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How do you get in all you food and work full time? What is your eating schedule



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I'm struggling so hard right now getting in all my numbers. I'm still sleeping in more post surgery, I commute to work and back, I'm here for 8 hours each day (once I'm back and recovered I will work 8-12 hours each day) and I'm struggling to get it all in. I have to do data entry, I am on the phone running around and then I also have zero hunger.

So what is the schedule you guy go with? How do I keep my job and still eat and drink non-stop?? lol!

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What a great question! I've always wondered that too because I work from home and obviously it was easier for me to make my own eating schedule. I've often wondered how I would have fared with fluids and food early out if I was at a job outside the home. Interested in the answers!

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I'm an attorney and work long hours. What works for me is the following. I bring a bottle of propel with me in the car and try to drink as much of it as possible on my drive to the office. I bring my Breakfast with me, and will eat it as soon as I get to the office (usually between 8-8:30). I wait 30 minutes and begin drinking. If I stopped for coffee on the way in, I'll drink that and count it as my mid morning snack. I also have a 30oz cup with a straw (!!) I fill it and won't eat anything else until I get that sucker down. Many times I'm not hungry for a mid morning snack (particularly if I have the coffee) so I fill up with liquid. I usually have lunch around 1:00. 30 minutes later I start on more liquid. I usually have a snack around 3:30-4:00 (typically sliced deli meat) and I'll have another snack (either almonds or a greek yogurt) before I leave for the gym. Fill in the rest of the day drinking. Since I work long hours, I eat dinner relatively late, but that means I don't feel the need for a snack. If I have a nighttime snack, it's usually a popsicle or a fudgesicle. I find things work much better, for me, if I stick to a schedule. Eating like this insures I get all my Protein in (85-100g a day) and Fluid in (90-120 oz a day) Like I said, this schedule works for me. I'm maintaining a 130 lb loss eating this way. I find the weekend much more difficult because it is definitely less structured.

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I pack 3-4 small meals for when I'm at work. P3 snack packs are the bomb, as are greek yogurts. I always keep a cup (I love my Tervis 24oz cup) of ice Water beside me. I set a reminder on my phone to eat every 3 hours. I can eat at my desk while I work. It's gotten a lot better now that I'm on solid foods and can eat 4-6oz at a time.

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This is a great question. I had my one-month follow-up appointment yesterday, and I shared my current eating plan with the NP. I am eating 8 times a day (about 2-3 oz each time) with drinking period and no drinking periods mixed in (meaning the times to eat are about an hour and a half apart). It works beautifully, and she loved it, but it is an ALL DAY AFFAIR, and we agreed that it would be next to impossible to maintain all of that when I go back to work and the real world in a couple of weeks.

I work from home when I am not traveling, but I travel at 60%-70%. Given the holidays coming up and the fact that I am still sitting on almost 5 weeks of vacation days after I go back after short-term disability, I'll probably be able to maintain what I do through the end of the year, but when Delta and Hilton come calling in January, I'll have to see how to restructure it. (And I think a lot of cottage cheese and string cheese will likely be involved in that restructuring!)

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I pack 3-4 small meals for when I'm at work. P3 snack packs are the bomb, as are greek yogurts. I always keep a cup (I love my Tervis 24oz cup) of ice Water beside me. I set a reminder on my phone to eat every 3 hours. I can eat at my desk while I work. It's gotten a lot better now that I'm on solid foods and can eat 4-6oz at a time.

Like you, I eat every 3 hours. I'm 2 years post surgery and eat 4 ounces of food at 8:30am, 11:30am, a snack at 2:30pm, and dinner between 5-6pm. I drink liquids all day long. You can do it!

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I'm still pre-op, but these posts have been super helpful! I'm an emergency foster care worker, so we get at-risk youth in being removed by CPS, kids in from foster homes, ect.. essentially, super troubled kids. When they leave the house, we have to chase them. When they become physically aggressive (I was thrown down a flight of stairs once), we're required to restrain them. I typically work 12pm-10pm, with a one hour commute each way, and I'm concerned about how I'm going to get everything in since, depending on the kids we get, consistency in my day is pretty rare.

I figure my commute time would be a good time to work on fluids, but oh man, is the rest a little overwhelming. I have a great NUT, who's super willing to work with me when the time comes to send me back to work, so that's good. I'm super excited to see if anyone else has any tips to share!

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I work long hours, so for office days I pack 3-4 small meals and just go at them every couple of hours.

My typical day looks like this:

7 - iced coffee at home w/ fairlife milk and unflavored Protein powder

10 - at the office- most of a 6 oz Fage 0% yogurt

12 - 2-3 oz of grilled chicken breast or cold poached salmon, depending on what I packed

3 - cheese (string, babybel, wee Brie, laughing cow, something like that)

5 - 2-3 oz of the chicken, salmon or whatever I had before

Then if I'm home for dinner I'll have something like sliced turkey breast, a chicken or lamb burger patty, turkey Jerky etc. If I'm at a restaurant I'll usually order a Protein w green veggies on the side and take at least half home for leftovers.

If I forget to pack lunch, which happens sometimes, I'll hit the salad bar at the caf and load up on those turkey cubes, cheese and veggies and pick at that all day. The newsstand downstairs has Pure Protein shakes if I really can't be bothered.

When I'm on the road for work, I work even longer days. I pack individual protein powders and a Blender Bottle, turkey Jerky and hit up a grocery store for yogurt, Protein Bars, cheese Snacks, and deli meat to keep in my hotel room fridge. So I can still eat my 4-5 small meals a day even though my coworkers will only join me for 2-3! I am on the road now and got lucky by traveling with a female coworker who was happy to share with me at every meal so we both had nice perfect portions of healthy protein.

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Sometimes i just stick a spoon of Peanut Butter in my mouth and just get it over with.

THIS! ^

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String cheese, salmon or beef Jerky when I'm on the go, or I eat them on my coffee breaks.

Sent from my SM-N910V using the BariatricPal App

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I went back to work 5 days post op. I still struggle to get Water in, mostly because i get distracted and forget. I usually have a fairlife "shake" for Breakfast, oikos yogurt or cheese/meat or leftovers for lunch, cheese/protein shake for snack.< /p>

HW 385 SW 359 CW 338 Sleeved 10/5/16

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 0 replies
      1. This update has no replies.
    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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    • KimBaxleyWilson

      Three months and four days ago... I was in Costa Rica having a life changing surgery! Yesterday we had a followup visit with Dr. Esmeral via video chat and this morning my middle number changed.  I'm down 47lbs and two pants sizes. I can wear a Large tshirt for the first time in like... 14 years! Woot!! Everything is going great. I have zero regrets. I went down to the riverwalk with a friend and walked 2 miles on Monday without even getting fatigued. And no more snoring or chugging pickle juice for crazy leg cramps! I need to go to the gym more... I'm making new shirts next week so that will motivate me. LOL But I'm also just not as TIRED all the time! I have a LONG way to go...but seeing the progress on the scales and in the mirror is a huge motivator!! Thank you all for cheering me on and supporting me!!
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