a 12-hour shift.
Increase by as many as possible each day.
Also, some cow-orkers may react unfavorably, but grab a carpeted corner somewhere, and do some basic yoga.
Worked for me!
You must do Kegels while you work!
Get a weighted vest to wear under your clothes. I got one from Hyperwear. It's the thinnest one I could find.
Welcome to the real world...
Try to manage the whole work-life balance. At least until you can change your career to something where moving around a lot is part of the job. I spent three years in agriculture, and lost about 50 pounds. I'm currently taking classes for a career change to geology.
- High Tech workers, please say NO to Union Carpenters, their Union sees fit to control our compensation.
Isometrics? This is when you tense muscles against each other, like if you locked your hands together and try to pull with both arms and the like. I don't know much about it, but it effectively allows for exercise while sitting still in a chair.
It is really not hard to live a healthy life style, but you have to accept the fact that you have been trained on what âoetheyâ told you long ago. Here are some Google research points for you nerds to dive into. Ill start with the most important: Insulin sensitivity Glycemic Index Paleolithic diets health benefits of sunlight crossfit primal workouts warrior diet naturally boost testosterone It is just the simple fact that humans are animals too, and we have animal instincts and genetically coded systems that are running fucked for a long time. If we have DNA, and the selfish gene theory is true, then it also means we are programmed with some pretty fuckin powerful survival mechanisms. From the very small processes of removing free-radicals that make us age to ATP survival mechanisms that make our minds and body capable of super-human feats, we have it all. USE IT. Men WILL actually fear you and women will love you. Itâ(TM)s all so very primal.
Probably already suggested, but cut out lazy behaviours: Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Get off the bus a few blocks away/park the car further away and walk a greater distance into the office. If you can just walk to work, or bike to work. Take more 10-20 minute breaks and do push ups/handstands/pull ups on the server rack/walks around the compound/campus/park/block. Carry heavy things instead of using the wheeled cart/dolly. Stop eating sugar-based junk food/sodas and pack sandwiches instead. Use a rice cooker to make rice/bean stews and various dishes (You can cook quite a variety of things in a rice cooker). And the least best advice: Take up a cocaine habit. You'll get tons done, be able to work long hours, and lose your appetite. It'll work, but it's a terrible idea of course.
I think you'll find this article in the NYTimes to be of interest:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/can-you-get-fit-in-six-minutes-a-week/
Just do the workouts on crossfit.com
They take at MAX 20 minutes 3 to 4 days a week and they work. They are hard as fuck but scalable. You can do them in your home with a little bit of cash and some creativity.
We train fighters with these workouts, it will train you.
Ride to work (and home) everyday - then exercise is part of your routine and you'll never have to think about it again. And it save time - your exercise time overlaps the period you would have otherwise have spent sitting in a car/bus/train etc.
If your commute really is 1.5 hours, then ride to/from a train station somewhere between. Or park your car at some intermediate point and ride the other part.
Active transport is the best exercise: it's meaningful in that it actually achieves something (gets you to/from work) unlike repeatedly lifting some weights; it saves you time (overlaps commuting and workout time); and you don't have to think about it (you'll look back on the year and you've done a few thousand miles just as part of your daily routine). Plus you'll feel much better emotionally in my experience.
Reduce carbohydrate intake perhaps :-)
If you are conscious of the way you are moving then you can find lots of ways to expend more energy and not lose muscle to attrition. Instead of bouncing up stairs, walk up them slowly as if you were doing an exercise in the gym. You can do various exercise while on the phone, when you're lifting objects, while you are waiting for things, on public transport - look for these moments and make sure you don't just stand/sit around. A lot of our daily movement is done in the most efficient way - walking slowly, bounding up the stairs, lounging in the chair. Do it in the least efficient way. A short course of gym would be good, though, to build muscle which itself burns more energy than fat - it's easier to keep it later than to build it in the first place ;-)
Of course there are the freeform exercises which can be done on the desk, kitchen benches and floors - always pleasurable.
