Hi,

I work night shift 2-3 nights a week.  This has been for almost 15 years.  On my off days, I am busy with the kids, school schedules, activities and homework.  This tends to pose a problem for me for mealtimes and now to think of taking Alli pills too, I was hoping to fit this program in.  I am on my feet, moving almost constantly while I work, but have a hard time motivating myself to do more on my off days when not busy with the kids.  Was wondering if there is anyone else with the same concerns and schedule as I do. 

My diet menu has been rather healthy for quite some time, but have to say, I have had a hard time eating 3 meals and snacks daily. There are days I eat once a day, not the right amount of calories, or skip a whole day. Since I have gained weight eating this way, 20 pounds in the past year, I feel it is just the schedule keeping me from losing.  Any thoughts on this?

Hi Traderite, 

Thanks for writing and welcome to alli.  It sounds like you have a very busy schedule, and one that demands a lot out of you.  With all of the crazy hours that you're keeping, being consistent with your eating habits and fitting in exercise is a challenge.  However, it is doable! With the help of alli, you should see positive results!

I encourage you to first of all, make the decision, make the commitment and drive a stake in the ground that you're going to do this!  It is extremely important that you prepare your snacks, take your lunch, eat breakfast, etc. so that you're not tempted to grab whatever is infront of you or just skip eating altogether.  Not eating is as detrimental to your diet as over-eating! Your body must have fuel to function at the optimal level!  Think out your eating plan before the week gets underway to best equip you for success. 

As far as fitting in structured, regular exercise, again, it is making the decision to do it. Realize, however, that it doesn't have to be a full hour if time is of the essence.  it is perfectly fine to break up your exercise into 2 or 3 smaller, separate sessions throughout the course of 1 day.  For example, go for a walk in the morning for 10-20 minutes and then again @ lunch or in the evening.  Pop in a DVD before your kids get up on the weekends or on your off days.  Some very effective DVD's are Taebo, The Firm, Yoga Booty Ballet, or Leslie S.'s walking videos.  Take your kids to the park, meet a friend at the mall for a brisk walk, or go for a bike ride.  Try to just keep it simple, but do make it a priority!

Stay in contact with the alli community by visiting all of the forums for support, encouragement and to get any and all of your health and fitness questions answered.

Best of luck and in health,

Kelli 

 hi 

iam pretty much in the same boat  5:30 am to 2 pm at day job then i work 4 pm to 9:30 pm at my night job i prety much do that six days a week depending on my night job sometimes ill go a month with out a day off iam finding it very hard to  work out.then wheni do have a span of 2 or 3 days off night job lhave plenty to do around house and arrands last thing on my mind is going to the gym for an hour. but for right now i found my health is more important so i tend to let house work go i hope things work out for you  i found buying weight watcher etc is pretty good when there no time for cooking

 I too work 12 hour shifts.  I work 11:30am to 11:30pm. I only get a 45 min. dinner break at 4:00pm. I eat breakfast at 9am. How do I fit a lunch in when I don't get a break and what do I eat.  This has always been an issue with dieting because I know you are to eat 3 meals a day with snacks in between. I do drink water but I just grab what is easy to eat on the go. Any sugestions?

 hi 

yea its kinda hard to find time with weird long hours jobs can only stand to eat so many sandwichs iam pretty lucky with my jobs i can eat at my work stations just long as it aint a 7 course meal LOL i found taking sandwich bagging of dried cereal with me and yogart  or low cal burritoes to work helps  i been living on watcher watcher and lean cuisene for the last month or i take can fruit or applesauce. it so hard at my day job people bring so much just food to share or we have alot of pot lucks at work now thats been very hard to deal with since i do love food so much i havehard time changing my ways on thinking about food. for the most part i can walk away from the food but i got 15 people around me eating all that yummy good fatting food  and iam turn it down i just feel like crying. i just say iam not hungry but iam really am hungry and i stick it out till lunch and eat my good stuff and they all on their 2ns or 3 rd round on the fatty stuff. its kinda funny at myjob we tell all the new people be warned you will gain like 40 to 50 pounds working here they just laugh  a girl just told me the other day she worked here 5 years now she put on 50 pounds lol she was like darn you were right  well goof luck onfind things to take o work  

Hi!

