Weightloss Journey: New job, new me?

Recently I chatted about moving to a 9-5 job and how I am excited about it for a number of reasons. One of these reasons is a pretty simple one. I am excited about this job, so I can finally, finally have some structure in my life. Part of that structure is my diet and exercise routine. I never had set days I would be off, so I could never have a proper running/training plan. So, as of Monday 16th April, I will have a structure and here is what I intend to do with that structure!

Walking/running to/from work.

One disadvantage to my previous job was that it would be a rare occurrence where I could walk home from work as my work was on the other side of the city (give or take 4 miles) but it meant walking through the city centre past midnight and although Belfast is a safe city to walk in at that time. You can’t really run around at that time or get home at a decent time to do anything productive for the next day.

So getting the chance to get up at around 6am to leave for 7am – 7.30am to run into work or to have a nice walk is such a bonus for me. I truly miss getting to get my steps up at the beginning of the day. If I have already hit 7- 10k in steps by 9am. Then my day has started well! Plus knowing I have worked and gotten a walk and a run in before I get home will be oh so satisfying!

Eating cleaner at work

I know, I know. It is my responsibility no matter where I work and what times I am working to eat well. But, working long shifts make it a little difficult to schedule your eating. In my new job, I will be able to have a scheduled 40-minute lunch every day. So I can bring in something substantial for the aforementioned walk/run home.

With my other job, if I hadn’t brought in anything filling to eat, others would get a takeaway and we would get one family sized order. This is okay for the odd treat, but not all the time! Getting away from that and getting back to fruit and veg as little snacks during work before lunch will be great. I had experienced something similar before I left my previous job as I was able to get into a great clean zone as there were very little options to eat elsewhere. I will be walking past grocers every morning so you can bet that I am going to stock up on fruit for a few days when I am there!

After reading a few articles about shift work, I quickly realised that due to working later  your brain is trying to stay awake and keep the tiredness away, so picking the poorer options is something that is more likely than picking the health less sugar/fatty option. Maybe I really have made the right choice!

Evening classes/running clubs

Victoria and I have already planned for this one, as we have started our first evening exercise class together. We thought we would do something that neither of us is experienced too much in, so kickboxing is going to be our world for the next 6 weeks. The first lesson has already happened, but now we know that Thursday nights that we have a cool little workout session to look forward to!

One of the things putting me off from joining a running club in recent years was that I would feel like I was cheating as I would rarely get to go to the training runs or be around my clubmates as I would be working in the evenings and that I would be paying money for something that I wouldn’t be using.

Now I am 9-5 I have the ability to decide if a running club will be good for me. I have found that that running with Victoria has made me fall back in love with running again as I helping and running with someone. So having a group to run with and train with seems like a fun idea to me now. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy the single runs. But there is something wonderful about running with someone and having a little natter if you both want to.

We had joined a little running team from our favourite place to eat on Monday’s and Wednesday’s, but I could rarely go due to work, which I know disappointed me!

Time to take challenges

As previously mentioned, time is not your friend on a shift based job. if you work a 2-11 shift you really start at 1pm as it may take around an hour to get to work and then by the end of the night you may only get to sleep at around 1am at the earliest, so 4 hours to get stuff done like food prep etc starts to evaporate your precious free time. A lack of time to start all the little challenges I had wanted to do in January has really bummed me out in all honesty. Due to how my last few months at work were. I was working all afternoon to evening shifts and just had no time to get anything else done, such as running etc.

Now though, now I have the time so I am going to start it all as of now. the 16th also brings about the first day of the walk challenge at my work so I get to do that again! I am also going to start my bodyweight exercise challenge to see how far I progress in 40 days with certain exercises. Expect the new walking challenge post to start from tomorrow (Tuesday) and Body weight from Wednesday. I am excited to do this as it is needed and I know it will be beneficial to me!

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