Balancing Work and Exercise

cjbrown12323

Hi. I was wondering how everyone balances work and exercise. Especially those who are in the medical field. I'm a MA and my life is busy. It must be even harder like Nurses, EMTs, ER techs etc. How do y'all find time to do both and not be tired? I'm tired everyday. I want to be one of those ppl that either goes to the gym in the early morning or late at night but I value sleep so much haha. Do you go to the gym or do you stay at home? How do you find the energy?

journey2ahealthierme

Hi there!
If you're struggling for energy at the moment, then I would question whether hitting the gym is really a great idea for you at the moment. Perhaps concentrating on eating well and drinking lots will help you have better quality sleep. However, if that's just a figure of speech, then doing some regular exercise - as you already know - will definitely give you energy as well as subtract it.
I get up 15 mins early. I walk the dog every morning, but on alternate days I just put on some old clothes straight from my bed, walk the dog then leave him to my OH to feed and settle for the day, and instead of my usual routine of breakfasting at home, I head to the pool. It's only 5 mins drive from my work. I limit myself to 30 mins in the pool (currently netting me 250 calories burned or so) then I have 20 mins to shower and dress before getting in to work and breakfasting at my desk (a meal bar or premade brekkie so eaten in 5 mins or less. That way I'm out of bed at 6.15, walked 40 mins, swam 30 mins and at my desk by 9. That's what works for me. Oh, and I sleep in at the weekend.
Could you do something similar? Or work 15 mins longer at both ends of the day and hit the gym at lunchtime?

cjbrown12323

I have a 30 min to one hour break depending. Honestly I don't want to exercise during my break because I don't want to come back to work sweaty. But the idea of taking a walk before work sounds reasonable! I feel it's easier to get up early if you have a dog. Lol I have cats! They just lay around the house haha
But I guess I don't sleep very well because even though I sleep, it's not enough. I should definitely focus on how to better my sleep.
I'm trying to count my calories or at least be aware of how much I am eating. I hope to start meal prepping but I don't know what to cook that I could possibly eat for days at a time lol

journey2ahealthierme

I hear you on the sweaty thing. That's why I swim. I don't feel 'icky'. But yeah, a walk before work, straight from your bed before dressing for work works for me. I have seen people walk their cats on a leash... I'm not sure I'd be brave enough though lol!
Yeah, working on the quality of your sleep would really help - so maybe an evening walk straight after work. Then dinner, then film/read/listen to music would really help de-stress you from the day?
As for batch cooking - I've found 'A pinch of nom' recipe books really useful for that. They tell you which can be frozen, so that you spend an hour or two making up three meals - eat one, freeze the rest of that one, and portion out and freeze all the others. Do that enough weekends in a row, and add in the odd freshly prepped meal and you've got a great rotation for when you just can't be bothered to cook.
You've got this.

lyns286

Hi, not in medical field but have struggled finding the balance between exercising, working and family with 2 kids.
When I last did MFP I felt I didn’t have the energy to exercise at all, i focused on what I was eating and eventually as the pounds came off I had more energy. Little things like taking the stairs, parking further away, walking the longer way, these things all add up. If you have something to count your steps set yourself a target and each time you meet it for a few days increase it. This time, when the weather is good I take my baby for long walks but I tend to exercise at home 8-9pm, even 20-30 minutes as again all adds up and some days it’s all I have time for. When I can, I will exercise for an hour, which is helped by watching Netflix while I exercise. Pick something I like and only watch it when exercising is a good motivation. I keep telling myself if I don’t find the time nothing will change.

For recipes, I like slimmingeats. I use my slow cooker a lot and freeze what is left.

JBanx256

Not medical field, but Law Enforcement here. I work 12-hour rotating shifts, am a mom, wife, homeowner, and slave to a spoiled brat of a dog! I train every work day before work (and most days off, but usually my first day off of work is also a day off from the gym, meaning I lift 5-6x per week, depending on if it's my "long" or "short" week). And el Doggo gets his walkie every day regardless.

Going before work on day shift means I'm literally in the gym by 0200 hours, but A. I know that if I tried to make myself go after work, I'd be tired and cranky and hungry and would find it way too easy to talk myself out of it, and B. after work is time to eat dinner and spend time with my family; it's not fair of me to take time away from them. And yes, my gym time cuts into the time I could be asleep or doing whatever else, but it's like...I can either be tired and feel awesome and make progress toward my goals, or I can be tired and feel like a piece of crap.

I meal prep usually 1x per week and make all the meals I will eat at work in one fell swoop; as I'm meal prepping I go ahead and log those into the correct day/meal so that's taken care of at the same time. Then when I'm getting ready to go to work, it's grab-and-go, just picking a container out of the fridge and putting it into my cooler along with a couple snacks and I'm good to go.

Xellercin

You can't just make more capacity, you only have the capacity you have.

I'm now retired from practice and I never pressured myself to "hit the gym."

What I did do was regularly see a PT who gave me lots of gentle exercises that could help with my pain from my work and maintaining my physical resilience in a job that was VERY hard on my body. I also went for walks for my mental health.

Basically, try to integrate more healthy behaviours into your busy day as part of your self care. I would do PT exercises between patients to feel less back tension during the day, I would go for walks after work to burn off the stress of the day. I didn't add exercise to my already demanding schedule, I *did* exercises that made it easier to cope with the schedule.

As for eating, if you are very busy, you can easily get used to eating the same thing over and over. If you are tired, stressed, and hungry, you will basically eat whatever.

What I did (still do) is bulk cook 3 dishes for the week and then cycle between them to have some variety. Does it get repetitive? Yep, but the benefit of having a prepared, nutritious meal, pre-portioned and ready to heat is so convenient that I don't even care.

I haven't had to cook dinner for 7 years, I honestly don't know how people even manage it after a long day of work.

You don't have to start whole hog though. Just start batch cooking *one* dish so that you have some of your meals for the week covered, the ones where you don't have enough energy to feed yourself optimally. You will be grateful for having that dish again when you don't have to even think about what to make.

At the end of the day, if your work is demanding, your healthy lifestyles have to make your life easier, not harder, otherwise you will just abandon them when the pressure rises.

Again, you only have so much capacity. There's no amount of discipline or pressure you can put on yourself to do crap you just don't have the capacity for.

Focus on healthy habits that *increase* your capacity.