Flip flopping between nights and days

dfranks43

Hi all! My work schedule really has me screwed up. I work both nights and days and sometimes both during the same week. Anyone have any suggestions as to how to plan meals. If I work all night I need something in the middle of the night and then I'll sleep half the day away to wake up and only eat 1 meal which I know isn't healthy. If I know I am working nights I will try to eat breakfast and a real late lunch and take dinner with me. I also try to take a breakfast with me so I eat before going to bed.
Somedays I don't know whether I am coming or going. Working days I take some thing with me and get a salad from the cafeteria. I work 12 hours at a time so I get home and have to cook dinner for my family which usually ends up being after 8pm when we eat which I know isn't good either.
Anyone have any ideas let me know. Thanks.
Denise

Lleldiranne

My husband just went to night shift, and we're kind of wondering the same thing.

So far, he eats dinner with us when he gets up (his "breakfast"), then takes a meal for at work, and eats a breakfast-ish food (cereal or eggs) before going to bed. But don't know if it's working yet. And his schedule is more stable than yours sounds to be.

I'm interested in other comments, too!

Xaspar

I did that for a while too. I found that having easy to grab ready portions of around 200 calories made things a little easier. I could eat 200 calories of grilled chicken, and a ziploc of fresh veggies cut up any time I wanted. And had almonds, or other quick snacks, like pretzels pre-portioned into serving sizes. I also realized how much a good protein shake with frozen fruit could be a pick-me-up. Especially the chocolate EAS soy protein shake with cinnamon and coffee mixed in.

Xaspar

For the family meals, consider putting something together in the crock pot so they can have dinner ready and don't have to wait on you to get home. Or a veggie lasagna waiting in the fridge that they can pop in the oven for you and have it ready by the time you get home?

samntim

I used to work 12 hour shifts the same as you, fortunately now the latest I finish is 3:30am.

When I worked all night I would make my night schedule as though it was day time. Have breakfast when I woke up in the afternoon about 4-5pm, snack around 9pm and 3am and 'lunch', which would be my main bigger meal of the day at midnight.

When I finished work in the morning I would go for a walk, gym, clean the house. Everything I would've done if I got home at 5pm. Then I would have a light 'dinner' before bed around 9-10am.

On my last night shift, I generally don't go to bed, although granted it would be a pretty lazy day. But I would eat normally during the day and go to bed early that night to get back into the right time zone.

I worked those shifts for a lot of years and it worked ok for me.

Good luck!!