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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).
Meth. I have yet to run into a fat meth-head.
At the bare minimum, you need to move closer to where you work. Your commute is costing you your health and is eating your paycheck. Looking at the money you are making versus the costs, you might be better off working at the 7-11 down the street.
Where does your social life fit in to this? I know when I work a 60+ hour week I need the weekend just to unwind, let alone see friends or do things I enjoy.
My solution, get an apartment within 5 miles of your work and then ride a bicycle there.
Roughly half my comments are never submitted. You may be reading the better half...
From what I hear, you can do kegel exercises nearly anywhere at any time.
But then I realized the cable was blue, so I only gave it one star. I hate blue.
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.
I have been working night shift in a NOC lately, myself. Deep into my 12 hour shifts, there is almost nobody in the building, so I can do laps. I carry my blackberry which will yell if I actually have to respond to an outage. I'm never more than 30 seconds away from my desk while I do laps. It's also easy to do jumping jacks, pushups and situps while with line of sight to my desk. Add in the occasional jumping jacks, and I'm oddly enough probably getting myself in better shape since having started this schedule. Go figure.
Of course, there is also the days off. I could theretically use those for excercise. I used to be in the habit of jogging when I had a working iPod because I could listen to education audio books while I ran. Now I can be at work while I run. I think I feel silly if the only thing I'm doing is running. As much as I know it is important, I don't really feel it is an accomplishment on its own.
Also, be careful with what you eat. Quantity is obviously a concern, but quality is a huge factor as well. On this schedule, I never really have time to cook the days that I work. The result is that I eat more burgers than would be ideal since that's the most convenient thing. When I'm at work, I often microwave frozen TV dinners or cans of soup with enough sodium to preserve an elephant. I'm trying to make a point of sticking to fruit juice instead of energy drinks, making the TV dinners the 'healthy' option, and at least squeezing in enough time to eat something better than a burger on my way home from work.