The man of virtuous soul commands not, nor obeys. -- Percy Bysshe Shelley
I worked designing and deploying NOCs for a very large telecom - among other can-never-break-system-designs. In the 10 years doing that I went from 180lbs to 300lbs. 18 months ago, I walked away. In the first 6 months, I lost 60lbs by watching what I ate and exercising **just a little**.
Your job is killing you.
Quit.
Find a job closer to your home or move so you don't **waste** so much time commuting.
Your job is killing you. I'm serious.
If you can't do any of the other suggestions (such as getting a new job or moving closer) then I have the following suggestion.
If you are on the phone or waiting for a system to boot, start marching or do knee bends. Wave your arms around. If you look at what you do all day you will find that there are many short times when you are waiting for something. Use these moments to exercise. My wife and I went to a medically sponsored weight loss class and one thing they emphasized is that you don't have to have long workout sessions, rather the total exercise time, even if it is done in small bites, is what matters.
Fortunately, i have a high metabolism rate. The kind that burns fat first.
As several of doctors in Singapore, Australia, USA and India confirmed, my metabolism is slightly off balance. Meaning it is hyper.
So the more i eat, the faster it metabolizes it.
And the more fat i eat, the more it metabolizes the same first.
My doctor said my weight will always be around 57-60 Kgs. Never will go up even if i eat a pound of butter every day.
And no, my heart is not affected. Heck, the fat never even reaches it. Took ECGs regularly every month and i still climb four floors of stairs to go my office cabin.
The side-effect is, i can't exist without eating fatty foods. I can't subsist on cereals, juices and salads. Those make me awfully hungry and weak.
My wife hates me for eating lathering up my dinner with butter and the way i inhale cakes and pastries. She hates me for eating a quarter-pounder every week without getting fat ever.
And no, i don't do special exercises.
All i do is to walk 4 floors up, down 4 times a day (one in morn, one in even and two times in between for lunch)
I tried to get fat once by eating a double-cheese burger for one month at McDonalds and Pizzas at Dominoes.
All i got for all that trouble was a taste killing effort.
My taste buds lost their taste for everything else.
It took me 3 months to regain taste buds.
Now i stick to my regular meals:
Breakfast: one huge bowl of Kellogs and a glass of Orange juice, double-egg omletes.
Lunch: Anything with lots of cheese and butter in it. And no juices. Egg again.
Evening: Butter cookies and Corn puffs for snacks: 500 Gms
Dinner: Mashed potatoes with butter, Rice with butter and other stuff.
Chocolate Milk shake.
Anything less and i start to feel weak.
My women friends at office are extremely jealous and wonder whether it is hereditary. They always say they would kill for my Gene.
Any advice?
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
Well if you have X hours of work and Y hours for sleep then
X + Y = 24
You need to make it less than 24 so you can have time to do some other things...
Personally I work 12 hours a day, but I sleep about 6... take out an hour for transportation and that leaves 5.5. There's time if you find it. People always ask me how I do an MBA while working. Stop reading slashdot at home. Stop watching TV.. you will find there is plenty of time.
Also.. you don't have to excercise formally every day start walking more and don'T drive, then on the days you have off you can do proper excercise. I find it boring and tedious to sit in my room and do push-ups or something, but I joined a volleyball team, so every saturday I am burning my muscles that way :)
Burn more calories than you consume! Exercise to burn calories. Eat less to avoid needing to burn those calories. My doctor ordered me to do whatever I need to to lose 1 lb per day, the safe medical limit.
Get a treadmill at your desk and walk on it all day while working.
Work less hours and exercise.
Or say heck with it all and enjoy life as a hedonist and embrace being fat, everyone else is so join the club!
there is no reason for why you can't introduce a work out into your every day routine. for example, we installed a metal pipe (2" diameter) between two shelving units / racks at the office and resort to doing chin-ups and dropping to the floor for sit-ups, push-ups and for cardio one of the guys has resorted to walking up the stairs rather than taking the elevator.
surely you can find a way to introduce exercise into your routine.
just remember to stay hydrated ... by drinking lots of water you will find that your metabolism will speed up and the frequent trips to the bathroom will give you a good excuse to get up and off of your computer and take a much needed break which a lot of us often forget to do. hope you don't have any bladder problems :-D
stay fit and have fun!
