Full time work and health

Aimeesdiet

Hey everyone,
When I was in uni I was very healthy, I exercised a lot and spent time making healthy meals. I’ve moved back in with parents and started working full time. Since leaving uni I have watched the weight pile on. I don’t have much time to work out or make healthy meals anymore and eat what the rest of the family eats for dinner. I was always eating out for lunch during work so I got a lunch box and began making lunches and stopped snacking at night. Even with these changes I feel that every day I look even bigger! Does anyone have advice for balancing health with full time work? I’m sure a lot of people have this problem. Thanks for the time and consideration.

KarenSmith2018

I work 8-4 Monday to Friday and have a dog. Before anything else once I get home she is walked and then I exercise for 30 to 60 minutes most evenings. Once I'm comfy at home I can't find the motivation so for me it has to be as soon as I'm in. I also work out in the morning sometimes. Identify the best time slot for movement and find something you enjoy.

littlegreenparrot1

Organization - it's the only way I'm afraid.

I'm going to make some suggestions, obviously not all of them will work for you....

Work out on the way to it from work. If your going to do this I find it works best to sort out all the kit the night before so it's ready to go. I'm up an hour early every morning for a run or swim before the office.

Make a big batch of something on a Sunday so it's ready in the fridge. When cooking in the week make larger amounts to put aside.

This will depend on the dynamic at home, can you get involved with cooking? Make some suggestions as to what would fit better for you? Make some changes as to the proportions of what you eat - fewer potatoes and more salad, or just less quantity?

It does take a little while to figure out what works for you, but it's worth doing. There have been times when it felt like all I did was work and sleep, I do a lot better when I at least manage to get out for 1/2 hr to do something.

JBanx256

I work 12-hour rotating shifts (this week I will have put in 60 hours at work plus 8 hours of a class). I also have a husband, child, dog, and home/property (meaning yardwork, laundry, cleaning, etc) to handle. It comes down to priorities and time management.

Every morning (or afternoon - we rotate shifts), I go to the gym 1st thing and get my training session in; after that I go back to the house and walk the dog before getting ready for work. At work, I eat meals/snacks I've prepped (on one of my days off each week, I prep a couple big batches of food, divvy it up into however many containers I need, and go ahead and pre-log everything). Because my family has neither the interest nor need to eat strictly, meals I make for us all tend to be higher calorie in general (hello, cheese!), including desserts. But it all balances out - I can splurge on a more hedonistic meal with the fam because elsewhere my intake is tight enough that I've got that room to maneuver.

Assuming you're working a standard 40-hour week, that leaves you with 128 hours/week to address your food and movement needs/goals. Yes, you've gotta sleep and shower and commute and all that, but I am 100% positive if you take a good, hard look at your schedule, you can find some time to do what needs to be done. Once again - it's all about priorities & time management.

yirara

How many hours are you working and how many commuting? Asking because things might be a lot different for you than for me. I work my 8 hours, mostly home office, and then have lots and lots of time left to do things. When I drive to the office (once per week) then I still only lose 1 hour total. So with 9 hours for sleeping that leaves me 6-7 hours for doing stuff.

kshama2001

I agree with the others that finding time for exercise and meal prep sounds like a time management / organizational / priorities / creating healthy habits issue.

However, are you weighing and logging your food? When I don't, the weight indeed creeps up.

Sinisterbarbie1

You are almost certainly right that you have less unstructured time than when you were in university, but if you are eating meals someone else shops for, preps cooks and serves that is a lot of time saved that you would otherwise not have if you were raising a family and working, living on your own and working etc. it is sometimes hard to make the switch to living by the clock, and some of us are never really suited to that life. If you are stuck with it for now at least, treat your health commitments as actual calendar commitments and schedule them in so that you have to actively cancel a date at the gym etc. if you are making other plans. You also don’t have to explain everything to everyone when you aren’t available. It is sufficient to say “i can’t make it then, I have another appointment. How about __ instead?” It is probably the case that other people are also trying to fit in obligations like gym, dr visits for family members or themselves, and pre or post work grocery shopping or meal prep for the family, so they won’t find it odd.

