If you’re reading this and you’re a reporter, this may end up just making you cry and leave you wishing you could spend more time in the gym after you evaluate your sad, truthful diet. If you’re a regular viewer and reading this, you gon’ learn today what reporters deal with out in the field and with our crazy schedules.

As a reporter, we are technically always on call. Yes, we have “set schedules” like working mostly dayside (9:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.) or nightside (1:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.) or mornings (3 a.m. to 12 p.m.), etc. But, most of us work overtime, get called in early, get assigned a different shift last minute, or need to cover someone else’s shift. Ah, yes, the joys of breaking news and needing to fill content for every show.

Let’s face it. We work long hours and we never know what our ACTUAL hours clocked in for that day will be. And with that comes the uncertainty of meals. We NEVER know if we will have time to take the hour lunch that most full-time employees get. Sometimes, there are days where I have some down time and am able to eat a full course meal if I really wanted. Other times, I go the whole day without having time to even get a snack in.

The one thing I’ve learned in this business, is to ALWAYS keep snacks on hand… because we never know what days we will be able to eat breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner. So, that means that the days we are on-the-go, we end up at fast food joints or getting to enjoy the fine-dining known as gas station food.

Personally, even when I go to gas stations or fast food places, I still end up trying to get something healthy. I’ll go through the drive thru giving myself a pep talk like,” Okay, Jamie, get something healthy. You shouldn’t be eating this stuff anyways. The least you can do is get the healthiest thing they have. You’re on the go anyways, something light will suffice.”

“Welcome to McDonald’s, can I take your order?”

“I’LL HAVE A 20 PIECE CHICKEN NUGGET AND FRIES AND A MCFLURRY.”

Way to go, I immediately think after that transpires and I reluctantly and shamefully hand my credit card in the drive of shame we are all too familiar with.

Or even better when I end up at a gas station, I’ll tell myself to get a healthy wrap or a granola bar and then see that they’re selling ICEE’S and pizza and donuts and that ALWAYS sounds like a good idea until I eat it and want to vomit the entire way back to the station.

WHY AM I THE WAY THAT I AM.

Some reporters are able to maintain a fit physique and eat healthy, but for many others, it takes some serious discipline and hard work to be able to put the effort into that type of psycho diet. JK, not psycho… just nearly impossible. ;]

We want to maintain our on-air appearance and honestly, no matter what we look like, we will always have viewers giving us their two-cents as to what they think we should look like. We try our best to be in the best shape as possible because, believe me, we all want to look “good” on camera. But sometimes, we can’t always be those super healthy fitness models we want to be. Sometimes our weight fluctuates. Sometimes we eat three meals a day, other times we forget/don’t have time to eat all day. But nonetheless, we have tough jobs where we don’t get to have a steady metabolism like most others. We should all learn to accept our diets will be shameful sometimes.