Climbing! I do it 1-3 times a week and it counters the eating I do (not overeating), helps with metabolism as well as strengthening those hand/wrist/arm muscles used daily.
Moving out of mom's basement would allow you to cut your commute time and would give you the opportunity to work out regularly. A move would also allow you to control your diet. Mom's breast milk is realy high in fat content.
Shift workers suffer higher rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, gastric problems, mental health problems and substance abuse problems. After 5-10 years the amount of cortisol you need to produce to work shifts destroys you physically and mentally, no matter how well you think your are coping with it.
Work it while you need the money and experience then get a job with reasonable hours.
It's not that hard. Google Tabata or read about it on wikipedia.
Basically, do 30 seconds of push-up or situps or whatever, then rest 30 seconds. Repeat 7 more times for a total of 8 sets. It takes 4 minutes and you'll need a shower afterwards. Do it before you go to work and after you get home.
Do a different exercise everyday.
Monday: 8 sets of pushups.
Tuesday: 8 sets of squats
Wednesday: 8 sets of situps
Thursday: 8 sets of jumping jacks.
By the 4th set, you'll start to hurt. In the 7th or 8th set your muscles will begin to fail. Strength gain is pretty rapid for a body weight exercise.
You can substitute gynastics planches for exercises if you want. Bruce Lee is a good example of someone who used planches.
If you exercise smart, the only food you have to watch out for is sugar.
Take the stairs while you're at work. Get up every 30 minutes and walk around like just to make a visual inspection. As a sysadmin you'll "discover" more problems if you get up and leave your desk.
And not just laying down stand up and lift your girl up high every time. If you still are out of shape after the first week find a fatter girl.
Or jog.
Loban Amaan Rahman ==> Anagram of ==> Aha! An Abnormal Man!
I didn't go through all of the above, so somebody may have already said what I am about to, but besides being smart about diet: Burpees. Bonus points for installing a pullup bar somewhere to add a pullup in the middle of the jump. Great for cardio, chest, abs, legs, triceps (and back if you add in the pullup). Good luck.
Get a decent job that respects your work/life balance.
Next!
I used to work with IS/IT (including user and hardware support), this meant that I had to walk over to the user and show them how to darn reboot there machines (ok, more advanced then that). Sometimes I had to move switches and carry big packages with new equipment. I do like Unix more, and every server we had was Unix, the downside of that was that you didn't have to run around to reboot them.. like the windows machines :-)
Anyhow, I changed task as work, I'm actually a developer, and was a developer before I was forced to work in IS/IT.. so I went back to being a developer.. Sitting on my ass 8 hours a day (not including the 1.5 hour travel time). So 9.5 hours ass sitting every day has actually crippled my stamina. I been forced to include some long walks and such in my normal day. Before I didn't have to.
So down the my two cents. If you work with user and hardware support, and use make use of the stairs you do not really need any additional workout.
Butt clenches. Do that for the 14-15 hours you're sitting still, and you'll become the real nuttcracker
You have a choice to make: do you work to live or live to work? Working like that and staying healthy is just not realistic.
I have always thought myself that life should be worth living - why bother, otherwise? I would expect any reasonable employer to accept that they get the best out of their employees if they are thriving and in good health, so they ought to be willing to adjust your workload. But maybe you just aren't ready to make the adjustments in your life that are necessary? Anyway, it's your call.
As a soldier 12 hour days, outside the wire, six days a week are common. Plus an hour or two of prep time, plus dealing with my subordinates makes it a good 15-16 hour day. I still made time to hit the gym and run everyday. I am also a full time student. It sucks, I don't get to lay around and watch TV or play guitar hero. If it is important enough you will make time for it, not excuses about why you didn't.
Resistance training and a high protein diet builds muscle. Muscle burns fat. More muscle burns more fat.
Try doing squats, situps and push ups at work, there are good plans on the internet.
