How's it going guys. Now I realise this may be a tough subject for a few fellows on here but it is something that has been on my mind the last few days. As I have recently been operating earthmoving machinery more and more this past year I have been noticing the lack of physical exercise and or movement that the operators get while working. I am a skinny guy. I look like a mop. And yes I have the hair to top the look off lol. I have never had a problem with gaining weight. I try to eat healthy etc etc and do physical exercise as much as I feel I need to. All my previous jobs involved physical labour as the key to getting things done. Now that I am behind the controls of a machine, the only labour I do is with my forearms, wrists and ankles. Is plant operators sit down and do nothing a lot of the day. It's mostly a mental challenge and that is pressure enough ! My question is this: what are some ideas I can use to help keep me from getting unfit and fat. I do realise this is not a "get healthy" forum, but maybe some of you guys have thought about it and come up with some cool ways to get around it. If you have please share with me Thanks Mitch
Well, it'd make sense if you went from hustling a** to sitting it behind a desk, your diet likely gets worse as there is more food available in the office and less work to do.
I am the same build as you,6 feet 2 ins, 180 pounds.Been operating plant for 30 years plus.I learned to sit upright,no slouching, breathe up and down not in and out.Eat good food not fast food.Maybe I am lucky but nobody ever called me fat
Exercise. Walk. Go hiking and biking. Get up earlier and/or go to bed later if you have to. You don't have to go to a gym. There are plenty of workouts that can be done without fancy equipment. On quarry jobs, I've gone for walks when the truckers stopped for their coffee breaks.
Yair . . . MadMitch .Good one mate! I believe this is an extremely important subject and full marks to you for bringing it up. You only have to sit back with the Nikons and glass any construction site today to see overweight truck drivers and operators are a very real and growing problem. Just being aware and acknowledging there is problem is a good start and I think the O/P has answered his own questions . . . it doesn't take too much common sense to realise meat pies and coke at smoko just aren't going to cut it. It isn't easy but there are any amount of programmes/dietary advise available for those who are really interested in keeping in shape. Diet is only part of the story of course. Daily exercise to the point of working up a good sweat is needed too. A lot of you young blokes are probably going through the and bullet proof phase but sadly it doesn't last. You owe it to yourself and your family to try and stay fit. It is absolutely certain that if you are overweight you are going to become acquainted with the medical system sooner than if you maintain that lean and hungry look. I have been in and out of hospitals a fair bit lately with prostate problems and I can tell you overweight patients are a problem for themselves and for the nursing staff . . . sometimes an embarrassing problem. It's one thing for a nurse to give me a hand to the toilet to have a **** (I'm 80 kilos with two half inch garden hoses hanging off my c0ck . . . .one of them with a priming bulb like on a freaking outboard motor fuel line . . . and a plastic catheter bag half full of blood stained ****) it's one thing for the nurse to give me a hand compared to the young bloke in the next bed 130 kilos . . . he ends up with a bed pan because it's such a bloody hassle to get the wards man and the lifting gear. There are liability issues with moving overweight patients. I don't think I can put it any plainer than that. Cheers.
Yeah thanks for the answers guys. It's defiantly a great discussion and should be talked about. However I could see it creating frustrations to those who have out on some extra pounds due to lack of movement. I think I'm going to start exercising in the mornings. It will mean getting up earlier but I find that I have more energy after a little exercise than I do when I just slob out of bed and go to work.
Here are a few things I do - Drink a lot of water during the day, no soft drinks (cokes). Unsweet tea at lunch, the southerners on the board will understand that. Try to eat well, stay away from the fast food. If there is a meat and three nearby, that's where I go for lunch. If you have to go to the porto', park the tractor and walk across the site. Get out of the machine and help the laborers and pipe layers shovel, rake, sweep and anything else they are doing. Shovel your tracks out at the end of the day. Help the silt fence crew...
Thanks cm. they are the type of tips I was looking for. I may start putting them to use right now. I'm currently sitting in a dump truck at a site
I agree with CM1995 about getting away from soft drinks & carry a water jug in the cab along with walking & exercise when possible .If stuck sitting in a truck cab or equipment all day might try a standing desk for a few hours in the evening when doing paper work or on the computer. www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_desk
Get your truck/machine stuck in the mud and then hand shovel it out, and/or drag cables and chains all over to pull on it. Crawl under/over it changing parts. Change tires. Those are some good ways to excersise that I have found. However I think they mostly made my life shorter instead of longer.
