Healthy eating and Shifts

byflops

Hi all,

I am a Police Officer and therefore, I work shifts, often off late or with minimal time in between shifts.

I often find myself picking at quick food rather then having a proper meal, or sometimes I hardly eat all day then im straight home with my face in the food cupboard, with a full time career, home and family I find myself with very little free time to even think about prepping food let alone actually getting to tbe point of making it!

So any shift workers out there, do you have any tips or suggestions? All help appreciated!

tinkerbellang83

Not a shift worker anymore but I do have a busy life overall, and one of my worst habit was getting takeaway or buying lazy foods. I now meal prep on my day off and usually make my lunches for the work week and a couple of dinners that I can re-heat.

An example of a week's worth of prep for me is:

Breakfasts
A box of weetabix kept at work and fresh fruit taken in as toppings. Normally banana or a pack of berries

Snacks
Pre-portioned popcorn/nuts/chocolate or yoghurt covered fruit and/or a protein bar (I keep these in a basket in the cupboard so I can grab a couple first thing in the morning or add them to my bag the night before.

Lunches

• 3 portions Chicken Pasta (15 minutes to boil pasta/sweetcorn, pan fry chicken for 20 minutes)
• 2 portions of soup (make 5 portions altogether, remaining portions frozen for another week) takes around half hour to make

Dinners

• Crockpot meal that makes around 4-5 portions, I use 3 during the week, freeze the rest, can be set away and then takes around 3-5 hours to cook - things like Thai Green Curry, Strogonoff, Casserole, Slow Cooked Meat.
• or something I can prep and stick in the fridge or freezer like meatballs, fishcakes, etc that only takes about 15 minutes to cook.
• Then I usually have a couple of chicken breasts in the freezer that can be defrosted the night before needed and pan fried in 20 mins with some steamed veg (bag of frozen veg, takes 3 mins to steam in the microwave)

The fact is it only takes an hour or two to prep the majority of a week's worth of food, is your health worth that much of your free time?

quiksylver296

LEO here, too. When I was working 12s on patrol, I packed my food. Breakfast, lunch and snacks. Then I wouldn't take any money with me. I had to eat what I packed because I didn't have any other option.

nutmegoreo

quiksylver296 wrote: »

LEO here, too. When I was working 12s on patrol, I packed my food. Breakfast, lunch and snacks. Then I wouldn't take any money with me. I had to eat what I packed because I didn't have any other option.

Not law enforcement, but yes to shift work. I do this ^^^. Prep three days worth of main meals (spaghetti and sauce, rice with veggies, etc - make one big meal and split it into three or four), then keep grab and go snacks, yogurt, apples, etc. If I'm on early shift, I pack my lunch the night before. Don't ever carry cash (won't buy food with debit card), that way when drive through or vending machine looks tempting, it's not an option. Some days I feel hungry for an hour or two. It's okay.