Slashdot Mirror
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).
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.
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
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?
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
And wear ankle weights and such so that your simple motions are more workout-like.
If you wear wrist weights, then simple typing will be a bit of a workout. Though I imagine you would be more likely to suffer from ergonomic problems in that case.
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.
This isn't rocket science; pick one or the other.
(I suggest you pick the health, and loose that job)
___ I don't respond to Anonymous Cowards, and I Never Mod them UP.
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.
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.
Or an old one
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.
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
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.
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.
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?!
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
You will feel better in just about every way for however many years that you do happen to live.
Also not to be underestimated, stop drinking soda. If you drink a lot of soda, try switching to water. I did it a few years ago, and dropped 15 lbs from that alone.
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.
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
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.
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!)
This isn't an either/or situation. Eating and exercising are *both* necessary, but for me, most of the weight loss was due to diet and not the exercise. As I pointed out, I ran 30 miles a week for two years, and had 1/2 the weight loss I did in 6 months of eating right and weightlifting twice a week.
You are what you eat. Seriously.
I didn't say "weight loss," I said "fit." If you want to be skinny, eat little. If you want to be fit, exercise. Fitness isn't a number that you see on a scale; it is your body's ability to perform within reasonable athletic parameters. You can't have that with a sedentary lifestyle regardless of what you consume.
Brian Fundakowski Feldman