Does working swing shift cause weight gain?

Another challenge I'm facing is now I have a job that I work swing shift. I work a week of afternoons, then a week of days, and then a week of midnight shifts. The nice thing is after the week of the night shifts I get the next week off and then I work the following weekend. The bad thing is it screws up my sleeping and eating schedules because it changes weekly. I think the worst is the week I work overnights because I'm always looking for energy I'm always hungry the whole shift when normally I would be sleeping at that time and not eating at all. One of the guys I work with said most people gain 15 pounds in the first year that they start working there. I may have gained a pound or two but I definitely feel more worn down not as motivated to exercise or watch what I eat. Does anyone have any tips on how to keep the weight off when you work swing shift?

Delaying my urges to eat

I'm already hungry it's only a few hours into the day and I'm starving. I already had a fruit smoothie, a few chips and some cottage cheese. I learned I shouldn't go on Pinterest anymore because all those delicious brownies and macaroni and cheese recipes look so delicious. Instead I'm sitting here with a cup of green tea and a splash of mint in it to hopefully try to delay eating. I figure I can trick my brain for about a half hour with some hot liquid in my belly. And then if I chew a piece of sugar-free mint gum afterwards but I'm not going to be hungry for as much food. I'm not counting calories but so far I'm guessing I've only had about 300 or so far. I have set aside some items for every time I think I'm hungry to hopefully prevent me from eating too much. I'm not starving myself, but at least I'm trying to delaying every time I want to eat so that hopefully by the end of the day I've had one less meal or snack. So whenever I'm hungry I'll have a cup of tea, chew some gum or chew on a whole clove. Another item I've been using the fiber pills since they are only like 5 calories a piece.

Up to 195 and feel exhausted

Wow, it's been over 2 years since I've posted. I have been right around 195 for the past 6 months or so. I've noticed especially in the past few weeks now that it's getting hot and humid outside, that I start to sweat within a minute of doing anything that requires even minor exertion. I need to drop some weight and get in better shape.

I know what works best for me is counting calories, but I hate doing that. There are some weeks I work lots of hours so I don't really want to go through the hassle, but I don't know if I can lose weight without counting. For now I'm just going to try to be a little more mindful of what I eat, not eat as much and not eat as often.

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet. I'm going to read my old posts now so see if anything inspires me.

I'll be back soon.

Long overdue update

Wow, I guess it's been a while since I last posted here. I never really got motivated enough to count calories before my sister's wedding. I made some a half-hearted effort to lose some weight before the wedding by exercising and increasing my fiber intake and I lost about 5 pounds. I was about 185 pounds on the day of the wedding. The weird thing is, now almost four months after the wedding I'm in the mid-170's. So I've lost about an additional 10 pounds since then and I really didn't have a reason to. I admit I was going through some emotional issues the past few months and honestly some days I found I didn't have an appetite. That seems weird to me since usually when I'm dealing with negative emotions I will eat more, but in this case I actually had less of an appetite. I'm not completely out dealing with this issue, but I have noticed my appetite has come back over the past few weeks. That 10 pounds was probably the "easiest" 10 pounds I've ever lost because I wasn't trying to eat healthy or exercise - it just happened. But now that I did lose that weight, I don't want to gain it back. A few months ago I had given in and bought some size 16 jeans, now I can fit into my size 14's again! Hopefully I can at least maintain this weight, if not drop some more!

Only 2 more months to go...

Sadly I don't have much to report other than I haven't gained any weight in the past month. Now it's only 2 months until the wedding and I'm still 190 pounds. Ugh I am so mad at myself. Why is this so difficult? I'm going to cut back on food and excercise more - hopefully I'll have some good news to report soon!

Big Fat Fail

So, it's been about three months since I last posted.  You would think by now I would have lost of bunch of weight and would be well on my way to looking awesome in my bridesmaid dress this October.  Well, I failed. I don't know what I weighed last time I mentioned it on here, but I have been in the 190's recently.  So sad.  It's hard to believe that 2 years ago around this time of the year I was in the 140's.

This Friday is the 6th, which means I have 3 months until the wedding.  I tried on my dress back in April and it fit - barely. I think I weigh even more now.  So at the very least I need to lose enough just to fit in the dress... It take like 5 months to order and we will only get them about 1 month before the wedding.  I wouldn't have time to order a size bigger. 

I need to do this! 
I need to do this! 
I need to do this! 

