breakfast, lunch, dinner confusion
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Night shift meals are tough and so is exercise. I work 7pm-7am at two jobs with different situations in having meals. At one I'm always on the go, which usually means convenience store food. At the other I have to stay in one place with access to a kitchen. I try to work the timing about the same.
I get home around 8am and have a cup of joe, a light breakfast and do chores 'til around 1030.
I sleep from about 1030am til 3pm - give or take, depending on the day's workout.
I"m a runner, so I usually workout for 60-90 minutes after I get up. Water and at most a banana or granola bar before working out.
Back to work at 7pm. I usually try to eat dinner just before, but usually after I get in to work. Ideally I pack my food for work, but that's 50/50 at best. Dinner at this time also keeps me in line with my day shift family dinner when I'm off.
Snack and coffe around 10pm.
Night lunch at around 1am.
Sweet tooth around 3am. I'm a baked goods addict. This is a tough one. Pack fruit.
Packing food for work is the best plan. Buying food on nights usually results in significantly higher calories. I'm on the East coast and our convenience store chain is called WAWA. They have really recognized that folks want to eat healthy and have by far the most healthy options.
The toughest days are my days off when I get home from work at 8am and my dayshift family is home. I usually stay awake for the day, which means I eat almost 2 days of meals in one day. Two steps forward, one step back.
10:30 - 3 ???? :noway: poor thing....that is not much sleep :yawn:0 -
just joined mfp i work mostly 12-13 hours over night shift 8p-8a my schedule rotates every 4 weeks and also includes 4 weeks of 8a-8p and 4 weeks of 2p-2a and have for 9 years i work ER/Critical care vet nurseing very stressfull.
i changed my dairy to have 4 meals at 6hour incruments. with my job and sleep patterns i will not have to consider my dinner at 9am my breakfast.
i have watched my weight increase thru the years, also have have 2 lumbar back surgries so my excercise is limited i need a diet to control the cortisol levels0 -
I too work in the ER night shift. Thanks for your post. This helps me.0
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I changed my food diary to say "meals, snacks, and drinks" instead of breakfast lunch and dinner since I don't do my days that way on night shift... I have found it works a LOT better for me then trying to figure out what goes in the breakfast slot etc...0
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I work 7p-7a. I take my first meal to work and eat at about 645 or so....then 'lunch' is at around midnight....and dinner is anywhere from 4am-8am...depending on my time. I do 'snacky' type meals except for my first one, when I work. I consider 'wake to wake' as my 'day.' My logging day starts when I wake up at 3pm-5pm...and ends when I go to bed after leaving work in the morning. So I'm generally logging my dinner for tuesday...on wednesday morning. Exercize....sigh...that's hard to fit in, and it varies wildly. I used to swim after work in the mornings, but I've convinced myself I dont have any energy left.....however, I'm done with the excuses and am gonna do it anyway.0
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I work from 11:30pm to 7:30am. I eat breakfast when I wake up in afternoon, usually around 4pm. I then eat a lunch around 9:30, or so. Finally, I eat dinner at work on my break. So far it's working well for me.0
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This is the whole reason i don't have my food log viewable to others. Seeing whole wheat spaghetti or vegetable stir fry listed under my breakfast can make me look a little weird to them day shift folks. : )0
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That's a good idea, having one of the meals called 'OVERNIGHT'. I have mine split into time slots as I don't like to call it a new day until I've had a sleep, so my later time slot is 1900-0300 hrs but I think the idea of having one called OVERNIGHT that I use oon night shifts would be better. Also helps remind myself and anyone else viewing the log, why there's lots of strange foods in there!!0
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Love your screen picture with all the fruit !0
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I break it up into 4 hour blocks, it has helped a lot because sometimes I am up earlier than I am other days.0
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I typically work 1900-700... My normal day is waking up for class at 1500 and eating some sort of fruit first, come home make foood for work and have cereal or oatmeal at 1730, then a quick snack yogurt or cottage cheese at 2000 then a sandwich at 2200, then dinner at 100 and some sort of fruit or veggie at 400 or 500. I am always under my daily goals with that schedule. As for working out your schedule sounds harder than mine. You just have to make time for yourself. If your goal is to work out or do some sort of cardio for 30-60 min a day than break it up into small amounts. If you have ten min to go for a walk around the block go for it, if you have time to do some push ups rock them out in the office. Don't get down on yourself its a marathon not a sprint. Just try do do something a little bit better than the day before and you will get there. Best of luck to you I wish you the best.0
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I work 12 hr. shifts 7p-7a (4 on, 10 off), and this is how I do it:
Breakfast: main meal at work (0300) (frozen dinner, salad, etc)
Lunch: light meal I eat when I get home from work (0800) (bowl of cereal, or toast & fruit)
Sleep: 0900-1600
Dinner: dinner with my family (1745)
Snacks: I'll have a snack around 2300 (banana and yogurt)
That way, it's easier to transition back to normal meal hours. After my last night shift, I
sleep 0900-1400, eat a light snack (instead of my 2300 snack) and then I'm back on track.
Even though it can be hard to drink lots of water (I can't really go to the bathroom three times during a delivery or C-Section), I find I have more self-control around the candy drawer if I have plenty of fluids.0
