Any night shift workers?

ambermnr

Hey everyone ☺️ I’m a nurse who works 12 hour night shifts and I’ve been struggling to find what clean foods are best to pack for lunch. Anyone else having this problem or has any advice? I’ve tried rice,chicken, and veggies but I’m usually starving by the end of my shift. Any tips would be welcomed!

santona

Hi! I work in TV so I work 10 hour overnight shifts and I feel your pain!! I love hardboiled eggs because I feel like the protein fills me up, and the best advice I´ve gotten is crunchy snacks for my ride home to stay alert! So I usually do baby carrots or pretzels.

Interested to hear everyone else´s advice though because I feel like I´m just always hungry during the night!

ambermnr

I’m glad I’m not the only one! I’ll have to try the crunchy snack method. I’m thinking carrots and celery might be my go to. Thanks for the reply ☺️

Keto_Vampire

Night shift 4 life...I've just been in the habit of subsisting off of caffeine & fluids during night shifts & just enjoy eating a larger meal after work; others in the same line of work will go with simple stuff like protein shakes, yogurt, various bars, etc. (easy to digest, liquid, convenient foods with some degree of portability).

JBanx256

Police officer - 12+ hour rotating shifts (currently on nights). I pack a meal prep cooler that holds 3x containers, cold pack, snacks, etc and carry that in the passenger seat of my patrol car. Unless I'm in a bind or absolutely starving and need a snack, all of it is "real" food - meals I've prepped etc.

23rochelle23

Paramedic - 12+ hr rotating shifts like the rest of the emergency service family

I tend to take one heat up meal for my meal break
(This week has been cauliflower rice packet and chicken and peppers, other meals would be zero noodle pasta meals, meat and veg etc). I pack it with an ice pack as we often end up all over the place for meals.

I love graze boxes for crunchy snacks, sometimes some fruit, or vege sticks and hummus, cheese and crackers etc. And sometimes chocolate or similar

I have a decent meal when I wake up, gym, snack as I start work, one meal during work and maybe a couple of snacks. I don’t eat when I get home - just go straight to bed.

Alternatively some of my colleagues maintain normal meal times. Eat breakfast after shift, lunch during the day (either when they wake up or they get up for lunch and sleep more) and dinner before work then don’t eat all night which wouldn’t work for me but works for them!

EricL1144

Switching to night shift pretty soon. I’m anticipating a difficult transition as far as a healthy eating routine.

nikkibrianne64

I work night shift in a nursing home. Get a break in general is extremely difficult! Greek yogurt, eggs, cheese sticks, nuts, overnight oats recipes are pretty much my go to's and still are since I now work day shifts.

BonnieDLG

My coworkers and I were just talking about how hungry we are by the end of our 12hr night shift-nurses here

Safari_Gal

Hi Fellow night shift workers! Theatre/TV schedule here. I typically get out of work around 11p. I’ve been packing my food for a while - though I do eat out a lot pre work and post- I try to pack my “lunch” as often as possible.

I pack a lil bento box to go with a mix of vegetables and proteins.
Smoked salmon and avocado and greens
Chicken thighs with Brussels sprouts

The crock pot has been my friend- I take some stew here and there.

Sometimes I pack a kale shake to drink throughout the night. I find a few hard boiled eggs for snacks tide me over awhile.

Always looking for great ideas 💡

Nice to know so many other people have non traditional schedules! TGIM!

nooshi713

I sometimes work night shift in the ER. I bring one real meal or eat before I go on shift and then several snacks. I am not as hungry at night as I am in the morning when I get off. Then, I have to have a real meal too.

kshama2001

ambermnr wrote: »

Hey everyone ☺️ I’m a nurse who works 12 hour night shifts and I’ve been struggling to find what clean foods are best to pack for lunch. Anyone else having this problem or has any advice? I’ve tried rice,chicken, and veggies but I’m usually starving by the end of my shift. Any tips would be welcomed!

