I realized something this week

Don't judge me when I say this. I have worked steadily since I was 14 years old but I have never worked a 40 hour work week before. Sure I've gone from school to work but I don't count school as work. No, shamefully, this has been the first week where I've worked 40 consecutive hours in a row, and certainly the first time it's happened in a four day stretch. But, thankfully, now it's time for my 3 day weekend. I don't have to be back at work until Tuesday, at which point I'll start working ten hour night shifts. That brings us to now. You may notice that it's 12:30am. That's because I'm using this weekend to try to adjust to my new night shift schedule. I'm going to stay up as long as I can tonight, which will probably be another fifteen minutes or so considering I've been getting up at 5am. But enough of my whining! Everyone works! Get to the food already.

Well not quite yet. First let's talk more about my work life. I find that despite how good I've been at sticking to my diet under normal circumstances, when I'm working long shifts sitting at a desk, all I want to do is eat and all I can think about is how hungry I am. My normal breakfast and lunch is just not getting me from 5am to 5pm. I've tried divvying up my allotted calories into like a 100 calorie snack every two hours, but that didn't work either. And to make matters worse there's a coffee shop at my work as well as numerous vending machines filled with new and exciting candies like peanut butter snickers (which are actually not delicious, surprisingly). Also, as a reward for making it through my first long week of work, Jim and I went out for Mexican food tonight...which was delicious but resulted in my using up of a "cheat day". I have put on about a pound and a half this week from snacking and not working out, and I'll have to face the music tomorrow to see what kind of damage the Mexican did, but I can't imagine it's going to be good. So. I think I'm going to leave my cards and all cash in the car every day when I come in to work, that way I can't cheat, and maybe allow myself an additional hundred or two calories while I'm at work, just so I can get through my day. If anyone has any other good suggestions on how to avoid snacking when you sit at a desk bored out of your mind for long hours, I would love to hear them.

Now for the good stuff.

I've gone ahead and planned out my dinner menu this week, as usual and I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow. I've tried to plan meals that are quick and easy for the days that I work, and some fun baking projects for the next couple days to keep me busy and give me something fun to cook. Jim and I want to transition into getting up around 7pm, getting to work by 9pm, eating "lunch" around 2am, getting home around 7am, and eating "dinner" around 9am, then asleep by noon. So that will be a little weird.

Here's my menu for this week: Sweet and Hot Glazed Salmon and garlic mashed potatoes, Luau Chicken and rice, Turkey loaf and Syracuse salt potatoes (yes, readers in Syracuse can rest assured that the name had a lot to do with my choice of that particular side dish), Chicken Breasts Pierre and Cajun Pasta Fresca, Beef Tips and Noodles, Yakisoba Chicken, and Lime Chicken Soft Tacos. Some of those I've already blogged about but that's okay because of my two new and exciting baking projects for this week:

Portuguese Egg Tarts (did you know that's how you spell Portuguese? What's that second U doing in there?)

and even more excitingly, something I'm going to try to retool/invent

Maple Pecan Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes (an amalgamation of about 3 different recipes that I like)

Anyway, I'm exhausted and it's only 1am so wish me luck!