I work 12 hrs night shift as a nursing assistant  in a hospital. The best thing that I have found to help so far is making sure that I have a snack every couple of hours -- my favorite is almonds with low fat yogurt, and then sometimes I will have a piece of fruit with low fat string cheese. My biggest obsticles when it comes to eating are : wanting to eat on the way home from work in the morning ( Mc Donalds bacon egg and cheese biscuit calling my name) and getting the right things to eat at the grocery when living in a house with others who dont need to loose weight urgggggggggggggggg. This stuff seems to be helping though yeaaaaaaaa!!!!!! Hope that all is working well for you.  

yea! another night-shifter!  i, too, am a 12 hr night shifter and struggle with a proper eating schedule!  on my days i work i tend to eat four meals, since our lunch hour is at 2am.  and i'm STARVING my then so i am essentially eating leftover dinner or something.  i have also done the cereal and milk thing, which works well. on the days after i work, i sleep and not eat till dinner with sometimes a snack.  and then i'm HUNGRY either all night at work or just till I make myself go to bed.  We're fighting against more obstacles on nights, with our circadian rhythm all screwed up and hormones out of whack and eating at weird times.  I'm new with Alli, so I don't have a trick that works.  Other than self-discipline and motivation--both of which I am working on!

JEEZ!! Other humans like me.. I work from 9:30pm to 8:00am. This shift is a killer especially when you can't skip breakfast but for us that's bedtime. So is breakfast for us before we begin our shift? And workout while we are at work?? Well let me rephrase at my jobn I am the only person overnight so I am able to work out without micromanagement...I hope Alli is the Savior for night shift workers cuz we are scrwed as far as "normal schedule goes"

 I understand how frustrating working the night shift can be and trying to loose weight. I work 12 hour shifts from 7 PM to 7 Am 3-5 nights a week. Plus I have a 8 year old and a husband who is disabled from heart failure (go figure he isn't overweight at all).  So I know all about trying to find time for yourself. 

 I have lost 29 pounds since April 5, 2008. I have had ups and downs, but I am hanging in there.  I exercise 2-3 days a week, I either go to the gym, I got a great deal from my employer to join our wellness center, or I go for a walk or I hop on my Total Gym, I mix it up to keep it from getting boring.  I exercise when I get home from work right after I take my son to school.  I just take a longer tepid shower to help me relax afterwards.  Plus I just graduated from College with My Associates in Science.

I have been heavy since I was 6 years old. I decided I wanted to be healthy, if I didn't loose some weight my doctor told me I wouldn't be able to walk by the time I was 50. So live or die, which we all will dye someday, I don't want it to be today.  Hang in there, you can do it! 

Your alli friend

 I have worked 12hr night shifts for the past 24 years- 1800- 0630, 3 nights a week. On the days I work I do best if I eat "breakfast" when I get up in the afternoon around 3:30 or 4pm, have "dinner" about 9pm, "lunch" at 1:00am and a snack about 4am. That leaves me 3-4 hrs to digest before I go to sleep. On the days I'm switching back to a day shift schedule I have to remind myself that I already ate lunch and a snack before I went to bed, so I eat "breakfast" when I get up around 1pm and have dinner with my husband at 6:30 or 7pm. (He's a day shift worker) I try not to eat after that but if I'm real hungry I have a nonfat yogurt or a cup of nonfat, sugar free hot cocoa made with NF milk. Since I'm over 50, I try to get 3 servings of nonfat dairy in for the calcium each day.

Of course, I work in a hospital and if the shift gets crazy busy my plans go awry! I try to keep a high protein, high fiber bar in my work bag, bring baggies with cut up veggies and fruit and keep a can or two of Progresso light soups (weight watchers 0-1 points per cup) on hand. I can usually take 5 minutes to stuff something in my mouth so I have to have good choices on hand. Since I started alli I have added nuts and seeds to my bag to add to my yogurt and salads. The biggest problem I have when I am at work is skipping meals when I'm busy which has really screwed my metabolism up!

For exercise I walk almost every day even if it's for 10-15 minutes at a time. My fitness goal is to walk a 5K this spring. Also, I got a Wii Fit for Christmas and have enjoyed adding that in on my days off.!

Good Luck!

