Night shift, Type 2, OCD: starting without the hype

2026-10-08 00:17

I’m 5'10, 295, Type 2. Work 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. three nights a week. OCD is the wild card. I can turn a simple log into a full audit. Started today. Not chasing a miracle. I just want my morning fasting numbers and portions to stop being chaos.

My plan: protein first, water bottle refilled before every shift, and track one weight per week instead of ten times a day. That last part is going to be hard. Anyone else with OCD figured out a logging setup that doesn’t turn into a ritual? Blunt answers welcome.

2026-10-10 03:16

night shift here too. the “morning” fasting thing tripped me up for months bc my body’s morning is like 4pm. i picked one anchor wake-up time and only compare fasting numbers from that same slot, otherwise the number just reflects sleep chaos, not progress.

for ocd audit brain: i use a tiny paper index card, 3 boxes only — protein first, bottle refilled, one weekly weigh-in. no spreadsheet, no scrolling history. if it doesn’t fit on the card it doesn’t go in.

what’s your anchor wake time on work vs off nights? that’s the part that always wrecks my consistency.

2026-10-12 01:18

Night shift here too. The one thing that saved my log from becoming an audit: I define “morning fasting” as 30 min after I wake, not by the clock. Otherwise a 7 a.m. reading after a 7 p.m.–7 a.m. shift is just noise.

Do you anchor yours to wake time or shift end? I also cap tracking at 3 lines/day: wake time, first meal, water refills.

If I want more columns, I screenshot and close the note. Weekly weight only, same day, after sleep.

Price-wise I track cost per gram protein on my usual grocery list, not every item, or I’ll spiral.

2026-10-17 03:06

Night shift + OCD here too. What finally cut the chaos for me was separating “tracking” from “solving.” I keep a tiny sticky on my water bottle: protein first, refill before shift, 10-minute walk after my last break. Three checkboxes.

No calorie math, no macro audit, no going back to “fix” a missed day. Weigh-in is once a week, same conditions, and I don’t touch the plan for two weeks no matter what the number says.

Curious—does your OCD latch harder onto the scale or the food log? That’s the one I had to build rules around.

2026-10-19 05:32

Dorm-kitchen cheap protein that saved my work nights: microwave rice pouch + frozen veg + canned tuna/chickpeas/rotisserie chicken, hot sauce, all in one big bowl. I make three identical ones so my log has fewer variables to audit.

For tracking, I keep a photo of the plate and a one-line note (“protein first, water done”) instead of macros. One weekly weigh-in is brave; I’d spiral if I saw daily noise.

Does your OCD go after the number itself, or the ritual of logging? That distinction changed whether an app helped or hurt me.