any nurses find weight loss and excercise hard to stick with

I am a nurse and work nights. On my days off I tend to get up early and go to the gym. Sometimes I will sleep most of the day and go shortly after my kids get home from school. Other days I don't make it there at all. I do work in my 20 minutes of the 30 day shred every day along with a 5 min ab workout and that tends to help. I also track how long I walk at work. Stick to your calorie goals on here and you should do fine. Feel free to add me if you want.

Amanda

I'm a nurse too who used to be on nights but I work days now. I find that for me it's very much about the calorie tracking and more importantly, the planning. It's too hard for me to find good stuff on the go, so I try to bring my food, planning out my whole day or night ahead of time, whether it is leftovers, snacks, or frozen meals. Fresh fruit, appropriate portions of snacks like pretzels, yogurt, veggies and low calorie dip, all good foods to take to snack on at work. Good luck!

Though I don't work nights like all of you, I still find it hard to find time between work (office manager and head nurse of a pediatric clinic), kids, and home to eat right and exercise. Eating on the go, as you mentioned, is definitely one of my downfalls, but this site definitely puts things into perspective for me with all of the food choices it has with caloric values. I've learned that even eating on the go, can be done in a more healthy way than grabbing a Big Mac (though tempting lol). There are "healthier" ( I won't use the term HEALTHY) choices at fast food places, McDonald's included. I too, as mentioned earlier, account for the running around at work...hey, it's walking right? I try to do Pilates at home, and or take the kids to the park and walk while they are playing...easy way to preoccupy them, while still getting my exercise in. When I find myself struggling to stick to a healthier lifestyle, I have to remind myself that in the end, the benefit WAY outweighs the struggle. Don't give up!! It's worth it

So nice to see I am not alone on this subject! I am actually a clerk that works only night shifts with 2 kids and starts full time school in September for nursing. I never know how to eat on nights. On top of working nights and trying to eat healthy I also am Celiac. If anyone has tips I am completely open to any ideas!

Friend me and we can help motivate eachother.

I'm a nurse, but I work day shifts. I never try to fit in exercise on my work days. I work 12.5 hour shifts and get to work early to look up my patients, so I leave my home at 5:45am. No way I am dragging my behind to the gym at 8:15pm when I get home...it's shower, then bed! I don't feel that badly about not working out on those days because most of my shifts are so hectic, I probably put in a few miles hustling around. It is hard to keep calories in check when I'm eating to fuel myself, but if you consider the extra calories expended doing all of that work, we really end up burning off a lot!

Hi there, I'm a nurse and these days I only work part-time - usually 1700-2300hrs with some on-call as well. On my last shift I went home and got called back 1/2 an hour after I got home I ended up having 3 hrs sleep. Consequently I snacked all through the next day because I was tired. Research has shown that nurses and other shift workers are more likely to struggle with their weight and maintaining a healthy diet and I've certainly found it to be true throughout my career.

One thing I do these days is always take fruit to work as a snack for when I get hungry - it's quick and convenient and way better than buying a chocolate bar from the vending machine!