3rd-Shifters - Diary Settings!

krissypea79
krissypea79 Posts: 362 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey guys - I just started working 3rd shift (11pm-7am) a few weeks ago at the hospital, and I was wondering how all of you 3rd shifters log your food. I currently have it set up to log starting with my midnight snack when I am at work, and go through to the following nights dinner around 7pm. I was thinking I should still log a normal day (morning to night), or maybe I should do when I wake up (between 2pm-4pm) until when I go to bed the next morning. I am just curious as to how some of you log your days! It feels weird to be logging food I ate in the middle of the night along with the food I ate for lunch and dinner the previous day!

Replies

  • jdad1
    jdad1 Posts: 1,899 Member
    i work 11-7 as well. I find it to be best to log midnight to midnight. Gets confusing to me otherwise.
  • krissypea79
    krissypea79 Posts: 362 Member
    i work 11-7 as well. I find it to be best to log midnight to midnight. Gets confusing to me otherwise.

    I have been confusing myself as well, lol. I have tried doing it a few different ways, but I guess midnight-midnight is the best idea. I will keep it the way it is, then - thank you!
  • jdad1
    jdad1 Posts: 1,899 Member
    i am really strict about it. I don't play the "what day should i put it on to make it look better" game. I will be very exact about it. If i eat half a cookie at 11:59 and the other half at 12:00 you will see it on both days of my food log.

    I also put a section on my food profile titled "at work/ nights" and what i eat at work i put here. I find this little tid bit helpful when othere look at my food log so they can be reminded i am graveyard.
  • viajera99
    viajera99 Posts: 252 Member
    I log midnight to midnight, but I don't have Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner for my meals, I have 12p-7a, 7a-4p, and 4p-12a, because I'm not really eating set meals, I eat when I eat.
  • VanessaHeartsMasr
    VanessaHeartsMasr Posts: 727
    i work 11-7 as well. I find it to be best to log midnight to midnight. Gets confusing to me otherwise.

    This. Totally. I work nights. I'd go insane if I tried to log it any other way. I have a "snacks at work" section in my diary. I also am not really strict about what food goes with what meal. If one day I eat breakfast at 1 a.m., I log it as breakfast, or snacks at work if I feel like it. Lol. As long as I have my calories in there from 12 to 12, it doesn't really matter to me where I put them on my diary. Don't stress out over it.
  • VanessaHeartsMasr
    VanessaHeartsMasr Posts: 727
    I log midnight to midnight, but I don't have Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner for my meals, I have 12p-7a, 7a-4p, and 4p-12a, because I'm not really eating set meals, I eat when I eat.

    I should totally do this. Makes more sense.
  • hhayes06
    hhayes06 Posts: 189 Member
    Right now I work midnight to 10 am, I wake up at 930pm and go to bed around 130pm the next day. I log from the time I wake up til the time I go to bed. I work out before work so exercise is logged on the same day as the food. For instance, I woke up at 930pm on the 26th but all my food and exercise will be logged on the 27th since the majority of my day is on the 27th. On my "Friday" (I work 4 shifts of 10 hours each) I flip my sleep around so I might have more logged on that day than normal but on my "Sunday" I will have less due to flipping my sleep back to being up all night. For example, right now I work Monday through Thursday so on Sunday I may only eat breakfast and lunch because at dinner time I am napping so I can go into work that night. On Thursday I will eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner twice. It all evens out at the end of the week. I could log midnight to midnight but it's easier for me to keep it all on one day. Besides, my body has no idea what the time on the clock says, for all my body knows it's 1030am right now because I have been at work for 2 hours (it's really 238am). Try logging different ways and figure out what works for you.
  • minaslefevre
    minaslefevre Posts: 19 Member
    Work as an RN 7p-7a. Gets too confusing so I log from midnight to midnight. Every midnight starts a new day. I log food eaten @ work under snack category so I know that it is associated w food eaten during work. So far so good. Started getting serious using mfp around feb 1 and have lost 9.5 lbs so far.
  • jdad1
    jdad1 Posts: 1,899 Member
    Right now I work midnight to 10 am, I wake up at 930pm and go to bed around 130pm the next day. I log from the time I wake up til the time I go to bed. I work out before work so exercise is logged on the same day as the food. For instance, I woke up at 930pm on the 26th but all my food and exercise will be logged on the 27th since the majority of my day is on the 27th. On my "Friday" (I work 4 shifts of 10 hours each) I flip my sleep around so I might have more logged on that day than normal but on my "Sunday" I will have less due to flipping my sleep back to being up all night. For example, right now I work Monday through Thursday so on Sunday I may only eat breakfast and lunch because at dinner time I am napping so I can go into work that night. On Thursday I will eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner twice. It all evens out at the end of the week. I could log midnight to midnight but it's easier for me to keep it all on one day. Besides, my body has no idea what the time on the clock says, for all my body knows it's 1030am right now because I have been at work for 2 hours (it's really 238am). Try logging different ways and figure out what works for you.


