[JayEll]

Do a half-hour walk on the beach instead of an hour.

Go to the gym for an hour instead of an hour-and-a-half.

90 minutes per day should be plenty. It was for me.

What will you do with the extra time? I recommend you SLEEP. You are getting only 5 hours sleep a night. That isn't enough. You are so stressed, you are probably running on adrenalin and cortisol. Not good. That much exercise could be adding additional stress on top of not getting enough sleep.

Hope it helps! Good luck!

Jay

[silverbirch]

Hello DC! Sorry to hear the job situation is still so mad. All the stuff being said about productivity and management in the NHS during the election campaign won't be helping your boss's nerves. Or yours.

Here's my two penn'orth.

1. Less exercise. 1/2 hour on the beach. Intervals at the gymn. Or supersets if you lift. Gymn 3 x week.
2. More sleep. I hear what you say about always having functioned on little. Rest then. Or meditation.
3. (Thrown in free!) You are fighting back against the boss's remarks, aren't you? You know, I was here at 6, what a lovely sunrise over the maternity wing, that kind of thing? Don't let him get away with bullying remarks.

Good luck.

4. Keep your food squeaky clean.

[saef]

Sleep, as others are saying.

And, once a week, instead of 60 minutes at the gym, cancel it & have some spontaneous, silly pleasure. Or not so silly. Something that interrupts your regularly scheduled program.

Because you are living this life for a purpose, other than being in harness all the time, and you deserve a span of time in which to shake off all the "must" and "should be" and "gotta get it done."

Or there is no life at all but an unending cycle of duty. And food becomes so very tempting, offering the only color & pleasure & sensual relief in the midst of the timetable & to-do lists. And thus acquires far more importance than it really should have in a balanced life.

[iniya]

Please do sleep some more. That in itself would perhaps help you lose some weight. I would say instead of an hour of walk and 90 mins of gym, you could be in the gym 60 mins everyday. You could look up ways to make your 60 mins of working out more intense - maybe a trainer if possible.

Definitely do relax and sleep more. The schedule is a killer one.

[Tomato]

I would not be able to function with just 5 hrs of sleep per day. As others already said, you don't need to exercise 1.5 hrs a day. Personally, I would cut out the 4:00 am walk on the beach. I am sure it's beautiful and very relaxing but unless you run, it's not much cardio. I think you would do yourself a favour sleeping an hour longer.
Personally, I think 60 minutes of exercise each day is more than enough. Ok, it will take a few weeks longer to lose the weight you plan to lose, but so what?
You need to get a good rest to work such crazy hours otherwise you will just burn out.

[lobon]

i feel your pain. I am a resident and work an average of 80 hours per week, 6 days per week. Some weeks are more like a regular 8-5, 5 days a week type of job, but there are other times when I work upwards of 100 hours and work 21 days without a day off. My solutions:

1. be reasonable in my expectations- if I'm coming off a 30 hour shift, I don't push myself to workout that day. rest and spending time with my spouse is more important and I have the rest of my life to work on my fitness

2. less time working out, more intensity- you may have heard that low intensity workouts burn more fat, aka the fat burning zone myth. in reality, low intensity workouts burn more fat PROPORTIONATELY than high intensity, but high intensity workouts burn more total fat. thus, work your way up from walking to jogging and instead of a one hour stroll, you can rip off as many or more calories with a interval jog of 30min

3. multitask- get on that beautiful spin bike and, as im sure you've seen on biggest loser, get those arms in gear with your dumbbells at the same time. need something from the local grocery or gas station? run or ride a bike.

end of the story is that when you are busy, you need to incorporate fitness wherever you can. too much pressure on yourself will just end in a negative result, another yo-yo pattern, and loss of self-esteem. fitness should be fun!

[midwife]

Originally Posted by saef

Or there is no life at all but an unending cycle of duty. And food becomes so very tempting, offering the only color & pleasure & sensual relief in the midst of the timetable & to-do lists. And thus acquires far more importance than it really should have in a balanced life.

I just had to pull this out cause this is one of the most true and brilliant things I've read in a long time. I've heard it also said that when parents lack money and time for their kids, chips and cookies and such are an easy way to try to add some temporary pleasure into the day....Saef's words really brought out that I tend to do or look for that in my own life. Food really can be a bright spot, but we need to fill our souls with other methods of satisfaction. It is so easy to get pulled into the busy-ness and minutiae of life that we forget to live.

Creativity, quietness, meditation, true conversation and time with those we love....these need to happen, and not just when we can squeeze them in. I love my job a lot, but do we live to work or work to live (ie provide a living for ourselves and those we love)? We are all replaceable at work....not so much at home and definitely not to ourselves.

[tiffany0809]

As others have already said, you could drastically cut down on your exercise. Interval training is a more effective workout, so you could do 30-60 minutes of HIIT and probably get more out of it than the extended workouts you're currently doing.

[Dippy Chip]

Again...apologies for the length of this!

