Debating with myself

[roadtousmc93]

Well, after the last couple of months of getting in good enough shape to enlist. I'm finally a poolee. I'm still working on getting my title changed on this site. I ship out in April 2013. Anyway.. my dilemma now is that I started a new job working overnights 48 hours a week. Now after months of running daily, and trying to get in shape My entire work out schedule is ' out of place ' . Working overnights means I sleep during the day and its starting to interfere with my workouts, spending time with family/friends, and I almost never have time for anything else. I use to run daily, now I can only find time to go 2-4 times a week. I've been waiting 2 weeks to do my IST. Simply because whenever we schedule it, I always end up having to go to work, or im still at work in the morning. When I had to schedule meetings with my recruiter and his SSgt, I would just stay up an extra couple hours just to show up. Then go back into work on an hour or two of sleep. Which im not complaining.. Its something that had to be done, so i did it.

My question is should i quit? Going to boot camp and successfully passing it is my dream. So I dont want anything to get in the way of me improving physically. Yes, I make decent money (better then minimum wage) and yes, I do have a long wait until boot camp. But im only 18 trying to go away for 4 years on active duty. I want to spend all the time I can with my family and friends before going in. and i dont want a TEMPORARY job to be the majority of my memories before boot camp. My current schedule is hard but its not impossible. I just can't imagine how things are gunna work out once my college semester starts up again.

[josephd]

I would be the last person to tell anyone to quit anything but if you have the means to get by until you ship out to boot camp and it is that big of an issue than I would say go ahead and quit.

One thing to keep in mind, once you hit the fleet Marine forces you are gonna be expected to maintain fitness standards with limited time to work out on your own. If you can yourself used to limited amounts of sleep, long work hours, and still working out now the better off you'll be

[jp2usmc]

Overcome and adapt. That's the Marine Corps way.

If you are working the night shift, get your PT in at some other time.

There's a Christian saying that goes, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, but give to God what is God's."

Well, give to Your Job what is Your Job's (working their hours), but give to the Corps what is the Corps'. (PT)"

It can be done. Just look at it as a challenge.

[Tennessee Top]

I understand where you're coming from. I work a 12-hour nightshift at a hospital which requires me to be on my feet majority of the time for patient care. The days I work, I'm either sleeping or working. But, I still manage to get my PT in at the gym (stay longer on my days off plus I'll normally hit the pool to cool down). Of course, I'm not preparing for bootcamp like you are so my workouts are not intense. Point is, a modified PT schedule for you is better than no PT at all (so as not to lose whatever shape you've gotten yourself into already). I would suggest, before quitting completely, try to come up with some kind of schedule where you can at least accomplish something positive. If it doesn't work then so be it. Family time is important so don't compromise on that if you don't have to. Maybe you can talk to your recruiter about your situation/concerns; I'm sure they've ran across the same thing with other poolees before.

Good luck.

[Rocky C]

If you want to be a " Marine " bad enough, find a work around for your problem.

A few days a week, jog to and from work. Problem solved !!!

You can do it. Hang in there....

Good Luck to you.

[MarinesFTW]

Id kill to only work 48 hours a week.... With that being said, I still manage to find a way to work out and stay fit. A good run takes anywhere from 30-45 minutes for the shorter runs, add another 10 minutes to shower and change, boom 1 hour and you are done. If you cant find an hour a day, then I dont even know. I wouldn't suggest you quit your job, you have a long time until you ship, use this time to make some money to have a little in the bank incase something major happens and you need to go home while you are all the way across the world. Just do what you can, as often as you can, and if you are still feeling like you are having issues, and you are fine money wise, quit a few months before, build up and ship out.