I've found that if there is something I need to do I need to do it before I get home from work or as soon as I get home and before I settle down to unwind. Lately I've been getting home changing and going for a run as soon as I get home to avoid losing my motivation. FYI I work a full-time and a part-time job and I'm renovating my new house. So yeah, I understand being busy. I also bought a new pair of running shoes, iPod nano and the Nike+ (if you invest money then you better do it). Plus the metrics and the social aspects of the Nike+ system should help keep me motivated.
~ Normality is merely the achievement of the mediocre...
This is based on my own personal experience and resulting opinions, so please accept it as such - I'm not a doctor or nutritionist. First, if you have to work out to maintain a decent weight/shape, you're eating the wrong foods. I dropped my weight from 230 lbs to 185 (I'm 6'1) in six months by adhering to one simple rule: Don't eat processed foods. Fruits & veggies, nuts & berries, home-cooked bread, meat & fish - all good. Anything that comes in a box, can or jar - bad. The food supply has changed radically in the last 30 years, and we're simply not biologically adapted to tolerate it that well. The result is weight gain and sickness - high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, etc. etc. Eat like a cave man, man! If we weren't eating it 5000 years ago, we probably shouldn't be eating it today.
Full disclosure: That was 3 years ago. I've added back into my diet small amounts of cheese, eggs, and some staples that do come in bottles - soy sauce, ketchup, mayonnaise, and the like, but I try to choose products containing the fewest possible chem-lab ingredients. I now maintain a weight of 190-195. Oh, and all my health problems from 3 years ago have disappeared, including that sometimes-painful bump on my wrist.
- The Kessel run is for nerf herders. I can circumnavigate the entire Central Finite Curve in a lot less than 12 parse
Since you don't have time to work out at home, squeeze in some workouts at work.
Every time you get up to go to the bathroom do X pushups.
Get a yoga ball and use that as your chair after lunch.
At home get a pullup bar that attaches to your doorway and do a few pullups each time you walk through that doorway.
Do 100 jumps on a jump rope as soon as you get home.
I worked a 7pm - 7am shift for 9 months last year, too. I lived 10 miles from my work, which was in the centre of London, one of the largest cities with some of the most congested traffic in the world.
I got on my bike.
With a month or so of practice, I could equal the time spent on the train - about 45min each way. If you get reasonably skilled, a bicycle can make better time in urban traffic than a car. It burns a thousand plus calories a day, and not only gets you fit, it saves money, as well.
If you're particularly overweight or unfit, try a recumbent. They are massively more ergonomic as well as vastly more aerodynamic to ride.
A daily commute of 15-20 miles each way is perfectly doable and it will transform your life.
It's also a great way to wake up at the start of the day. Beats the hell out of caffeine.
Liam P. ~ "Intelligence is a lethal mutation." (me)
Get a pair of kettlebells, they don't take much space and last practically forever. And I mean real kettlebells, 16kg or heavier, not any hollow piece of crap or any adjustable piece of crap. But the real thing made of iron or steel. The kind of equipment used in competitions is always best. You can make a decent workout in fairly short time (20 minutes or so). Even at work (on break or after work) if you have a chance to shower at work. Good for cardio, good for overall muscle strength. You can even break your program to contain multiple short exercises per day.
And when it comes to metabolism, getting in shape will actually slow down your metabolism as your body starts to work more efficiently.
Recent studies have also shown that exercise doesn't have to be long to be effective, even short bursts make you tons of good, so don't worry if you don't have much time. Short is always way better than nothing, even if it's just 10-15 minutes or so.
And if you can't take 30 minutes out of your day to take care of your health (what could possibly be more important?), then there is something very seriously wrong with your life, be it priorities (e.g. you can always watch less tv or youtube, or whatever is your most waste of time) or something else.
Everyday moving is also important, get used to running the stairs up and take a habit of not driving absolutely everywhere. You'll find spots of getting some exercise, even if it's just carrying your groceries.
The most important thing, I think, is definitely to increase exercise, as even if you don't immediately make dietary changes, you will feel healthier and probably compelled to over time.
That being said, unless you find a form of exercise that you actually enjoy, the likelihood of keeping it up is probably pretty low - this is true for everyone. No one wants to do something they hate, and it requires a big push in terms of motivation to get started, even if you know it will make you feel better.
