Advice for Truckers

witcheekimmie

My fiance has just decided to give this a try. He has seen how I have done and now wants to get more healthy himself. Problem is it is much harder for Truckers or other people who are on the road constantly. His sleep is all mixed up because he sleeps when he has to stop. So I need some advice from people who know how to do both OTR and MFP successfully. How do you count your end of the day? Is it when you stop to sleep? How do manage some exercise? How do you live out of vending machines and truck stops and still accomplish weight loss? Any help would be much appreciated. I just want him around for the rest of my life so we need to get healthy together.

jenj1313

Ouch, that's a hard one... how often could he make it by a store like Wal-Mart vs just a truck stop?

katythemommy

I'm up at all kind of weird hours with my new baby, so I just consider the day being over at 12. If I'm starving at 3 in the morning it goes as a snack...depending on the size of my meal!

witcheekimmie

Hardly ever. Also he does not have a fridge in his truck. I would love to be able to stock him up with great snacks and such for the week but without a fridge he is limited.

witcheekimmie

Anyone with advice please chime in

yesthistime

He can start by making the following small changes:

- cut out all caloric beverages (every restaurant/store has water and just replacing any sugary drink with water will save significant calories - and money!)

- practice portion control. It is hard to control how much food you take in when restaurants/drive-thrus are plating your meal, but learning to only eat part of a meal at each sitting or ordering smaller sized meals can really save calories.

- easy food switches, like switching fatty side dishes for green vegetables or salad. And if you're like me and don't care for vegetables, try just eating the entree and skipping sides altogether sometimes (eg. a burger and glass of water, no fries)

- have natural jerky, protein bars, nuts, fruit, and bottled water in the truck on hand for easy, sustainable snacks

- be condiment conscious (mustard instead of mayonaisse, easy on sauces/gravy/butter/oil). You can ask for modifications at restaurants and drive-thrus

Follow MFP's calorie suggestions, log religiously, and realize that small compromises at each meal add up to big weight loss success :drinker:

witcheekimmie

Thank you yesthistime. I honestly thought I would get more responses to this question. I know it is hard to do on the road eating at fast food, gas stations, truck stops, and out of vending machines.But it is possible. He has done it for close to a week and only gone over once and that was minimal. It has been very hard on him though. There are just not enough healthy selections in those places. Well there are some but usually they are the size of one bite and then he is still hungry after eating them.

I am really proud of him though. He has been calling me every day asking about selection and calorie count on the different places he was stopping to eat. I look it up online and tell him what he can have that will give him the most food for the calorie count.

pataleck

i am currently an otr driver and found that making my own food at home before i leave for the week helps alot. most drivers have between 8 - 14 hrs they are off duty a day so they have time to get out of the truck.

keem88

he could try to keep some protein powder and mix that with water (it is better with milk, if he can find milk in the vending machines that would be best).
definitely snacks like nuts and seeds, and maybe he can keep some sort of snack bars too for in between like power bars or cliff or something similar.
as far as eating at fast food that is difficult, and i know with truckers you stop when you can and you're very limited. for a junk foodie that is not a problem but difficult for someone trying to be healthy.
i think it's great that he can call you and you can tell him what foods would be best to choose from.
too bad there's no way for him to rig a cooler unit in there, that really would help to have fruits and veggies.
this sounds kinda silly but maybe he can get a camping stove and boil water so he can make oatmeal or heat up soups?

keem88

*added maybe some low carb bread and pb or pb substitute for a sandwich (i'm sure that would be better than a bag of doritos lol)

nesstle

my dad was a truckie, and had the same problems. Long hours, only home on weekends, lived out of the trucks or motel rooms.
So what my parents did was invest in a fridge that plugged into the cigarete lighter, just make sure you get the right voltage. This meant he had yohgurt, fruit, all the healthy snacks.

But there is no real easy way for truckers, it is a lot of self discipline. as said above.
Practise portion control.
Put non pershabile snacks in the truck, nuts, etc
Get him to stock up on fruit when he can.
Always get the side salad not the roast veges or fries.
Lots of water, no soda.
Hold back on the condiments.

These are things you can help him practise on the weekend. Log everything!

Sounds like your on the right track though.

Sharonks

When hubs was driving we invested in getting a fridge. We bought one of those ice chest types that plug in. I think it was about $100-125. This allowed him to take veggies, fruits, lunch meat and that type of stuff. He would often go to Subway and get a couple of sandwiches since you can make those reasonably low cal and stash the extra in his fridge.

Exercise can be a tough thing. I actually saw a show once where they did trucker exercises you could do at a truck stop or really any parking lot with minimal supplies like resistance bands. I can't remember what it was called but besides possibly having other people thing you're a little odd it did look doable.

He should just pick a time of day to call morning. Since hubs had to do a lot of delivery much of his driving was kind of normal hours but I know a lot of drivers like to drive at night. It's not that relevant as long as your logging day is roughly 24 hours.

Having self restraint while he is eating out will help. Most truck stops do have salad bars, sometimes non-starchy soups and go for the not fried, not breaded stuff.

Snacks besides fruit and veg could be beef jerky, nuts etc. He just wants to make sure he's not mindlessly eating the high cal stuff. Hubs would often do that just because he would be bored.

lin7604

our whole family are truckers and if your crossing the boarder it make sit harder to do but my hubby was always willing to make it work. He would bring what he could from home, he had a cooler and a microwave in the truck. Then once he crossed the boarder he would hit walmart and get healthy food, as much as he could to get in his cooler or that would last out of it. he would always make his own meals, hardly every ate at a truck stop or bought food at truck stops. he is still around 170 13 years later into trucking... his father and brother are now following his suit to loose weight. as for exercise, he was on a step deck so it was easier as he got more exercise then using a van. straps and tarps are all very heavy and good upper body strengthening. He also was a firm believe that he park at the very back of the truck stop and walked to the store, showers, etc If it was a longer pit stop, he would go for walks etc, even if it was walking around a gravel road in the middle of nowhere,while he was waiting for his truck to be unloaded,lol...

peachwine

My husband is a truck driver, and what is working for him is a low carb diet. I personally cant follow one because I am miserable on something like that but it works for him. He usually stocks up before he leaves on diet tea, coffee, and sugar free koolaids&crystal light.. then he just tries to avoid white foods, and sugar. He takes the bread off hamburgers, he gets the buffet, orders eggs and bacon..etc sometimes he cooks a steak and veggies on a george forman grill. If he is bobtailing he can grocery shop..but it isnt often he can do this.
Anyways.. He has dropped 50 pounds this way.

It can get expensive trying to eat healthy. I am always shocked how much everything cost when I work up his receipts for taxes. Goodluck to u both. God Bless.

therealroadwarrior1964

Hi there, My journey has been long and very bumpy so I will give a brief outline.
I am a 50 year old married male interstate truck driver so in my life i have developed lots of really bad eating, sleep and lifestyle habits which led me to looking at a very early death when i was 48 years old .. I was 170 kgs and had contracted type 2 diabetes and had extreme high blood pressure along with sleep apnea .. I was constantly tired and basically an accident waiting to happen and sadly due to my job that could mean others loosing there life due to my problems so I began on my new life journey.
Since December 2013 I have lost nearly 70 kgs and I no longer have type 2 diabetes or sleep apnea and I very rarely need day time naps anymore .. In the last 5 months i have taken my eye off my targets and allowed my bad eating habits to return so i have put about 7 kgs back on so time to get serious again and get back on track. If i can help motivate anyone please feel free to drop me a line or if you can offer me any motivation I would love to hear from you ..
Cheers
Greg

PeachyPlum

Bumping for @bigtanklucas2001