No Stupid Questions

Any chance you have sleep apnea?

you've used up your prime hours of the day at work, that's all.

Ramp up and down your productivity through the day. Leave yourself time to recover during the last hours of work, both mentally and physically, so that you can do what you like when you get back home. Never tell your boss that you’re doing this. They will see the peak of your ramp and that alone, and their expectations will climb

I’ve heard that it’s fairly common in food service to “always be closing” so that you can finish and leave at the drop of a hat.

I take a shower then I lay on a yoga mat and listen to a funny podcast like tigerbelly or bad friends for ~30 minutes depending how the day went. Sometimes I plan out what to do for dinner on the drive home, sonetimes in the morning, sometimes the day before, sometimes I plan it out during mat time and do some light stretches. My shoulders and pelvis are chronically tight from stress. Maybe have a drink in the shower before laying down but maybe don't incorporate that

Aside from a really good advice on putting activity before home, make sure you sleep enough.

While it may sound tempting to have a few extra hours in the evening, the way you spend them when you're exhausted is meaningless.

When you get proper sleep, you may have a bit less time on your hands, but you can actually turn the time you do have into something nice - and finally get the kind of rest you deserve.

Trust me - you'll thank yourself for this when you find out you still have energy after your work.

With that energy, you can not only go to wherever you want to go, you can also make the home a nicer place. Make yourself a spa evening. Watch autumn movies with tea and cookies. Read a book. Whatever strikes your fancy and makes you relaxed and...at home.

Viagra

A lot of it is just figuring out a new routine. Once you do, and you work that routine for a couple of weeks, it will feel weird to NOT hit the gym after work a few times a week.

After work is exercise, which you need anyway, but it also shakes off the doldrums and provides a clean break between work and evening

I don't have a real solution, but for me I just try to be exceptionally mindful of precisely what you already described. On my way home I try to think of a few productive things I could possibly muster before compromising/collapsing back into idleness

Second pot of coffee.

For me I usually position my exercise routine before work. The cardio allows me to think and generally function better throughout my work day, like my version of caffeine.

But yeah I don't have time to do anything else in that few hours before work begins.

Pure fucking willpower, don’t let yourself sit down when you get home right away.

It's quite insidious, and tbh there's only so much you can do to control how you feel after work. Instead of hoping to feel good every day, I try and set myself up for success on random days where I do leave work with energy.

In my case this means I have 1 or 2 braindead-easy dinners waiting in the wings. Good leftovers I can reheat in the oven, or a meal that takes 2 steps to prepare. If I don't have to worry about cooking dinner, then I have that much more time to dedicate to a hobby when the fancy strikes me.

First accept that you won't have the same time or energy.

Second the gym is not about motivation, it's about dedication. Also, that will give you more energy paradoxically.

I deal with this on and off myself. You have to find a way to get back to your old health habits, and create a schedule that allows you to do that. It sucks, because making time like that with your job is designed to be impossible, but you have no hope of ever feeling better if you have to work 8 hours a day or whatever AND you feel like crap because you are eating junk, not exercising, getting no sleep etc.