Started tracking calories again

I really need to lose weight by this October - when my sister is getting married. I am the matron of honor, and because my sister loves photography, I'll be in a lot of photos she is going to share. I want to lose about 25 pounds and the wedding is in roughly 25 weeks! I need to have a 500 calorie deficit every day! I started counting calories again today. I forgot how little I can eat to lose weight:( But it's good to make me think twice when I eat. For example, normally I would have 2 chicken patties which would be...

2 chicken patties: 400 calories
2 buns: 220 calories
Mayo: 100 calories (assuming I split 1 tablespoon over the two)
Total: 720 calories

What I did tonight:
1 chicken patty: 200 calories
1 bun: 110 calories
Light sour cream with seasoned salt: 40 calories
Total: 350 calories

Saved 370 calories

So, already I am making better decisions. I just have to be motivated to track.

Do high protein diets make you more thirsty?

I've noticed something a little odd the last two weekends: I have been really thirsty. At first I wondered if there was something different with the water in our city since there is a water cooler at work and I get most of my day's water from that source during the week. Or I thought maybe it's just more humid at work. But then I happened to think during the week when I'm working I go for simple carbs and don't eat as much protein. My plan a couple weeks ago was to start a high protein diet, but the only days I've been able to stick to it were on the weekends because I have more time to prepare my food and I'm not reaching for carbs just to "get through the day". So I looked it up and sure enough, a side effect of a high protein diet is dehydration. Researchers from University of Connecticut tested the hydration levels of athletes on diets containing low, medium, and high levels of protein. It was reported in an article by Web MD, that "although all the athletes drank about the same amount of fluids, their hydration level went down significantly as their protein intake went up."

I researched this a bit more and found several articles saying high protein diets, especially from animal sources, may cause kidney damage. However, most of the research was inconclusive. So I guess for now, I just need to drink extra water, maybe try to find protein sources not from animals, and proceed with caution.

Trying low carb/high protien diet

Last post I had written was a debate between whether or not I should eat meat to have optimal health. For now I am going the high protein route. My husband is dealing with his own weight issues and has been working out with a personal trainer once a week for about a year now. Unfortunately he has not gotten the results he is looking for - he's actually heavier than he was this time last year. So he finally asked his trainer for suggestions for improving his diet. Her advice was pretty much to do a low carb diet. No pasta, bread or cheese (so there goes my plan of having spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner once a week). So because he is trying to eat low carb, it would give me a good opportunity to try it too. It's only been 2 days, and I've already "cheated" quite a bit, but I have eaten fewer carbohydrates than I normally would just by eating meals with him. It's too early to weigh in and see if this is helping. But man, a big bowl of cereal sounds good right now!

Should I or should I not eat meat to lose weight?

It seems like I keep going back and forth as to whether I need to eliminate meat from my diet. Even though I have not been implementing any of their suggestions, I have been interested in what vegans have said about how their lifestyle has improved their health. I've been reading Steve Pavlina's blog and watching Dan McDonald's youtube videos for inspiration. But I've also been listening to podcasts by Jillian Michaels and the "Cut the Fat" podcast by Raymond Hinish and Blythe Alberg, and they advocate a higher protein diet that includes animal protein. So I've been wavering between thinking I need to eat a lot of protein and not having any animal products. I wish I knew who to believe and what would be best.

One thing they all have in common though is they emphasize the importance of eating more vegetables. So that is something I need to start doing again. And at this point I should be concentrating on eating less calories and then maybe revisit whether I should eat animal protein to lose weight and be healthy at a later time.

Only 10 pounds away

No, not 10 pounds away from goal but 10 pounds away from a place I don't want to be.  I just weighed in and for the first time in my life I was 190 pounds!  Damn:(  I'm really going in the wrong direction.  I have not been keeping up on my new year's resolutions (eat 2 veggies every day and track calories) so that is probably most of my problem.  I really need to get back on track and get this weight going in the right direction!  I just wish I didn't crave "bad" food so much.

I just calculated that there are 34 more weeks until my sister's wedding. I want to lose at least 30 pounds by then. So I have to lose about a pound a week. Ugh.  Sadly I don't want to deprive myself that much.  Where did my motivation go?

