How Do OTR Drivers Manage To Stay In Good Health?

Here is what I do, YMMV:

1) No unhealthful snacks in the truck - because I can resist anything but temptation. When overweight, carry very little food in general. If snacks are there, I'll eat them....all of them. People who don't struggle with their weight often don't understand this, and they may be better off carrying plenty of food with them.

2) Keep a small supply of healthful food in the truck so that you are never far from something healthy to reach, but don't keep it where you can reach it while driving. In my fridge, I have yogurt, cottage cheese, hard-boiled eggs, and some cheese sticks. In the pantry, I have grass-fed beef sticks. If you want to cook in the truck you'll need more stuff obviously, but I don't do that. I just carry some food for times that I have to park where food isn't available. Get a Hot Logic and some disposable cooking pans for it. If you get a restaurant meal, eat half of it and put the other half in one of the pans...put that in the fridge. A day or two later, put that meal in the Hot Logic at the beginning of your shift and have that for dinner at end of shift.

3) If overweight, only eat once a day, and skip some days - IF your doctor concurs. I'm not a doctor, have never even played one and TV, and don't mean to provide medical advice. But not eating is the surest way to avoid obesity. My doctor told me, "the best exercise is to push yourself away from the table". For me, the best way to deal with this is to eat only dinner and skip at least one day weekly. It would be better to have only breakfast or lunch and not dinner, but I can't make that work so I don't.

4) Walk every chance you get. Park far from the doors you need to get to when possible and walk. When you are waiting to be loaded/unloaded, after you do whatever you need to do for trip, get out and walk. In the event of inclement weather, dress appropriately and get out and walk anyway. As the Norwegians said, there is no bad weather, only bad clothing.

5) Purposefully take a long walk at the end of every drive shift, and/or use those exercise rooms you mentioned that are often at TA/Petro and hotels, some company terminals. Get at least 30 minutes in daily. Yeah, often it may just be around the perimeter of a truck stop parking lot, but it is what it is. Just get it done (avoiding stepping on the shoe people's toes).

6) Once you get in decent shape, if physically able to run, take a run in the evening. Unfortunately, I can't do that due to a spinal issue.

7) Drink a lot of water and not much else. For sure don't drink anything that has calories, and don't drink any sodas whether regular or diet.

Sorry if any of this sounds preachy, but you asked

I ask because every now and then I see something on the TV news that truckers have health issues as obesity.

Absolutely correct. Especially the first part. I find myself snacking, especially at night because if I am hungry, I can’t sleep , which I hope to use to my advantage in this business.

I’ve also tried to get my wife to do more like Brett suggested with the paleo type diet, but she has had great success with weight watchers. Not the meals, just weighing her food and counting calories/points. I won’t do that. I have tried to cut portion size but I can’t starve myself like she does. More power to her, she has will power and has lost a ton of weight. She also works out 3 times a week for a couple hours, something else I don’t see myself doing.

Hopefully I can lower portion size and have less food available when I drive to force myself to lose weight.

GOM, you might like to try a combination of paleo and keto for a couple/few months until you reach your goal weight/size, and then revert to it occasionally as needed. That is what I have done, and it worked really well for me. If you stay keto with the paleo, you can eat as much as you'd want to, really. No need to measure, no need to starve. You will get results much quicker if you also limit the frequency of your meals. Please don't take my words as medical advice....check with your doc.

Here is what I do, YMMV:

I ask because every now and then I see something on the TV news that truckers have health issues as obesity.

Absolutely correct. Especially the first part. I find myself snacking, especially at night because if I am hungry, I can’t sleep , which I hope to use to my advantage in this business.

I’ve also tried to get my wife to do more like Brett suggested with the paleo type diet, but she has had great success with weight watchers. Not the meals, just weighing her food and counting calories/points. I won’t do that. I have tried to cut portion size but I can’t starve myself like she does. More power to her, she has will power and has lost a ton of weight. She also works out 3 times a week for a couple hours, something else I don’t see myself doing.

Hopefully I can lower portion size and have less food available when I drive to force myself to lose weight.

GOM, you might like to try a combination of paleo and keto for a couple/few months until you reach your goal weight/size, and then revert to it occasionally as needed. That is what I have done, and it worked really well for me. If you stay keto with the paleo, you can eat as much as you'd want to, really. No need to measure, no need to starve. You will get results much quicker if you also limit the frequency of your meals. Please don't take my words as medical advice....check with your doc.

Here is what I do, YMMV:

I ask because every now and then I see something on the TV news that truckers have health issues as obesity.

Absolutely correct. Especially the first part. I find myself snacking, especially at night because if I am hungry, I can’t sleep , which I hope to use to my advantage in this business.

I’ve also tried to get my wife to do more like Brett suggested with the paleo type diet, but she has had great success with weight watchers. Not the meals, just weighing her food and counting calories/points. I won’t do that. I have tried to cut portion size but I can’t starve myself like she does. More power to her, she has will power and has lost a ton of weight. She also works out 3 times a week for a couple hours, something else I don’t see myself doing.

Hopefully I can lower portion size and have less food available when I drive to force myself to lose weight.

I have done the Atkins diet before, which is similar.

GOM, you might like to try a combination of paleo and keto for a couple/few months until you reach your goal weight/size, and then revert to it occasionally as needed. That is what I have done, and it worked really well for me. If you stay keto with the paleo, you can eat as much as you'd want to, really. No need to measure, no need to starve. You will get results much quicker if you also limit the frequency of your meals. Please don't take my words as medical advice....check with your doc.

Here is what I do, YMMV:

I ask because every now and then I see something on the TV news that truckers have health issues as obesity.

Absolutely correct. Especially the first part. I find myself snacking, especially at night because if I am hungry, I can’t sleep , which I hope to use to my advantage in this business.

I’ve also tried to get my wife to do more like Brett suggested with the paleo type diet, but she has had great success with weight watchers. Not the meals, just weighing her food and counting calories/points. I won’t do that. I have tried to cut portion size but I can’t starve myself like she does. More power to her, she has will power and has lost a ton of weight. She also works out 3 times a week for a couple hours, something else I don’t see myself doing.

Hopefully I can lower portion size and have less food available when I drive to force myself to lose weight.

I have done the Atkins diet before, which is similar.

Sort of, but the Atkins info by itself doesn't really get far into healthful eating like Paleo does.