Nursing school is making me fat

IV_Espresso · Oct 1, 2015

In nursing school it was a bit different for me, as I did not have children and went to school full-time with just a contingent job. I exercised some, but first i really focused on my diet. At the beginning of each week, I went to the grocery store. When I got home, the first thing I would do is make snack bags for class and cook my meat for my main meals. Even if the meals weren't 100% healthy, it helped keep my weight on track when I couldn't exercise!!

chris21sn, BSN, RN · Oct 1, 2015

Hi! Same as for me, like the poster above me, I don't have children either, so I can't exactly vocalize the best type of advice for you, but how I keep off the weight is simple: Weightloss is 80% diet, 20% exercise. To be frank, I don't exercise at all - I simply don't have the time or energy. I focus on my diet - and I buy the healthy stuff - Fruits, veggies, 100% whole grain breads/cereals, non-fat milks, healthy pop-in-your-mouth-during-lecture snacks like vegan popcorn and grapes. If I don't have time to food prep, I buy steamed, frozen veggies. I always bring a little lunch bag with me, and do that little extra mile like wake up early to make a spinach omlette. I also became a pescatarian awhile ago, so I don't eat any animal meats, beside seafood. I so far, have lost 15 pounds just doing this formula, and I believe it to work. Hope I could help :)

krisiepoo · Oct 2, 2015

When I was in school, I had the same issue. I wrote out a 4 week menu and rotated. I did shopping every 2 weeks (I had clinicals on weekends) and made/prepped meals for the week ahead. AS a previous poster noted, weight control is 80/20, with 80 being nutrition so get a plan that works for you

barcode120x, RN, NP · Oct 2, 2015

The struggle was real, even for us guys in the nursing program. Lecture days wasn't that bad. Bringing my own lunch (typical PBJ sandwiches and low carb/calorie snacks and tea) was fine; however, it was the off days that were terrible. Bringing my own lunch to clinicals (twice a week) never satisfied my appetite there. The hospital grills were always so good and enticing and I always bought a soda or an energy drink. It never ended there. Our day offs were always study group days where the sessions were like 5-6 hours long (with breaks of course), but our meet-up was ALWAYS Panera Bread. How could you not resist buying a soda and getting 6 hours worth of refills, or buying a pastry, or their You-Pick-Two meal?!?!?!? Yes, it was that bad (though I didn't gain as much weight as horrible of the food we ate sounds like lol). Lucky for me though, I picked up indoor rock-climbing as a hobby/stress reliever on my day offs and that kind of helped me keep a static weight for the most part. The summer halfway through nursing school, my close group really got into hiking and summit hiking and on top of that plus indoor climbing, I lost about 15 pounds. Sad to say though, the following last semester up until when I took my NCLEX (about a 5 month period) I gained it all back...most likely due to stress/anxiety about finals and NCLEX.

I think you probably know already, but the best way really is to pack homemade simple lunches and snacks and restrainnnnn yourself from buying food especially when in study groups. Also, it always helps to have a partner or two to go work out, even if it's just simple 1-2 mile walk. When I did my hikes (we did 5+ hikes multiple times a week), they were always with my study group so we would just talk about school, or not talk about school which made it fun.

Surg-OncRN · Oct 4, 2015

The key I have found to keeping weight under control is to stay full. A lot of people advocate for eating bread, fruit, and other snack foods. These are all carbohydrates and the way to stay full and feel satisfied is by eating a lot more fat and a moderate about of protein. If you eat food that is only carbohydrates your blood sugar will be on a roller coaster all day. When your blood sugar drops you will eating anything and everything at that time until your blood sugar gets back to normal.This is why people have such a hard time with cravings. The thing to do is decrease the amount of times this happens. Also, having to eat less times a day will give you more time. Personally, I can drink coffee in the morning with cream and two decent meals throughout the day and I am good. Proper nutrition is important for your energy and mental focus. It should be one of the highest priorities on your list. For example, I will build a salad with mixed greens, tomatoes, eggs, onions, avocado, and braggs salad dressing(very little sugar). I then will heat up some ground beef already cooked along with some coconut oil and put it on top of the salad. This meal will keep me full and satisfied for six to eight hours. This is very helpful when you are busy as a nurse and do not have time to stop and keep eating every two hours(which is not correct by the way). I am currently 37 and am able to run circles around most nurses in their lower to middle 20s because of their poor diet. If you would like more information you can PM me or visit my blog at nursinglifebacktohealth dot com.

As for exercise, I think that was covered well by the other comments. I do agree diet is 80% of how you look and feel. Although, a nice walk will do wonders for decreasing stress and keeping your body fit. Make sure you get up and walk around every hour and do not sit for hours at a time studying. You may have heard sitting is the new smoking.

Hope this helps and good luck!