For me, Dance Dance Revolution is the perfect form of exercise. I can do it at home, at school, in a hotel room, etc simply by hooking up a cheap USB pad to my laptop and running the open source StepMania clone. If I'm home, I'll use my good, high quality Cobalt Flux pads. No need to travel to an intimidating gym that's out of my way and to wait for machines, etc. Furthermore, it's tons of fun - something that I really look forward to - and playing on the style and difficulty level that I play (expert doubles - meaning using two pads together, which makes you move your centre of gravity much more), I can burn well over 500 kcal / hour. I have trouble prying myself away even after an hour or two of play.
I have a similar busy schedule plus family life, and finding time to go to the gym is difficult at best. So I've started to use the 10 minute trainer disks. They are 10 minute work outs you do up to 3 times a day + a eating guide. Working pretty well so far and I can fit in the workouts easy. You can check them out on beachbody.com or if your creative you can find them "elsewhere".
My brother is a personal trainer and you can get a customized diet and workout plan that will fit your situation if you hire a good one. A lot of the advice on here is bunk. Simply cutting your calories will help but if you cut too drastically your body will think that you are starving and will slow your metabolism and store whatever it can. The key is to keep your body thinking that there is a regular supply of food around- eat frequent but low calorie, healthy meals. Like a salad in the middle of the morning, a ham sandwich with mustard and lettuce/tomatoe for lunch, and a light calorie granola bar / or a piece of fruit for a snack. Keep crackers and fresh veggies for snacks during the day. Eat a healthy breakfast too. Drink water, and 100% unsweetened juice.
The suggestions for little workouts during the day is a good idea. You can also do things while sitting like put weights on your ankles etc. Taking the stairs when you can is good too.
Get a bicycle. Drive to within 10 miles or so of work, park the car and bike the rest of the way. Increase the distance as you become more fit.
3500E3? What is wrong with 3.5e6??
My soul is bleeding...
There isn't much room in your life for exercise but you will feel really tired after cardio and weight training. You may want to get in shape but it is more important that you feel good. You need to find the right activity that you can combine with work. I follow an AM yoga routine every day and every second day I follow it with a power yoga session that provides a reasonable cardio/strength/stamina workout. It won't give you chiselled abs but you'll feel great and prevent a lot of stress related illnesses. Yoga is the perfect antidote to sitting at a desk all the time where your lower back in under strain for long periods of time, your hip region becomes tight and your shoulders are hunched forward typing at a keyboard. There isn't a lot of equipment required, just a mat and even that's optional. You can do it in the office, preferably in a free meeting room. Pull down the blinds of course. Do the AM yoga session during your morning break. You can do the power yoga session during lunch but I prefer to do it just before going to sleep. Trust me, you'll feel great after doing it once. Cycle to work to get an additional workout But when all this is said and done 4-5 12 hour days a week is not sustainable.
Screw that. 1.5 hour commute for a 12 hour day? Are you freakin crazy? I'd rather be poor.
i have the similar problem and even if it only 10 miles a day it will help.
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I'm not sure what your workout routine looked like before you started this job but here is what worked for me when I was working 60+ hours a week and getting physically prepared to join the United States Army.
I did these three programs, all three, three days a week. (Mon, Weds, Fri)
http://twohundredsitups.com/
http://www.hundredpushups.com/
http://twentypullups.com/
Then, I did this program coupled with a 2-mile run three days a week (Tues, Thurs, Sat)
http://www.twohundredsquats.com/
I found it worked quite well. If you are already partially in shape you should be able to run the 2 miles in less than 16 minutes. The squat program takes another 15 minutes. The upper body workout took me about 30 minutes to perform all three phases.
It had me sweating and working out each morning and left me feeling like I had done a thorough workout (I was getting up at 0500). It helped me build and tone muscle and take the weight off. Additionally, the only thing I needed to buy was a decent pair of running shoes and a pull-up bar, the rest of the exercises used my body weight as resistance.
Join the Army.
