How to exercise while doing shift work....

Hey there!

When I was in medical school I wanted to find a way to maintain my weight and keep my stress low. I rode my bike to school, got up an hour early to exercise (before class) and or, recorded my lectures to listen to them when I was exercising.

Now I'm in residency and put on some weight ~20 lbs . I am planning to lose them again and my schedule changes a lot. Sometimes I work nights, sometimes days in the same week and all free time is spent sleeping, exercising, or studying.

So basically, I bought a pedometer. I try to get 10,000 steps a day. I work out 5-6 days a week and generally will study while riding a spin bike or wake up early to do 30 minutes.

I hope this at least gives you some ideas sorry I can't be more helpful.

Eating fresh, healthy foods can be very difficult when you are busy and have an ever changing schedule. I'm a nurse...so I feel your pain with the shift work fiasco I have discovered that it helps to prep a bunch of food at the same time and have it ready to eat for the entire week. I will cook a big batch of steel cut oats, a bunch of chicken breasts, quinoa, and cut up veggies. I put some things like the veggies, and other snacks (think almonds, dried fruit) in ziploc bags in individual serving sizes. I make sure to keep lots of fruit and berries around as well. The whole point is to be able to just grab something quickly on your way out the door! **My husband and I used to both eat a lot of convenience foods and fast food, using our schedules as an excuse, but this approach has worked tremendously well for us. Good luck!