Any Nurses Out There?

I feel your pain. I'm an Operating Department Practitioner and work in theatre in a busy hospital. I get half an hour for lunch. I hardly have time to chew my food and by the time I get home I'm so hungry and tired that I cram any old junk in my big fat gob! I do try to prep everything but not always, and that's when it goes all wrong.
Good luck

I work in correctional healthcare. Generally we are very busy and I MAY get 10 minutes for lunch, providing we don't have a lot of patients that need clinic (750 inmates and they all like to whine lol). Today all the providers called in, we sat on our butts all day and I mindlessly snacked. Wayyyy too much snacking. I think we kinda even out in the long run.

Kudos to all is hardworking healthcare heroes!

ICU nurse and I think we all can agree that healthcare and eating are both synonymous with UNPREDICTABLE ( kinda like peeing

I'm an AIN (assistant in nursing) we do 13 hour shifts and yep no time to eat. I've tend to fast on my work days - i work 2 or 3 days a week. I do the 5:2 diet thingie.

My last double shift (16 hours) i walked 27000 something steps... I don't log mine either lol

So do yall think I should turn off the step tracker and only count what I earn when I'm using my polar heart rate band and watch? I've read some people don't think we should count the few little calories MFP gives?

I encourage you to carry protein bars and ready to go protein shakes. They take minutes to eat/drink and supply you with a good amount of protein and nutrition. Keep bringing ready to eat fruits/veggies/string cheese/greek yogurt that can be eaten quickly or even with one hand. Starving yourself throughout the shift can lead to erratic eating and overconsuming of calories when you get a down day or time to actually eat. I think any of us in healthcare (I have been a nurse for 29 years, but have been doing staff development for a hospital the past 3 years) are not good at taking care of ourselves. You need to take the time (even if it is 5 minutes) to deep breath and recharge your battery. Keep running it out like that leads to burnout as you are probably aware. As I reached my 50's this year I had to take a hard look at what was going on with my body and with osteoarthritis already being an issue (klutzy childhood primarily) I had to take hold. I have been doing Nutrisystem which works great for me since I don't have to do a lot of planning or prepping, but there are so many options out there to eat well in short time spans. All I can say is bless the healthcare workers out there and take care of yourself like you would a loved one:)

Nurse practitioner here, but I was a staff nurse for 8 years and still pick up time occasionally - I did a couple of things: even though I definitely whined a ton with 12s, getting in even 30 minutes of exercise after a shift really helped. Especially when I went to a gym with a pool so I could be off my feet! On days off I definitely hit the gym harder, especially if there were classes I liked going on. I nearly always brought my own lunch, our cafeteria was terrible in regards to healthy meals - things that you could eat quickly and put down if needed worked best. I worked nights and always wanted something warm, even vegetable soup that I could reheat was fine - just warm!
Not eating all of any sweet treats brought in by coworkers/families.. and logging when I do say eat five pieces of chocolate. Drinking lots of water overnight. Having healthy things (like even grapes or homemade popcorn) at home to munch on when tired and whiny and not wanting to make anything yet needing food.

There is this group. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/460-registered-nurses I always take my food to work and have it prelogged so I know where I am calorie wise.

I work 3 12s and 1 4hr night shift as an acute adolescent psych RN. I have about 18 adolescents screaming at me and punching walls so I'm hopping! I set a schedule for when I eat. I dont care who sees me eat. I know I'm breaking rules having food behind the nurses station but if I dont eat my sugar drops dangerously low!! I eat right before work at 530 pm, the at work 1030pm, 130am, 430am. If I'm off work, I eat at 8 am, 12 pm, 530 pm, 130am (yes I still wake up to eat). My biggest meal is my 130am meal which is normally when I take my lunch break at work. I normally workout right before I eat my 530 meal. This has worked for me. Ive lost over 100 lbs and I'm under my goal weight!

Emergency room represent. My shifts change week to week (I'm also a full-time student), so mealtime can be pretty haphazard. I do a lot of pre-logging too, especially on workdays/nights. Almost always bring my own food to campus and to work, including baggies of pita chips or whatever that I've weighed first at home to keep me from eating snack machine junk.

_Tzefira_ wrote: »

Emergency room represent. My shifts change week to week (I'm also a full-time student), so mealtime can be pretty haphazard. I do a lot of pre-logging too, especially on workdays/nights. Almost always bring my own food to campus and to work, including baggies of pita chips or whatever that I've weighed first at home to keep me from eating snack machine junk.

JillianRN527 wrote: »

tinkerb311 wrote: »

Im picu nurse and ive put on so much weight in this job, staying in one small bedspace all day, 3x 20 min breaks in a 13hr day and starving myself on nights then binging when i finish nights. But this is the week my change starts, eating healthier and gym induction tomorrow! Is there a nurse group on here?

I try and working out on my three days off. I know I should do more but I feel like it is the most realistic. I'm trying to make my new like change realistic and possible.

Im aiming for gym 3x a week...this week im only going to manage 2x (work/children ) but next week i might get extra in to balance out!

I'm a nurse and I get shaky and don't concentrate well if I don't get enough to eat, so I try to have something that will stick with me when I'm really busy. What I do is when I'm home preparing meals, I plan to make enough of something that some of it can be packed in a lunch or dinner to take to work. For example, I might put fresh green beans, baby, red potatoes and chicken tenders into a baking dish and bake for an hour. When it's done I will pack part of it in a container to take to work. I'm always planning ahead and making my meals stretch to be able to take some with me. I've been known to freeze portions of things just for those times when I don't have time to cook and I just need to grab something out of the fridge or freezer and toss it in my bag.