 Hi,

I am new to the forums and It is nice to see other people that work crazy hours like me.  I have worked 3  13 hour days on the weekends and Mondays, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. since 2001 and it is hard to stay on track when I am working.  I see some good tips here and I try to take a salad and some type of Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice dinner to work.  I also take veggies and fruit, sugar free jello, fat free pudding and a low fat, low calorie dessert.  I do have one co-worker that goes out to get food just about every weekend and it is very hard not to take that temptation.  I just started taking ALLI on Jan. 6 and have been doing very well with it.  I have been eating much healthier on my days off and try to exercise more.  I was flipping through a magazine and saw an ad for ALLI and the woman looked very familiar and it turned out to be someone I worked with years ago  and she looked so good, then I saw the ad again a few weeks later so, I took that as a sign to start!

It is hard to eat right on this type of work schedule.  Before I go to work, I only drink coffee since I am usually not hungry when I get up.  It is also hard for me to decide if I eat something at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning, does that count for that night or the next day?  Another problem I have is when I get home, I am always so hungry and I hate to eat and go to bed right after.  I do try to eat something light but, sometimes that is hard to do.  I did lose 6 pounds this month so, I think this works very well, at least I am eating healthier than I was before.

 if you are grabbing on the go, I say subway. I use it alot on the nights I work. and we can have it on here. I get a club with lettuce, tom, onion, jolp peppers, lite mayo 6 inch is 390 cal and 9 grms fat, baked chips and water, and you have your fat grams and with in the calories for that meal. just make sure you get the whole grain breads. I work thur fri sun 6 p to 6a and get a foot long split it eat 1 for lunch and other for supper since I work through lunch and supper. saturday I work 2p to 8p and stop get a 6 inch for lunch and then eat at home for supper.

 Oh my goodness.  There are other people like me.  I thought I was the only crazy in this nuthouse.  All the studies on weight loss say it is extremely important to get that 6-8 hours of restorative sleep.  HA!!!! i too work 11 hour shifts three times a week in a hospital.  The problem is that I have a 14 yr old and two small children 3 and 2.  So the night I go to work I have been up since 6AM that day, go to work for 7 PM, work all night until 6AM, go home and take care of the girls all day and finally get to bed that night around 9PM if I don't crash  on the couch sooner.  So count 'em  that's awake for more than 36 hours.  So I have to eat several meals in this time frame, two extra meals than the regular 3.  I tried Weight Watchers and just counted my points from midnight to midnight.  the problem was that I was running out way before midnight.  So I am excited about trying alli, as I am aware of what is the right thing to eat, it's just all about doing it.  Those "treatment effects" are enough incentive to do the right thing, agree?  :)  It will be warm enough outside to go walking, this will be another nice addition to this plan.  Good luck.

 I work 12 hour night shifts (either 6p-6a or 7p-7a, depending on which dep't). I have decided to count my "day" as 7-7am. I usually eat "breakfast" just before going to work, then eat lunch, supper and snacks throughout the night with my supper around 3am. My biggest obstacle is all the snacks and treats everyone brings in. We have a huge buffet laid out on the breakroom table most nights, and alot of times everyone will order something to be delivered. I try to bring in a veggie or fruit tray to share and avoid the chips, cookies and candy. I usually pass on delivery. (Hey, it saves me calories and money!)

I try to do all of my cooking and prep for the week at once. For example, tomorrow I start a block of 5 nights in a row. I have veggies diced for salads, and diced grilled chicken cooked up with different seasonings, so I can just grab and go. I portion out snacks in baggies so they are grab and go too, plus I am a huge fan of fruit cups :) The only things I don't prepare in advance are things like cuccumbers and tomatoes that get icky quickly.

Some of my favorite snacks are: Yogurt with Bran Buds, celery sticks with ff ranch, green apple slices with ff caramel dip, ff cottage cheese with pineapple tidbits.

I eat a lot of fat free foods - since I am deathly afraid of the "treatment effects" especially when at work...That alone is incentive for me to "just say no" to any treats with fat :p. I look for fat free versions of whatever I buy, and if not available go for things with 1-2 grams of fat per serving. I have a list of staples I pick up every time I go to the grocery store. I also pay close attention to serving size.