Well...I am just so overwhelmed by all of your thoughtful and insightful responses, and I've thought long and hard how to incorporate some of your suggestions.

I hear loud and clear what you are all saying about the need to relax and unwind and enjoy life a little, and I know that exercise isn't the be-all-and-end-all and that I ought to unloose the reins a little.

Anyway, I thought clearly about what I wanted and needed, and I realised the following:

1) Because of traffic problems and my own personal body clock, I prefer to start my day early. Leaving home at the time I do means that my morning commute is only 30 minutes...if I delayed leaving home until, say, 7am my morning commute would increase to something closer to 90 minutes. I want to avoid that happening because it would increase an already lengthy day.

2) I am a morning person, and I do my best work first thing in the morning. My first few hours at work are quality time, when I have the office all to myself and can really concentrate and get a lot of work done before the other 10 members of my team arrive and demand my attention. So I’d be loathe to change my pattern of working early, especially as it would mean that I’d need to work longer at the end of the day when my energy levels are at their lowest.

3) I am most definitely NOT an afternoon person, and my effectiveness and productivity at work declines steeply after 4pm, before re-picking back up at around 8pm. So I really struggle with any work hours that I have to do between 4pm and 6pm. So 4pm would be my ideal going-home time.

4) However, if I try to drive home between 4pm and 6pm traffic is a nightmare, so in some ways I'm better delaying my evening commute until 6pm, because then I'll get a quicker, smoother journey home.

5) What I hate most is working in the evenings, or doing anything in the evenings (such as going to the gym) that delays my getting home and spending a little quality time with my husband. If I could exercise in the mornings before work and have the evenings free, that would be a real bonus for me.

So....bearing all that in mind…

Today I got up at 5am instead of 4am, and because I’d showered and got all my gear ready for work the night before, I was able to leave the house at 5.15, which still meant an easy 30 minute commute.

I arrived at the beach at 5.45 (only 45 minutes later than usual despite getting up a whole hour later), and instead of just doing my morning brisk wall (which is at best moderate cardio) I took advantage of the fact that along the mile-long length of the promenade, there are 15 flights of steps leading down from the prom to the beach (each with 64 steps). These are spaced at roughly 100 meter intervals, and between each set of steps there is a slope also leading down from the prom to the beach (a bit like a giant snakes and ladders board!)

What I did was walk briskly down the prom climbing UP every flight of steps and DOWN every slope and UP the next flight of steps then DOWN the next slope etc. Then when I got to the end, I reversed the process and went UP every slope and DOWN every flight of steps, which meant that altogether I climbed 15 x 64 steps (960 steps!) and 15 steepish slopes, which meant that it was a much more intensive workout than usual. I was certainly breathing hard and red-faced at the end of it, and felt that it was an hour well-spent (whereas at the end of my usual morning walk I never really feel that I’ve had a really good workout).

I’ve decided to do this every day, and work up to the point where I’m TROTTING up the steps and slopes rather than just walking them, and then I’ll be confident that I’m getting in a good challenging workout.

Then, next week my Spinner Pro should arrive, and I’ll be able to do a quick 30 minute intensive workout say 3 or 4 times a week…and that should be sufficient.

As for the rest of my day…well, I was at my desk by 7am, which still gave me a solid 90 minutes of uninterrupted quiet in which to get some quality work done, and I left at 5.45 and was home by 6.15…and I have promised myself that at least 2 nights per week (starting with tonight) I’m not going to do a stroke of work after dinner, but will just spend some quality time with my hubby.

So…thanks once again for all your suggestions…and I can promise you that I’ve really taken all of them on board.

You’re all great….thank you!

[astrophe]

Your boss strolls in at 8:30? I suggest doing the same.

I'd also WRITE DOWN and log all that you do- if he tries to fire you for not doing enough work you can show what you are doing. I did this when I had an issue with my current job.

Also- stop doing work at home.

The one thing that I learned in all this is no matter how much you do MORE work will be waiting for you AND if you don't get something done guess what? It'll be there tomorrow.

I was just going to write this too so instead I will quote it out.

A.

[WarMaiden]

Originally Posted by Dippy Chip

So…thanks once again for all your suggestions…and I can promise you that I’ve really taken all of them on board.

You’re all great….thank you!

Thumbs up! I hope it helps in creating the positive changes you're looking for. Keep us updated on your progress. I do think it's important to know "who" you are and to incorporate that in your plan, as you seem to be doing.

[natamars]

I agree with everyone on the sleep.

What are you doing on weekends - sorry if I missed it? Can you get to the gym on weekends or find another way to get aerobic exercise both days on the weekend and cut out two nights during the week for more time with DH? If the gym is close to work then maybe find something else closer to home - some type of dance studio, swim or spin class, etc. where you could pay by the class?

I usually make it to the gym 3 nights a week and both days on the weekend. My job is also very sedentary so I sympathize with you - the gym is the only real exercise I get. I live near the beach so now that it's getting nicer I'm trying to do that as well.

Good luck!