Aimeesdiet

Thanks everyone! Very insightful, time management and organisation have always been weak points for me so managing this may also help me with those things! Thanks

ExistingFish

Definitely just need to find structure.
I work full time (40+ hours), I work from home and have my kids at home that I homeschool, and still make it to the gym 5-6 days a week.

I started with 3 days a week, then 4, then 5-6 - I have to keep to a schedule.. The gym is on my calendar. I wake up early and work late to make sure I go to the gym.

It took a while to get in the schedule, every time something changes, you will have to adapt.

Courtscan2

Yep, you need to just fit it in to your schedule. I work full time, have two kids who are in school, but have loads of sports, activites etc that require driving to things most days, and I'm currently working on my master's degree at Uni, so time is at a real premium. I just fit planning in as part of my schedule. Saturday morning I plan all meals (mine as well as all family meals) and then grocery shop accordingly, so I'm not wasting time wondering what to cook/going to the shops during the week. I go to the gym every morning before work, and am back in time to get kids fed and off to school before I go to work myself, so usually up at 5:30, workout from 5:45-6:30 ish and back home in time for a quick coffee and breakfast myself before the chaos begins at 7. It's all about planning, and choosing what your priorities are. Make yourself a priority, and act accordingly.

HoneyBadger302

Structure is going to be very important - my Monday-Friday are very "routine" because that is the only way I will get things done. Sample day of mine which may give some ideas:

5:25AM - Up, dressed, head to part time job
6:15AM - 7:45AM - p/t job then back home, shower, change for f/t job
8:30-4:30/5ish - f/t job (work from home most days)
5-6:15PM - Change, workout (mostly focused on lifting with some cardio bursts between sets so I don't get too sweaty - p/t job is very physical and I get all sweaty there lol)
6:15PM-7ish - Cook dinner, clean kitchen, house work while food cooks, etc
7ish-8ish - Eat and clean up
8-9:30ish - Relax, unwind, spend time with SO
Get ready for bed, take care of pets, No later than 10:30 be going to sleep (so done reading, lights out, sleepy time)

Before needing the p/t gig and when I was still commuting, I would workout in the mornings before work and just get to bed a little earlier. Workouts were a bit longer (more like 2 hours) but I have a desk job so felt the need for more "active" time in my day.

A few things I do to help with time:
-Find meals and ways of cooking that help make cooking easier - I've got an air fryer (recently and it's been a life changer!), slow cooker, rice cooker. Grocery shop every ~2 weeks, my freezer gets loaded down, but then I'm not worried about food spoiling.
-For lunches, I will invest in decent prepped salads mixes or frozen meals (check the ingredients to be sure you're not just eating a bunch of chemicals or crappy foods) - still way cheaper than eating out! Easy to grab-n-go and can be a dinner in a pinch too.
-Workouts either first thing in the am, or as soon as I'm done with work - no relaxing otherwise I'll never get up again lol
-Give yourself some workout alternatives if you're really not up for/don't have time for a normal workout such as: quick walk or hike with the dog; jump rope between tasks; Balance training ball/bands; yoga or active stretching; yard work; bicycle ride....you get the idea.
-Cook extra so leftovers can be portioned into meals to freeze/fridge for lunches/dinners on busy days (getting some divided storage containers makes this a breeze and you can get them cheap on amazon).

If your family is cooking, you didn't describe WHAT they are eating - but perhaps just keeping a food scale handy and weighing things (even after cooked - while not ideal, better than not at all) that you dish up will and tracking will help you with portion sizes even on "not ideal" foods.

neanderthin

Simple things like eating and managing time without the stress of owning your own home, family and a business is overwhelming you, then I suspect you need a leg up. There is a book by Jordon B Peterson called 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, I suggest you take a look, it may be a beginning. Cheers.

Seasonal_One

Welcome to being an adult. Most of us too were thinner and didn't think much about our diet when in college. Once you enter the working world, things change. Add a spouse, children, grandchildren, house, car, vacations, etc. and weight/food/exercise doesn't always stay first on our priorities list.

This forum and others help participants move diet up the list of priorities. Some people need diet in their top 10 list of daily priorities while others need diet in the top few priorities daily. Everyone is different.

My only advice is that for me, weight is something that I've needed to be conscious of my entire life. Sometimes I've been hugely successful for long periods of time and I've failed for long periods of time. I'm thankful that today is a successful day. I'm working on tomorrow.