Me and my crew work five twelve hour days/week, and then we conduct PT (physical training)
Now, i'm not in perfect shape or anything...
but I'd like to think I'm getting there. :)
Literally speaking, you are correct - energy in vs. energy out are what determines whether you gain weight. But unfortunately that's not the whole story - your body is really good at keeping you alive, so if you eat too little, it will start to conserve energy - you'll be tired, lethargic and unable to concentrate ... and will end up not using very much energy when you do work out, because you are tired. ... less so. ... well, you'll end up with a nicely screwed metabolism, and may well end up no better off.
Sames true of gaining weight - you'll lay down energy surplus as fat, but you can also gain weight in the form of muscle - one's bad, the other's
Exercise patterns are similar - I've found just recently that I was exercising too hard - I was basically running myself to 'exhausted' really quickly, but not actually using up that much energy in the process - despite feeling like I had had a good workout.
You also get that 'energy conservation' mechanism occuring when your nutrion is poor - 2500 kcal/day of butter is about the right amount, but
*shrug*. I've been trying for ages trying a 'calories counting in + exercising' routine (honest) but it didn't work very well. What has worked dramatically shifting _what_ I eat, maintaining 'about' maintenance levels for my age/build, and then working out aerobically at _medium_ intensity. (using a heart rate monitor)
Actual numbers look pretty similar - they really do. But I'm bouncing around during the day, because I'm not totally shattered, and I'm sleeping much better - and the weight is dropping steadily.
I was so disappointed the first day I figured out that one: :)
http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-ice-creams-vanilla-i19095 - vanilla icecream is 145 "calories" per 72g.
If we assume it's mostly water, and it's at zero degrees - then the definition of a 'calorie' is the amount of energy needed to raise one gram of water by 1 degree. So... zero degrees to 37, 72 grams of 'water' - 2664 calories needed! Ice cream is NEGATIVE energy food.
This of course, ends up way less attractive when you add in the 'k'
How are you planning to reproduce? 16 hours of work (including getting ready and travel) plus 8 hours of sleep equals 24 hours. No time for hanky-panky.
Maybe I'm too late to the party, but as someone who has ... pretty much this situation, I'm currently doing something about it.
... I think it's mostly fruit/nuts and a generally lower food intake.
The think that I've found particularly useful is fitbug - http://www.fitbug.com/ - they send you a pedometer, USB cable and set a daily aerobic/non aerobic exercise target. And they also let you record what you're eating, and give you feedback on the nutritional balance of it - less just a number of calories, and more paying attention to fat/protein/carbohydrate, and working on a 'good' level of each. That brought me a few shocks, as some food has _way_ more than I thought - the pizzas I ate being a prime example.
It's really quite easy, and also appeals to my inner geek - so much so that I've altered my routine to get my 'daily steps' in (actually, I 'cheat' and go to the gym, because it's more time efficient - and that's a good motivator for me) and am eating
Seems to be working too, although I've started from 'extremely lardy' and am aiming for 'a bit lardy' as my long term goal.
And it's not 'starving myself' either - my calorie target is something like 2800/day, to do with the 12,400 steps (I do about 6000 steps/hour, and cover 3 miles, so that's about 2 hours of walking during the day).
Feeling fit and well has been a godsend - as has being able to 'fit in' 10 minutes here and there through the day.
Dude, your lifestyle is killing you. Literally. STOP NOW. Hit monster on your "free time" and find a job closer to home, or move closer to work. Your life expectancy is allready shredded by working night shift. Working those hours combined w/ night shift has you on the fast path to the light at the end of the tunnel. It'll be a train wreck. You'll die suddenly. It's going to be a heart attack or a stroke or fall asleep at the wheel. Probably on the job or on the way home. Hopefuly @ work so you don't kill anyone else. Your family won't understand why it is that you passed so suddenly and so soon. Your friends and colleagues are sad, but you don't see them anyway so most won't attend your funeral. You're close family will remember your graduation, and that one year you had chrsitmas off. A girl you knew in highschool will cry for you, but it was so long ago, that she'll mention it as a sidebar conversation when she see's other classmates.
If this sounds like I'm trying to scare you, its because I am, and It's also a very real scenario.
