Waitress seeking good advice

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sshaw226
sshaw226 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi my name is Stacey. I am 26 years old and heavy set. I work odd hours as a waitress and have gained lots of weight working at resturaunts. I try to eat healthy but it is hard since I'm not able to eat proper meals. Breakfast and lunch are easy but I start work at 3 o'clock and have to take a break by 3:30 PM, I usually have a small snack around then but I'm unable to eat around dinner time. After work I'm usually hungry because all I've been doing is running around till about 11 PM at night. That's when I get something to eat and it's usually not the best choice. I live on a boat and at this point I don't have a kitchen but I am working on that. Does anyone have any suggestions? Open to hearing anything. Thank you!

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  • endlessfall16
    endlessfall16 Posts: 932 Member
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    When I don't want to use the kitchen I go for spring mix salad, sliced turkey, nuts, dried fruits, various dressings I like. I do need a fridge to keep all that stuff in though.

    Man, I always want to live on a boat. A house on land can be overrated.
  • HamsterManV2
    HamsterManV2 Posts: 449 Member
    edited April 2016
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    There are a couple of options. You need to know how many calories you can eat in a day and never pass it. So go on google and calculate your TDEE. Eat -500calories from that every day to lose 1lb per week.
    • The first possibility is to meal prep - that means once to twice a week, you have a huge cook-a-thon and prepare your meals for the entire week. You can prepare 3 meals a day with snacks in between like fruit and a handful of nuts. Look up Meal Prep Sunday on Reddit for ideas and advice.
    • The other is called "intermittent fasting", where you have your entire daily calories in one to two huge meals. i.e. 600 calorie lunch and a 1200 calorie dinner (for me, who can consume 1800 calories/day and still lose 1lb per week). Again, you NEED to have these meals prepared in advance, as when you come home ravenous, you don't want to overshoot the allocated calorie amount.

    Calorie Eaten must be less than Calories Burned. If you are gaining weight, you are eating too many calories, plain and simple. I suggest single ingredient foods as they are the most filling per calorie amount (i.e. chicken, fish, ultra lean beefs, fruits and veggies, tubers like sweet potatoes, etc). If you are craving sweets, diet pop works as the 0 calories is legit, or else fruits are your new go-to sweet treat.

  • jandsstevenson887
    jandsstevenson887 Posts: 296 Member
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    I agree that you need to make a plan and stick to it. Plan out your calories to make sure you have enough to eat when you are the hungriest and follow through.
  • sshaw226
    sshaw226 Posts: 5 Member
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    Thanks everyone!

    Meal prep at this time is hard. My fridge is out. I have a very small space. We've been remodeling our boat so I literally on have dry storage option.

    We built an office for me and I will be putting a fridge in there soon so I'm hoping to start that. Meal prep even when it's done. I would only be able to make a day in advance. I don't have a lot of space once I store food in it. It's just one of those fridges you would see in a dorm.

    So eating late will be fine? As long as my calories are in tack?
  • jandsstevenson887
    jandsstevenson887 Posts: 296 Member
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    Timing doesn't matter. Calories do.
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
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    jandsstevenson887 wrote: »
    Timing doesn't matter. Calories do.

    This. I lost 25 pounds while bartending and going to university. Sometimes I only managed to eat 1-2 times a day because things were hectic, but I still did fine as long as I ate at a calorie deficit.

    I had to be pretty strict at work about not eating the food there without planning it into my day and logging it (in my case as I worked at a steakhouse, I pretty much stuck with 6oz steaks, garden salads with measured dressing, roasted vegetables minus oil/butter and the occasional splurge on one of our appies if I could make it fit), but honestly, losing weight was pretty easy once I stopped drinking so much beer and wine after work and stopped eating whatever the kitchen gave me whenever they gave it to me.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,898 Member
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    What are your food privileges at work? Easiest thing to do would be to pick up a dinner that fits your calorie budget there.
  • sshaw226
    sshaw226 Posts: 5 Member
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    peleroja wrote: »

    See I don't drink alcohol and I don't drink soda. But eating at my work gets really expensive. But a steak I could eat all the time!!

    Yeah they give us food everyday and it's usually the most unhealthiest stuff! I don't usually eat it. Truthfully I eat maybe 1-2 times a day but it's always good before work and bad after work and I tend to always forget to track calories. I'm hoping once I finish my office "kitchen" that might change.
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    What are your food privileges at work? Easiest thing to do would be to pick up a dinner that fits your calorie budget there.

    We can get anything. And it's 50%! Off. But the prices are high! 40$ for a steak so 20 everyday gets pricey.

    But I might have to try that just to stay away from the bad stuff.


    Thank you everyone. It's good to know I can eat at night and be alright.
  • becca1380461
    becca1380461 Posts: 25 Member
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    I'm a server too and have this "I have a second to breathe, better stuff my face" habit! HA HA! It's rough!

    One thing I did that you can do with only dry storage is weigh and self-pack some nuts. I give myself 28g of roasted salted almonds and 28g of pumpkin seeds to snack on during those seconds. They give me the energy and keep me from putting pizza in my mouth instead! It also has kept me from drinking fountain soda (lots of sugar and calories there when serving). Just drink water and lemon and replace that famished feeling with a belly full of water and better choices. Nuts are calorie dense though so be sure to WEIGH and not just measure.

    I also log EVERYTHING (except this past weekend when I was on a raft trip with no MFP). It has helped me not to sneak bites knowing that I need to write it down and log it when I get home. It's like lazy will power! ;) "Ugh, I'm going to have to write that down...never mind...not that hungry!"

    Other than that, it doesn't matter what time of day you eat as long as you're staying in your allotted calories.
  • HamsterManV2
    HamsterManV2 Posts: 449 Member
    edited April 2016
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    Yep. You can theoretically eat your daily caloric requirements every night, just be consistent and hit TDEE-500 calories. Beware, restaurant food is meant to taste good and you usually have no idea what the calories are.

    Potential dry foods that work:
    Fruits (fresh or canned), Oats, Peanut Butter, Rice, Canned foods (beans and fish), Toast, Nuts, Powdered Eggs and Milk (you need your protein!).

    The good thing about canned foods is the labels tell you the exact caloric amount on them, so there is no guesswork. My go to snack is a big bowl of oatmeal with banana chopped up in it. You can get creative with that. And if you get hungry but don't want to break your diet, prepare a snack for the day that you can easily eat given 30 seconds (i.e. a peanut butter sandwich or fruit and nuts).

    For your small fridge, space is key. Put the bare bones in there and use it for a couple days' worth of storage. i.e. Veggies (can't get canned onees), a carton of milk, and your main meat you plan on cooking and storing the Tupperware in there.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,898 Member
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    sshaw226 wrote: »
    peleroja wrote: »

    See I don't drink alcohol and I don't drink soda. But eating at my work gets really expensive. But a steak I could eat all the time!!

    Yeah they give us food everyday and it's usually the most unhealthiest stuff! I don't usually eat it. Truthfully I eat maybe 1-2 times a day but it's always good before work and bad after work and I tend to always forget to track calories. I'm hoping once I finish my office "kitchen" that might change.
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    What are your food privileges at work? Easiest thing to do would be to pick up a dinner that fits your calorie budget there.

    We can get anything. And it's 50%! Off. But the prices are high! 40$ for a steak so 20 everyday gets pricey.

    But I might have to try that just to stay away from the bad stuff.


    Thank you everyone. It's good to know I can eat at night and be alright.

    So get chicken - it's cheaper and less caloric :)
    Or a sandwich instead of an entree.

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