How many calories are you eating during this time? Sounds like not enough. Nuts are a convenient, portable, calorie dense snack.

sarasmiles124

I normally try and pack something light...salads with a protein, or yoghurt, berries and nuts. I try and avoid heavy foods like pasta or anything with rice.

myzzfit

I'm a nightshift nurse as well. I like to make a pot of soup that I can spread out over the week, and take 1 cup servings in my lunchbox. My favorites are potato, brocolli, taco, and chicken noodle, but there are so many soup ideas on pinterest. I like to use recipes that are 200-300 calories per serving. I also pack blackberries, celery with almond butter, a hardboiled egg, Lara bar, pretzel thins with a laughing cow cheese. I have the soup as my main meal, and then snack on the other stuff throughout the night.

nicsflyingcircus

I used to work night shift, but I still work 12.5hr shifts as an RN. Working 0900-2130, all my food for the day is consumed at work. I do have to meal prep, usually making a large pot of something (buffalo chicken dip, white chicken chili, beef stew, whatever you like) or grilling a bunch of meat or something for big salads (taco seasoned chicken thighs are my favorite) to comprise my main meal, which for me is somewhere between 500-600 calories. Then I also make in advance and pack 3 hard boiled eggs for the late am, and something for the evening. Often this is full fat greek yogurt mixed with protein powder and berries, but can also be deli meat rollups, pickles, string cheese, cottage cheese, etc. I also "spend" about 150-200 calories on coffee and half and half.

So basically I eat about 220 cals in a late morning snack, 500-600 for my official lunch (taken between 1 and 3 usually, and sometimes eaten standing up in the little nutrition room behind the desk) about 300-350 in the evening (between 5 and 7), with coffee and cream making up the balance. I pack and bring all that with me, including a 40oz thermos of coffee with measured out cream already in it.

I spend about 1-2 hrs all told meal prepping each week to cover my 3 shifts.

NSthingoldline

My shifts were 2 x 07:00-19:00 and 2 x 19:00-07:00 then off for 4 days. I typically reversed my meal schedule on nights, starting with dinner, lunch then breakfast. No way I could have a dinner meal 2-3 hrs before heading home to bed. I always snack on fruit/veg or nuts if I need a little something in between. I spend my last day off meal prepping for the upcoming block.
As a First Responder, it's difficult to make yourself drink enough water but it's necessary.

eddie7388

I've worked 12hr rotating shifts most of my life. I found that coming home in the morning I'd be starving then eat prior to going to sleep. Having cut back on carbs at night now seems to curb that feeling . I'll have a normal dinner around 9pm then its light snacking on nuts, veggies but low carbs for the rest of the night. Sometimes a shake before bed.

jacknikon

I also work 12-hour overnight shifts as an RN and I struggled with eating as well, both eating healthy and just figuring out when to eat overnight. I have been leaning heavily towards filling, protein-rich foods, like grilled chicken with some veggies and a bag of almonds or cashews for a snack (as well as some fruit, cuz my blood sugar feels low around 3am but I can't tolerate anything heavy at that point of the night). Then I have a light yogurt around 5am so I'm not driving home hangry or waking up too early needing to eat. I've found by talking to my coworkers that everyone handles eating overnight differently: some of them aren't hungry at all and some of us are starving at really inconvenient times. So...there might not be a "one size fits all"?

ambermnr

I’ve been tracking my calories for a few weeks now and I think I’m just not eating enough. Thanks for all the wonderful tips on healthy snacks. My plan is to eat a normal meal prior to my shift, take a “lunch” around 1am, and snack in between and after as needed. Hopefully that’ll help me maintain weight as well as not feeling starving all the time.

coulson73

Hi,

I work a 3 shift pattern, so not permanent nights. However 1 week in 4 is a week of nights (5 or 7 nights).

I normally prep my meals in advance so have a choice and then can just pick and choose what I fancy but most are normally high protein (most meals are from in myfitnesspal blog )

Anyway the issue I have is when to log the calories.
On my first day of night shifts, I am normally up around 10 in the morning and try to chill most of the day prior to work.
I start around 10 at night until 6 in the morning (weekends are 12 hours though starting at 8).

As I am up most of the day on 1st day, this week I have started tracking my calories per a normal day e.g
Mondays food is recording normally. When I get to Tuesday, I record the calories again as a normal day. So when working over night I record what I eat on the day I eat them even if it is Wednesday at 1am I will record them as Wednesday break fast and lunch, then when I wake up Wednesday afternoon I record it as wednesday dinner etc.

Just wondering if other people do the same or Monday night to Tuesday Morning is Mondays food and and Tuesday night to Wednesday morning is Tuesdays food etc.

Confused best way to record it.