Life is too short to play these kind of games for long. Fix your work life, and the rest will probably just "flow." Theres so much scientific evidence against these kind of conditions I can't imagine anyone working this way on purpose.
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
I've noticed that microwaveable frozen dinners generally have decent food, but small quantities. The small portion size is frustrating at the tiem, but I suppose it works if I manage to not throw other stuff on top of it. :P
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
...I don't have obnoxious work sessions like that, but I admit to spending way too much time surfing the 'Net and whatnot.
My preferred form of exercise is bicycle-riding
I've noticed that it's a bit harder to get the motivation to go out and ride around just for the hell of it; I find it a bit easier to get out there if I have something specific to go out and do, even if the thing's just a small mundane errand...Sometimes, when I get out there, I stay out evne after whatever task is taken care of.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
try the master cleanse. its not a diet, rather a detox regimen. helps tremendously with energy levels. just remember the first 4-5 days are the toughest, try to do 10 days every 4-6 months but never more than 30 at a time. oh , quick tip, the salt water wash is nasty but i found that if you boil water then take 2 ounces and mix in the salt til it dissolves. You drink that and follow it with 30 ounces of water, its much easier than drinking 32 ouces of salt water. of course you should let the water cool a bit, lest it burn you. Also, I generally make a gallon at a time, and take some with me in a thermos, since the caps are usually about a cup(8oz) cheers.
>>Sig under construction
For your heart, you need aerobic exercise 20 min/day 5+ days/week. So for lunch, run 20 minutes and eat while working. Or bike. Or climb lots of stairs. Sweat. Give yourself a sponge bath in the handicapped washroom if you have no shower available
For strength, you need to stress your muscles to the max 3x/week. Look up "body weight exercises" or join a gym or buy some elastic bands you can attach to stationary objects and stuff in your backpack or briefcase for portability.
But for weight, you just have to eat fewer calories. Switch to more fibre and less fat foods. Eat fruit for snacks, not pop or chips. Eat more vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Trim all fat/skin off your meats. Make eat smaller portions. Stay hungry until your weight is what you want.
Ideally, do both.
tOM
Epitaph: At last! Root access!
This might not work for the OP, but for those of you living within 15 miles of your work, try cycling to work. I cycle 8 miles each way to my work and I have gotten in shape just by commuting to and from work.
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Some of the articles at shrinkgeek.com would pertain to this. Some of them are about injecting exercise as a gamer but those equally could apply to a 5 minute break while working.
I have a pretty hectic schedule myself I'm pretty much on call all the time, due to I have facility that i managed that operates 24-7. I make a point to spend at least an hour at the gym or at the park doing something active and I also manage my weight by eliminating a lot of junk food in take, fast food; soda. As well as taking my breaks and spending that time walking around. You do not necessarily have to spend a huge amount if time working out or starve yourself. Just eat 4-5 small meals rather then starve yourself and eat one or two large meals; by starving you are slowing your metabolism which cause you to retain and stored body fat. So eating several small meals through out the day you speed up your metabolism and you burn body fat. BTW I used to weight between 210-220 lbs I'm now at 135-140 lbs with a 5-7 % body fat.
Well, one way to free-up time is to move closer to work.
But, failing that: you're working 12 hours/day 4-5 days/week. You literally do not have free time. Why?
Because we Americans have let employers take advantage of us. We have let insane hours like these become the expectation; the norm. For the sake of our health and sanity, it must stop.
We need unions and/or increased labor regulation to end the long hours. Now.
Your job is particularly-bad, because it directly-interferes with the time during which thousands of years have ingrained a Circadian rhythm in your brain that tells your body it should be sleeping... which changes your metabolism's behavior. Your job is fucking with your ability to metabolise food, and you're probably gaining weight as a result. Especially since you likely don't have time to make healthy meals, and so you're likely dependent on fast-food, which in general is high in calories and grease and low on nutritional value (if you can get a salad or make it to Subway, that helps).
Americans need to stop this insane bullshit Puritanical work-ethic that says we must work all the time -- and often for no extra pay (how many of us are paid a salary for 40 hours/week, but work 60-80 hours/week? I do). We can thank the religious idiots -- many of whom are the laziest people in this nation -- for pushing this work ethic in churches, within families, in communities, etc..
