Any one in LE or Odd Shifts or Hours

chadewey2000

OK no donut jokes!! I have been in law enforcement for 8 years now. Our Department works 12 hour Shifts and rotates between day shift and night shift every 4 months. either 7AM-7PM or 7PM-7AM. In my previous attempts to lose weight I have always found it more difficult to stay on track during day shift. The Job is mostly sendentary unlike they portray it on COPS haha. I lot of driving around and sitting in the car typing reports, walking 10ft to a car to issue a Ti...... I mean warning Dont get me wrong you go from that to a foot pursuit in less than a second but thats not everyday.

The reasons I have failed in the past is that while working everyone goes out to eat everyday. With the comaraderie in a police department there was always a feeling of not wanting to be the one "not going." From 7am-7pm there is no limit to what is open and due to our line of work it usually has to be something that we can get fast and eat quick because we will have to get up an run out at a moments notice if needed. Then after working for 12 hours and wearing around an extra 28LBS of gun belt, vest, boots ( haha I weighed it today) I have almost zero motivation to go to the gym. I just wanted to eat dinner and go to bed.

While the Social life part of Night shift sucks, It has been easier for me to stay on track duing this period in the past. I live in the city where I work and am able to make it to and from work in about 5-10 minutes. Getting off at 7 AM I am usually in bed around 7:30 and up 2:00. I usually pack my stuff up and hit the gym at around 4:30. I have a good hour and a half to work out before getting ready for work. I down a protein shake right after and that holds me until dinner (around 11:00PM if everything is going slow) Everything pretty much shuts down around the city at about 9:00-11:00 with the exceptions of a few waffle houses, an Ihop and a chickfila drive through so there are not as many tempting things to grab.

We are currently on day shift and will rotate duing the first week of May. So I have been doing a few things since in started 10 days ago and have stayed on track. I was promoted about a year ago, and transfered shifts. This has helped me in the fact that I am now away from all the people that I had worked closely with for the last 7 years and also away from the bad habits of eating out with them everyday. I love my new shift but lets face it, no one wants to sit around at lunch and gossip with the "Brass" Sorry for the police jargon (we refer to any supervisors as the brass because of the brass/gold badges that they wear). I am now bringing my lunch to work every day which is helping me a ton.



For anyone that also works in LE or odd shift work for that matter... Do you have any tips for how to stay on track duing your shift rotations. One day you are eating breakfast at 6 am and the next day you are eating breakfast at 2PM. During night shift I am going to try not to eat anything withing the last 8 hours of our shift. Also for the Record in the 8 years I have been a police officer I have never eaten a Donut while on duty hahaha

justmyself33

Keep a few pieces with you throughout the day. I pack away a banana or an apple now when I go to a movie. This works better than the junk they sell at the theater. Good luck

Lyadeia

I don't rotate shifts (thank God) so I can keep my food intake pretty steady every day. I do work nights (2045-0700) so my meals are at odd times anyway. I have breakfast when I wake up in the middle of the afternoon, have lunch right before going to work, and I pack dinner and a snack for the middle of the night. I workout early in the morning after getting off work, so I have a protein shake afterwards and then go to bed.

When I don't take food with me to work, I eat crap all night. I will stop at fast food places, gas stations, etc. and spend $10 on a bunch of food that never really fills me up anyway.

I expect that I would probably eat the same way if I worked days...I mean, wake up for breakfast, take lunch and snack with me, then come home for dinner, workout, and shake. But like I said, I don't rotate, so I am only speculating that this is what I would do. Makes sense to me, though.