What do you do?

Ddsb11

Lietchi wrote: »

I'm a public policy evaluator for a government organization.

Pre-Covid, the challenge was time management for exercise on the 4 days I went to the office (working from home 1 day a week) and had to commute. Lack of sleep was definitely a challenge too. But not really having time for breakfast worked in my favor - sort of doing intermittent fasting by skipping breakfast made it easier to stick to my calorie goal (an early breakfast would make me hungrier anyway).

Since Covid-19 I've been working from home full-time. Wonderful to be sleeping around 8 hours per night instead of 6 on work days. And no commute also means I have more time to be active. My eating pattern has changed: I'm eating breakfast every day, but at 9.30AM which doesn't make me as hungry. Eliminating lunch meal prep is also quite convenient. Downside is constant access to food, but after a few weeks I found my eating routine - only snacking after dinner.

I'm actually dreading the day when I'm have to go back to the office again, I'm hoping the rules on working from home will be more flexible by then (it used to be limited to 1 day a week). But I've lost weight during both periods, so I know it can be done. At the moment, my workouts are very improvised, whenever I feel like it basically (the only obstacle being when it's my turn to cook, since I prefer working out before dinner). Going back to the office would probably mean planning my workouts a lot more, but I'm sure I could make it work after a period of adaptation.

It’s bitter sweet right! I don’t want to go back personally, but I’m truly unimpressed with my ability to have created a better routine for myself than I expected I would. The version I think I am sometimes is not the reality at other times haha. Work and structure is much better for me ultimately, unless I have an epiphany from this thread- fingers crossed.

cwolfman13

Accountant/CFO. No real impact on my diet or fitness. I make time most days to get in a ride and I hit the weight room a couple days per week. I gained a good bit of weight early on after I graduated when I was 30 and went from being a pretty active student with no car to a desk job...but I also didn't make it a point to exercise then. I got my stuff together when I was 38 and have more or less maintained a 40 Lb weight loss for about 7.5 years. I'm a little on the fluffy side at the moment due to being injured most of the summer...just need to drop 10 Lbs or so to get back.

gewel321

msalicia07 wrote: »

gewel321 wrote: »

I am the Director of Mental Health Services for a critical access hospital and 15 clinics in three states. I used to run an inpatient psychiatric hospital where I ran around all day so this job has been a lot less movement. However I am not stressed out all day everyday so I am able to more focus on myself. I wasn't able to loose weight until I started this job so I am happy with that!.

This is a perfect example of what I was thinking about earlier, while I was (somehow) managing to walk on a treadmill for a staggering 20 min (ugh, I need to get out of this funk). Anyway, I digress.

Work seems highly impactful on our health, right? So, I was pondering the average # of people who leave their jobs due to health, and how many people stay when it is negatively affecting their health. Sounds like we are in the same camp.

I didn't leave the job for my physical health but more my mental health. It was a job that was killing me with no rest or breaks. On call 24/7/365 for 7 years was way too much for one person to do. It got to the point where it was the job or my family and I chose to leave. It was the best decision I have ever made. Work should not suck the life out of a person. Two months later I decided that I needed to fix my physical health as well and here I am 56 lbs lighter!

AnnPT77

msalicia07 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Long-term retiree, from an IT management career at big university. Retirement is like WFH, but with even less structure, and (for many, me included) more free time.

It's potentially less stressful than work, but that depends on circumstances and what the individual finds stressful (I know that's hard to believe if you're not retired yet 😆). For sure, less stress for me. I haven't had a single unplanned meeting with the police or FBI since I stopped having computer security responsibilities. (Well, there was that one time, with the sheriff deputies after a teenager took out my mailbox with his car. 😉)

I think it’s fair to say you just trumped my topic with something far more interesting 😂

Serious question though... do you think that your high security job played a major role in your previous weight, Anne? If so, in what way? Did you change your lifestyle before or after you retired? I feel like I should know this 🤓

Other than taking up a lot of time, energy and attention, no, I don't think my job played a major role. (Especially in later stages, 50-60 hour weeks were pretty normal, and I went 3 months at one stage working 7 days a week, 12+ hours a day, except one Sunday I took off for my in-laws' 50th anniversary party.)

I was somewhat overweight in high school, lost weight in college (major increase in activity level, possibly less snacking-as-hobby), slowly gained weight after graduation for a decade or so (more sedentary, tending to eat more out of emulation of husband's eating options - he was male-er, and larger . . . for a while 😆). After that, I stayed obese in around a 10-pound range for a few decades through increasing on-the-job stress, aging parents, widowhood, and my own cancer/treatment.

Still working full time, I became athletically active after cancer treatment in my mid-40s, but stayed same level of obese (just over the line into class 1) for another dozen years. About 6 years into that dozen, I retired (to about 5 years of much lower stress 25% time work). It was another 5 years or so after that (still active, still obese) that I lost weight at age 59-60, and have been at a healthy weight since (I'll be 65 next month).

So, I changed my activity level after cancer treatment (2000-2002ish), stayed active thereafter, retired from full time in 2006, lost weight in 2015, stayed at a healthy weight thereafter, just (re-)lost about 12 vanity pounds over the past year.

I gained weight because food tastes good, and I like it, mostly: Hedonism. I lost weight - simplistically - because future Ann needs to be healthy to be happy, too, and I'd proved that just being fit wasn't enough to keep me healthy.

Lietchi

msalicia07 wrote: »

Lietchi wrote: »

I'm a public policy evaluator for a government organization.

Pre-Covid, the challenge was time management for exercise on the 4 days I went to the office (working from home 1 day a week) and had to commute. Lack of sleep was definitely a challenge too. But not really having time for breakfast worked in my favor - sort of doing intermittent fasting by skipping breakfast made it easier to stick to my calorie goal (an early breakfast would make me hungrier anyway).

Since Covid-19 I've been working from home full-time. Wonderful to be sleeping around 8 hours per night instead of 6 on work days. And no commute also means I have more time to be active. My eating pattern has changed: I'm eating breakfast every day, but at 9.30AM which doesn't make me as hungry. Eliminating lunch meal prep is also quite convenient. Downside is constant access to food, but after a few weeks I found my eating routine - only snacking after dinner.

I'm actually dreading the day when I'm have to go back to the office again, I'm hoping the rules on working from home will be more flexible by then (it used to be limited to 1 day a week). But I've lost weight during both periods, so I know it can be done. At the moment, my workouts are very improvised, whenever I feel like it basically (the only obstacle being when it's my turn to cook, since I prefer working out before dinner). Going back to the office would probably mean planning my workouts a lot more, but I'm sure I could make it work after a period of adaptation.

It’s bitter sweet right! I don’t want to go back personally, but I’m truly unimpressed with my ability to have created a better routine for myself than I expected I would. The version I think I am sometimes is not the reality at other times haha. Work and structure is much better for me ultimately, unless I have an epiphany from this thread- fingers crossed.

As good as my food and exercise routine is, I can't say the same for my work routine/discipline After having a near burnout from years of stress and harassment at my previous job, I think my priorities have changed and self care is a lot higher on my list of priorities. Or perhaps I'm just slightly 'broken' and not able to concentrate properly anymore.

Ah well, nobody's perfect! I think most of us are still working on ourselves one way or another, and also finding out what 'makes us tick'. Beating ourselves up over our faults isn't something I'm a fan of, better to learn to work with what we have and who we are 🙂