Stop the madness! If only Obama and his supporters had the balls...
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
I'm in better shape than I've ever been because I carefully chose to live and work in locations with a good bike route between them. Yes, sometimes it's difficult--much like most high-reward endeavours. Sometimes it's an uphill battle against the fat, lazy slobs who for some inexplicable reason don't want you biking to work. But the trouble is worth it. Trust me.
"The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
I make the IT guys do 25 push-ups before they can touch my computer. If it's slower after they've "fixed" it, I call them back up to do 25 more. Unfortunately, my computer is still in worse shape than the IT guys. Maybe I should give them Krispy Kremes instead.
Get a spinning bike. Alternate between 30 sec interval at full speed between 4 min. intervals. Perform 6 cycles, 3X per week. Your appetite will be diminished, and you'll be in markedly better shape in just 2 weeks.
I spent 2 years working a shift like that except I was only 1h away from work. Still, it was pretty rough. Here's what I did. 1) Spend your breaks at work doing something active. I'm not a smoker but I took "smoke breaks" and left the NOC and did laps around the building. I also picked up a book on stretching and did those too to break things up. Pushups were a time killer too and made a difference. Google "hotel room workout" for tips on working out with a minimal amount of equipment. You can store a yoga mat under your desk and an exercise ball makes a nice chair. 2) Changed my eating habits. I went on South Beach. Cut out all sodas and fast food. Started eating 6 meals per day. More protein and veggies, few carbs. I'd pack a cooler full of stuff and take it with me so I could eat on time - especially if I was driving. 3) Moved closer to work. There was a cost to this....I had to give up a month's rent. Ended up 20 minutes away, a 20 minute drive that was nice. The time I saved made a huge difference. After 2 years I left the job. Turnover was really high and after 2 years I saw 2 rotations of the staff. Kita's ideas are similar to mine...good stuff there.
Work out during the weekend. Avoid drinking sugar drinks. You should also consider moving closer. That kind of working schedule will kill you in the end.
Wow! 791 bits of advice! Can't possibly get through to see if this recommendation has already been provided, but if it all possible, as your employer to provide you with a desk where you can actually stand through your shift. May sound a little crazy, but it helps a lot! The first two weeks are uncomfortable as your legs get used to the work, but thighs are big metabolic tools: by standing, you keep them engaged so your entire work session becomes a little bit of a workout. Plus, you can begin to incorporate other movement as you're standing, and your body will stay more toned overall. Keep a few hand weights nearby. You'll find it also helps you to stay alert. It's great if you can also have a tall chair, or a desk that can be raised or lowered, but you'll find that you end up standing most of the time just because it is more comfortable, and much easier on your back. Good luck!
So you don't have a life. That's a bad choice and unhealthy in itself. But as long as your life consists of little more than worktime and bedtime, use those.
(1) Worktime: If there is any chance to take a train + bicycle/walk to work, do that. Driving is stressy and stress makes you consume more unhealthy food. On a train you'd even be able to do some work, and the bike/foot part is physical workout.
(2) Bedtime: Sexercise.
Even on your situaton, you do have a lot of time to excerise and keep working at the same time.
If you get yourself a high table you can work with your notebook standing up, this is great excersie !
Even on your conmute, you can try the 1.5 comute time to be standing up, and even doing some excersie, like walking inside the bus/train/wahtever.
Like the subject says, cycle to work.
"I hope you like Guinness, Sir. I find it a refreshing substitute for, er... food." Col. Jack O'Neil, SG-1
Work out once a week for less than 30 minutes as hard as you can with weights. it's a little more complicated than that so buy the book. It works.
He doesn't need a union to a) tell him to move closer to work b) find another job.
hell I worked in a union shop and the job sucked. So what did I do? I found another job and quit.
If you're dedicated enough to your job to drive 3 hours a day and then work 12 hour shifts...maybe you should just consider moving closer to your job. It'll save you time, gas money and you'll have time to work out...makes since in the long run (no pun intended).