Check In - January 15, 2012

Well this week was better - but barely!  I did manage to track my calories every day this week. I ate out at a place without nutritional information available and ate at my parent's place but I still at least estimated my calories each day.  One thing I need to work on is tracking at the time I eat and not later in the day or even the next day.  The reason I need to track right away is I forgot about what I ate.  If I log the next day, I'll almost always forget something.  As a matter of fact, I think I forgot to add the cake and ice cream I had for my Dad's birthday on Thursday, so I now see my calories are off by at least 500.

I have not finished my eating for today, so if you look at the first 6 days I didn't do very well.  Even though I have met my goal of tracking each day (even if I did it the next day) and eating my 2 veggies a day I still have a lot of room for improvement.  As you can see, I did a terrible job of not going over my calorie allowance.  So my goal for next week I want to have no red in this bar graph for at least 3 days out of 7 next week.

I weighed in today at 185 pounds which is 2 pounds less than it was on January 1.  So maybe eating the veggies has helped a little bit because as far as I can see it isn't due to the lack of calories.

One week into the new year

Well this year is just over a week old, so I thought I'd do a quick check up on how I am doing on my new year's resolutions. Sadly, I can't say I've done a good job. Here is how I've done...

1. Track calories every day.
Fail. I haven't tracked since January 3rd.
2. Eat 2 servings of vegetables every day.
Success! Haven't missed a day.
3. Exercise just 5 minutes each morning.
Fail. I've forgotten to do this most mornings.

So after only a week, I already need to get back on track. Since I know I went over my calories every day I didn't track, I'm pretty sure I didn't lose any weight this week, so I didn't bother weighing myself this week.  But, I will weigh in next week!

No wonder I've gained 23 pounds this year

I started this blog around this time last year, and at that time I was concerned that I had let my weight creep back up to 164. Now I wish I was 164. I'm about 187 now, so I've gained 23 pounds in 2011. I finally started tracking again today. I tried tracking my calories a few times in the past year, but it would never last more than a day. So here is how I did today...

So as you can see, I didn't do very well. Right now I have the "Lose It" program set to lose 1/2 per week. So maintain weight calories would be around 2,371 and I even was over that by 643 calories.  If I had an eating day this poor every day, I'd gain 67 pounds in one year! (643 x 365 days divided by 3,500 because each pound=3,500 calories.) So I can't afford to have too many days like today!

Today was a little unusual because we went out to lunch at Olive Garden, so that put me at a big disadvantage.  But it probably would have been worse had I not been tracking.  Even though my current goal isn't to be at losing weight calories, just tracking helped me think twice most of the times I went to eat today. But, sometimes I'd eat something and then have to remind myself to track it after I already ate. Hopefully I'll continue to be even more mindful as I get back into the habit of tracking. I don't have any plans to eat out tomorrow, so tomorrow should be a better day!

It's a little cliche but...

I'm going to make some New Year's resolutions.  My weight has creeped up to an all-time high of around 187 (gasp!), so something needs to be done. I'm not starting with anything dramatic for now because I've fallen so far off the wagon that I just need to start doing some small things that will get me on the right track. So here are three things I am planning on doing in 2012:

1. Track calories every day.  It's ok if I go over, I just need to get back in the tracking habit.
2. Eat 2 servings of vegetables every day.  It doesn't sound like much, but right now I pretty much don't have any.
3. Exercise just 5 minutes each morning.

So I probably won't have a dramatic weight loss from just these three.  I might try adding something each month to build on what I started this month.  Maybe next month I'll add 15 minutes of exercise each evening and make sure I have 2 servings of fruit as well. I hope by this time next year I'm at least 160 or lower!

Not getting anywhere yet

I have not lost any weight since my last post. As a matter of fact, my weight has been around 182-183 mark for the last month. I tried going on a high protein diet, but felt sick and crabby while on it. My job responsibilities changed about a month ago, so I'm in a new building with new people. So instead of having 2 shorter breaks and eating twice a day, I've been having a larger meal once a day at work. I thought maybe that would help me lose weight, but it hasn't made a difference either. I know what I need to do. I know I need to track my calories and eat below my maintain weight calories, but I still want a short cut. I don't want to be hungry at my job because I have had a hard enough time not being crabby as it is. If I'm hungry I'll have a really short fuse. As soon as I get home I usually am hungry and I want to emotionally eat. This weekend I've managed to keep my calories very low, but my husband is gone for the weekend, and I don't have to work, so I don't have the outside stress. Without the stress of every day life, I have the will power to go on a low calorie diet. I just wish I had that motivation when I have to actually deal with life.