Use to work around and old operator that was skinny as a rail he would tell you right quick that the secret to staying slim was cold coffee and onions that's all I ever so him eat but I couldn't take that I agree with the walking and eating wright
Scrub sorry to hear about your problems hope everything turns out OK
I used to be an aircraft mechanic and transitioned to sitting behind a desk (selling construction equipment). I can say first hand that physical labor in your job is a blessing and a curse! I enjoyed the physical aspect of my job and my body was mostly in good shape, except my back and my hands/wrists. I had to make the choice between surgery or changing jobs. so now I sit behind a desk and getting exercise is a challenge. I totally understand your problem, but from yet another perspective. I suggest taking a martial arts class. It is fun, challenging, and forces you to both STRETCH and EXERCISE. That is what has worked for me, because otherwise I would be sitting on my *** doing 12 oz curls after work!! Good luck and stay healthy and fit!!
Yair . . . Thanks HATCHEQUIP . This is my second rebore, first one did about 70,000 hours and made a new man out of me, recovery not going so well this time round, bit better these last few days, just got get these internal leaks stopped. Cheers
Drink lite beer...... If u still gain weight just drink more if it
For starters we need to realize this is a problem and the health a safety people need to realize this. We need to get back to working 8-10 hrs days. We had a fellow show up at skeet shooting this spring, he was a hoe operator. Nice guy and a little on the heavy side. He was working 21 days straight, 14 hrs a day on a local project. After 21 days he received a 10 days break then back at her. Last I saw of him he had to quit and move back to Vancouver to find a different occupation, his body was taking a beating, back pains, ankles, poor shape etc. He did say that that job would pay 150,000 in a year. But spending 14hrs working and then go home (he was living in a camping trailer with his wife) eat ,spend 1/2-1 hr with wife and go to bed to do it all over again is only going to lead to a disaster for him. His company needed him on the hoe and hoe operators are hard to find. If they work 8-10 hrs a day ,nobody will come from out of town to work. Kind of a catch 22. So they give all the guys big bucks and big hours and live with the high turnover this will create, and the guys run them selves into the ground due to their greed or end up working a tour or two and quitting. Great way for a young guy to make some cash, but that type of lifestyle will catch up to you in the end and then all the money in the world won't help. Getting back to the 8 hr shift, nobody gets rich but I can and do go to the gym, play hockey, go fishing, hunting etc. all after work during the week,and also still have weekends as well. Another down side to working long days is most guys I know have to work 10-12 hrs and weekends (read O/T sluts) because they can't afford to work 40hrs a week. They(or wives,or both) start setting their budgets at 50-60hrs a week and once that starts watch out, cutting back to 40 is a killer financially. The problem needs to start with Worksafe B.C (compensation,OSHA etc elsewhere in the world) and with the safety people working the jobs. They fired 6 guys last week on that project, 1 of them apparently for getting out of his machine to pee instead of going a few kilometers to a port-a-potty but the safety people do not see a guy falling apart right in front of them and doing irreversible damage to their bodies, as long as the job gets done, eye protection is used, seat belts are worn, nobody goes up on the deck of an excavator to check oil with out fall arrest on (big time requirement here) and nobody pee's in the bushes, everything is OK. Can you imagine if Airline pilots, air traffic controllers etc were allowed to work this way. MadMitch, hopefully you can work and look after yourself, be of value to your employer, stay active (gym,sports,walking etc.). Also maybe your company can have 2 operators per shift and then you work 1/2 shift in seat,other half doing something else (or 2 hrs operating ,2 hrs maintenance repair) and stay a little active at work. Cheers for now L B
Look afta yerself scrub; I quite enjoy a lot of your posts; hell id even buy you a beer just to have a chinwag sometime. And us kiwis are not renown for buying you lot beers !! :drinkup Hell I cannot believe some of the health and safety bull excretement I see on here from overseas. I must work in heaven. I have and do work sometimes shorts singlet and bare feet; if I want a P; I will stand on the track of the dzr and do it ! :notworthy; And me body [and machine too !] is abit like my money; no body will look after it as good as myself. If you cant think for yourself your doomed to failure; you cannot legislate against stupidity ! Its abit like the countless generations of farmers in nz, oz, Canada, pomland, and the usa. Each generation had to learn from there mistakes, and hopefully improve and evolve. I was told 30 years ago. Learn from other peoples mistakes boy; you ant got enough time in your life to make all the mistakes yourself !! Dunno, enough of a rant, better enjoy living in my backwater while I can. As for exercise, digging out tracks, twisting wrenchs, and abit of walking is enough for me; a good woman might be better ! but is a shortage of them here ! Take care scrub !, the ozzys need guys like you, just to wind us fellas up ! im probably abit like you were 20+ years ago.! Cheers from kiwiland :drinkup
Yair . . . Thanks for kind words D6Merv . We hope to get back to N.Z. for a holiday in next couple of years, might be able to arrange that beer hey? . . . 'an maybe some flounder and chips.
Your on Scrub ! Live about a hour east of auckland airport. right on oceans doorstep, plenty of flounder and seafood here.