    see..............totaly confusing
  • VanessaHeartsMasr
    VanessaHeartsMasr Posts: 727
    Right now I work midnight to 10 am, I wake up at 930pm and go to bed around 130pm the next day. I log from the time I wake up til the time I go to bed. I work out before work so exercise is logged on the same day as the food. For instance, I woke up at 930pm on the 26th but all my food and exercise will be logged on the 27th since the majority of my day is on the 27th. On my "Friday" (I work 4 shifts of 10 hours each) I flip my sleep around so I might have more logged on that day than normal but on my "Sunday" I will have less due to flipping my sleep back to being up all night. For example, right now I work Monday through Thursday so on Sunday I may only eat breakfast and lunch because at dinner time I am napping so I can go into work that night. On Thursday I will eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner twice. It all evens out at the end of the week. I could log midnight to midnight but it's easier for me to keep it all on one day. Besides, my body has no idea what the time on the clock says, for all my body knows it's 1030am right now because I have been at work for 2 hours (it's really 238am). Try logging different ways and figure out what works for you.

    :indifferent: My brain just exploded
  • dan323
    dan323 Posts: 271 Member
    I work 12:00 to 0800 a.m. I just log mine as meal 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5. Then I add whatever I eat into the next available meal. Working midnights has me on a different eating schedule then my family. I go to be at around 3 o'clock in the afternoon and get up around 9 or 10 at night. so my dinner is around noon or 1 p.m. It works for me. This is the VAMPIRE shift.
  • hhayes06
    hhayes06 Posts: 189 Member
    Right now I work midnight to 10 am, I wake up at 930pm and go to bed around 130pm the next day. I log from the time I wake up til the time I go to bed. I work out before work so exercise is logged on the same day as the food. For instance, I woke up at 930pm on the 26th but all my food and exercise will be logged on the 27th since the majority of my day is on the 27th. On my "Friday" (I work 4 shifts of 10 hours each) I flip my sleep around so I might have more logged on that day than normal but on my "Sunday" I will have less due to flipping my sleep back to being up all night. For example, right now I work Monday through Thursday so on Sunday I may only eat breakfast and lunch because at dinner time I am napping so I can go into work that night. On Thursday I will eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner twice. It all evens out at the end of the week. I could log midnight to midnight but it's easier for me to keep it all on one day. Besides, my body has no idea what the time on the clock says, for all my body knows it's 1030am right now because I have been at work for 2 hours (it's really 238am). Try logging different ways and figure out what works for you.


    see..............totaly confusing

    Right, but for me it makes total sense. I also don't eat until I start my shift so technically all my food is eaten from midnight to midnight. Different things work for different people and logging this way works for me. It also helps because my schedule changes every two months. My next deployment I work the same hours but have different days off and then the one after that I could be working from 10am to 8pm. Logging from the time I wake up til the time I go to sleep helps me stay consistent just like logging midnight to midnight stays consistent for you. :smile:
  • ethibodaux
    ethibodaux Posts: 29
    I'm a med aide and work 10p-6a two days a week. the other 3 days i work 2p-10p so i had a really hard time trying to figure out how to track my calories! What i finely settled on was midnight to midnight. it is the only consistent way i can do it. I still have "breakfast" Lunch" "Dinner" and "Snack" as my meals. When i'm 10p-6a i eat my "work meal" at about 1:30a and log it under snack. Then when i get home i have my "breakfast", sleep though "lunch" and log "dinner". Odd way of doing it, but its the way i can flip back and forth without getting everything all messed up.
  • ethibodaux
    ethibodaux Posts: 29
    Am i the only person that has to admit huge amounts of self control on 3rd shift to just say NO to the snack machine? When i work second shift, i don't even think about it!
  • Cait_Sidhe
    Cait_Sidhe Posts: 3,150 Member
    I work 8:30pm-8:30am. 24 hours is 24 hours no matter how you look at it. I have my food diary split up into time segments and Iog my food into the time slot that I ate it, being sure to not go over my goal for the 24 hour time period.

