Paramedic Fitness

7 out of 10 paramedics are overweight.

Chances are you’re one of them. It’s just a harsh reality of the job. Our schedules are chaotic and bad habits are just so easy to pick up.

It’s not really your fault either.

Paramedics can really get worked over on shift. It’s easy to pick up bad snacks and skip workouts.

But it doesn’t have to stay that way.

There are a few easy things you can do to start getting your fitness back on track. Even as a busy, stressed-out paramedic.

Why Fitness Matters As A Paramedic

You don’t want to be a sweaty old medic that’s actually sweaty.

In fact, no one wants that. Not you, not your patients, and especially not your partner on the truck.

Ultimately, you already know all the long term health benefits of keeping in shape. I won’t harp on them here.

You should want to be fit.

It looks professional. No one wants to take medical advice from the guy in Wallie.

Plus, you want to be strong enough to protect your back.

It’s the number one thing that takes medics out of their jobs. Deadlifting 800lbs probably isn’t in your future. Deadlifting 225 is. And that’s enough to keep you up and functional for most of your career.

Snack Attack

If little treats weren’t so tempting, none of us would eat them.

But that’s just the thing. Their so small and easy to eat, it almost feels like they shouldn’t count. They add up quick, though.

A single small bag of Cheetos can be 140 calories.

If you think of it in terms of weight loss, the normal calorie deficit is 500 calories a day to lose a pound a week. Eating those little 100-200 calorie snack packs pushes you over that limit all day every day.

Thankfully, you don’t need to go full carnivore diet to make a change.

Stop eating hospital snacks. All hospital snacks. Even the healthy ones. It’s an easy rule to set for yourself that can easily put you back in a deficit.

Think about it, bananas are 120 calories each.

Healthier? Yes. Still going to push you over your limit each day? Also yes.

And while you’re at it, cut the fast food.

Eat at the station or at quarters. If you drive around when you’re hungry looking for something that catches your eye, it’s never going to be the local Salad and Go.

Try meal prepping.

At the very least, have a plan for what to eat. You can get fairly healthy meals from Chipotle or Panda Express as long as you know what to order.

Thank you for your service snacks.

Ok, I’m super guilty of this one. I love sweets. We have a lady in our area that regularly drops off full boxes of Crumbl cookies. You better believe I could mow down two of those in a sitting.

But making it a standard rule to never eat dropped off snacks cuts down on a metric boat load of sugar.

Just imagine your least favorite frequent flyer making all those cookies.

Fingernail clippings, the smell of UTI’s, cigarette smoke. If that’s not enough to turn you off from station snacks I don’t know what is.

Light Weight Baby

You don’t need to be the next David Goggins to workout.

He is the exception, not the rule. You don’t have to do a Murph everyday. You definitely don’t need to sign up for an ultra marathon to “motivate” yourself to work out.

You just need to start a simple habit of working out.

It doesn’t even need to be everyday. I started with 3 days a week. That’s plenty- and you’ll still end up super sore at first. No need to push it.

And make it easy. If it’s been a long time since you’ve set foot in a gym, don’t start by maxing out your bench press. Start with a little jog or even a brisk walk.

But set it up for the same time everyday.

You will stick to the workout routine if you set up exactly when you’ll do it, how you’ll do it, and what you’re doing. You’ll never get your ass up if you just say “I’ll workout today when I have time.”

Another great tip for starting any workout routine.

Have a minimal required standard. And it can be very small. If everyday you go in and do 20 push ups then call it quits, fine. That can be your minimal standard.

You should try and do more, but those 20 push ups are what you have to do.

Over time, that minimal standard can get harder and harder. You can increase the number of pushups. Or add a short run in before hand. As long as you keep building on that minimum standard, you can’t help but get better.

Liquid Diet

No, I’m not recommending you start juicing.

Just be careful you’re not drinking your calories. It’s so easy to chug down super sugary drinks multiple times a day. Especially when the hospitals have free Monster in their fridge.

Coffee creamer really messes me up.

I recently tracked how many actual servings of creamer I used in a day. I figured I was using 5-6. Turns out it’s much closer to 10-12.

My coffee creamer was adding around 300 extra calories a day to my diet. That’s almost a pound a week in weight gain. And if you’re a creamer user, you’re likely using a lot more than you think.

Diet soda is totally cool, though.

Is it healthy? Not a chance. I would never say it’s good for you. But in terms of a sweet drink that has zero calories, it works wonders. Sugar free energy drinks work too, just remember to try and keep the caffeine below 500 mg a day.

Last but not least, alcohol.

Most of us drink a little too much. Or a lot. If you’re looking to change your fitness habits though, alcohol is one of the first things to go. It really has no nutritional value and it makes you bloated. It makes you look bigger than you actually are.

There’s no good amount of alcohol to drink, so keep it to a minimum.

Meal Plans

I hate cooking. A lot.

I will do just about anything to get out of cooking. Thankfully there are a few ways to get around that without ordering takeout all the time.

My favorite is Costco.

They have a ton of frozen or prepackaged meals that you can just heat up. I set it up so I have something different for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day of the week. Plus you know exactly how many calories are in each of them so you know what a serving actually is.

Hint; Serving sizes are way smaller than you think.

You can also use Factor.

I’m sure you’ve heard of them before, but they are a food service that lets you pick your meals based on what you need calorie wise. It gets shipped to your house and you can heat it up in the microwave in under 3 minutes.

It’s actually way less expensive than eating out for every meal. It also saves me from having to cook all my meals so I’m happy to spend the money on it.

If you like to cook

Try a home meal service, like Home Chef or Green Chef.

I’ve tried them and they make cooking really easy. I’ve actually taken a few of their recipes and used them at the station. The food’s great, quick to cook, and is surprisingly affordable.

You Won’t Be Chris Bumstead

These changes aren’t going to make you the next Mr. (or Mrs.) Olympia.

You’re not going to get your dream body by cutting out hospital Uncrustables.

But they will help you get back on track. Take these four pieces of advice and you’ll be off to a great start.

Good Luck!