Need to lose 30 pounds in 56 weeks

My sister has set her wedding date for October 6, 2012.  That means I have just over a year to lose about 25 to 30 pounds. I've been hovering around the high 170's for the past month.  A few days I even hit the 180 mark:(  So, I'm going to set my goal of weighing 150, which would mean losing about 30 pounds.  I keep thinking that the wedding is go far away that if I lose any weight now, I'll just gain it back, but then I realized that if I want to lose 30 pounds by next October, I'll need to lose slightly more than a half pound a week.  It would take 60 weeks to lose 30 pounds at the half pound a week rate and the wedding is only a little over 56 weeks away.  So, I better get going!

Uh Oh, I was asked to be the matron of honor...

I've really let myself go.  I have gained ALL the weight back.  As a matter of fact, I had deja vu last weekend while at my husband's uncle's funeral. I was wearing the black pants that I mentioned in my Spark People post in August 2009, and they were once again way too tight to be comfortable in. So the first thing I did when I got home was weigh myself.  I weighed in at 180.5.  Two years later and all my work I did to lose 35 pounds is gone!  I'm so disappointed in myself.

I have not started counting calories again, but I have been purposely trying to eat a little less. I weighed in at 174.5 this morning, so I'm making some progress already.  Also, when ever we go to visit my husband's family I tend to gain some water weight.  We usually spend a few days there since it's over a 4 hour drive.  But that usually means we stop for salty fast food on the way there and back. Also, we usually eat out sometime during the weekend.  This might be a little TMI, but I usually am a little constipated whenever I visit, maybe because my subconscious is not as comfortable with me doing number 2 in someone else's house. So after just getting back to my routine for a couple days, I was at 174.5 by Tuesday and have been around that number each day since.

So I was already trying to motivate myself to eat less this week and then on Wednesday I was asked to be the matron of honor at my sister's wedding!  Now I have something to really get me motivated to lose weight again. The only problem is the wedding isn't until October 2012, so I don't feel a sense of urgency yet.  I feel like I'll just gain back any weight I lose now.

Weigh In #9 - Whoops!

I feel like I've been so busy lately, so I have not bothered to track calories, go to the gym more than the minimum amounts of time to get an insurance rebate, or to even weigh myself.  In the last few days I've noticed I look big again, so tonight I finally dug the scale out of the cabinet and weighed in.  I'm almost 170 pounds!  The exact number was 169.4.  Wow.  A year ago I was hovering around 145, so I have put on 25 pounds.  My absolute heaviest I have been was 180, but even then that was after a weekend of excessive eating, and I was usually around 175, so I'm only a few pounds shy of going back to my heaviest.  It took me about 9 months to lose the weight before and now all that hard work is out the window.  At least this time I know I can do it.  Prior to August of 2009 I had never had much success in losing more than 5 pounds, but when I actually took the time to track calories, it actually worked.  I did that for about a year, but when I started my new job in August 2010, I felt like I didn't have the time to track anymore and also not as much time to exercise.  I still have the same job, but I NEED to make the time. I also have another reason to get back on track. My sister is getting married in fall 2012.  I'm assuming she will be asking me to be a part of the bridal party, so I want to look good for that.  I almost wish it wasn't so far away because I need motivation.  If it was fall of this year, I think I'd have a little more drive to do what I need to do to.

Emotional Eating and Weigh-In #8

I've really been dealing with a lot of emotional eating lately.  I just don't know how to get happy.  Tuesday I was feeling even more down than normal, so I went to the store and bought some donuts, chips, cookies and chocolate candy. I also bought a bottle of "St. John's Wort".  I've never used that before, but I was feeling desperate.  So for the past two mornings I took a pill and I have to say I feel a little better.  The only bad thing is I still have some left over junk food in the house.  I just weighed in and I'm 164.5:(  I know some of that is due to eating very poorly the last few days.  I'm going to meet an old friend from school in 2 weeks and I haven't seen her in over 10 years. She is one of those people with a perfect body - I'm jealous of the  photos of her on vacation that she posted on Facebook.  In several photos she was on the beach and a bikini.  So, I was really motivated to lose some weight a week ago, but when I'm feeling low I really don't care.  Now I just need to keep reminding myself about seeing my old friend and maybe I can drop at least a couple pounds.