    8am-12pm
    12pm-4pm
    4pm-8pm
    8pm-12am
    12am-4am
    4am-8am

    Or whatever works for you. No need to complicate it. My diary is always open but I currently have the flu so don't judge.

    I also work part time during the day, so I just log my food in whatever time slot it fits in.
  • hhayes06
    hhayes06 Posts: 189 Member
    Am i the only person that has to admit huge amounts of self control on 3rd shift to just say NO to the snack machine? When i work second shift, i don't even think about it!

    That might have to do with the fact that there is not much else available to go get during 3rd shift. I know my options are limited to Mcdonalds, QuikTrip, Burger King or Hyvee (grocery store). The snack machine is just so readily accessible, I don't have to get in my car, drive somewhere, get out, go in the store, get back in the car and drive back to work. I make sure that I have snacks at work, I keep a box of Nature Valley granola thins in my cubby and grab one of those if I need a little snack.
  • mkeller234
    mkeller234 Posts: 121 Member
    I log midnight to midnight, but I don't have Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner for my meals, I have 12p-7a, 7a-4p, and 4p-12a, because I'm not really eating set meals, I eat when I eat.

    That is exactly what I do. I just split up my day into 4 chunks, that way I always have a spot that makes sense. It works great.

    My diary is open, feel free to look.
  • Bigplay691
    Bigplay691 Posts: 34 Member
    bump
  • krissypea79
    krissypea79 Posts: 362 Member
    Am i the only person that has to admit huge amounts of self control on 3rd shift to just say NO to the snack machine? When i work second shift, i don't even think about it!

    That might have to do with the fact that there is not much else available to go get during 3rd shift. I know my options are limited to Mcdonalds, QuikTrip, Burger King or Hyvee (grocery store). The snack machine is just so readily accessible, I don't have to get in my car, drive somewhere, get out, go in the store, get back in the car and drive back to work. I make sure that I have snacks at work, I keep a box of Nature Valley granola thins in my cubby and grab one of those if I need a little snack.

    I haven't touched the vending machine or the coffee stand downstairs since I started here three weeks ago - I always pack my own food and the rest of my floor seems to run across the street to Dunkin' or have food delivered to the hospital. I bring a snack like almonds or a yogurt to eat around midnight, my 50 minute break around 3am I normally eat a salad with some protein or maybe leftovers from dinner the night before, which fills me up until I get home in the morning. I can see it being tough if you don't come prepared with filling foods, but I'm somehow managed to make it work so far! And LOTS of water! Probably 90 ounces just during my shift.
  • tryclyn
    tryclyn Posts: 2,414 Member
    I log midnight to midnight, but I don't have Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner for my meals, I have 12p-7a, 7a-4p, and 4p-12a, because I'm not really eating set meals, I eat when I eat.

    That is exactly what I do. I just split up my day into 4 chunks, that way I always have a spot that makes sense. It works great.

    My diary is open, feel free to look.

    Works well for me, too. Diary is open.
  • krissypea79
    krissypea79 Posts: 362 Member
    Thank you for all the feedback, everyone! I definitely agree that midnight to midnight is what will work best for me, too!
  • RaineyLaney
    RaineyLaney Posts: 605 Member
    I too work 11pm to 7am. I log my food for the day starting with my breakfast (I usually eat it when I get home from work around 7:30am. I eat 6 times a day due to being diabetic (I eat 3 main meals, and 3 snacks). I have an open diary too and in my notes I put if I ate at home or work. I had problems doing the midnight to midnight. Being I eat till 5:45am while working. So it worked out better to do it the way I did. (this may not work for you though) Do what works for you. Where you feel one day ends and one day starts. The main thing is to be able to log your food without having high calories one day and 300 calories the next day etc. Keep it uniformed.

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