Any night shift nurses up here? Need to share my struggle!

_nice_
_nice_ Posts: 55 Member
edited November 10 in Introduce Yourself
Hey all, I am doing my best to eat right and exercise. I work 12 hour shifts, 7 pm to 7 am. It is very hard to stay on a schedule when 3 to 5 days a week I eat lunch at 3:30 am, if I get to eat at all. Then on my days off I find that after switching my sleep habits my eating habits are harder to change. It doesnt occur to me to eat lunch until 5 in the evening (when I eat breakfast before going to work), then I'm trying to also get a reasonable dinner fed to my kids. The end result is I eat from 5 pm til I go to bed, then wake up at 3:30 am starving and eat a snack (banana and peanut butter, or a sandwhich), then try to stay quiet to not disturb my family and basically lay around and read for a few hours til its time to get them up for school, when I fix them breakfast and eat again...so when I'm not at work I'm not very active, and my eating is weird. When I am at work I am very active and don't eat enough. My stomach is a creature of habit, at least for schedules. Any ideas?

Replies

  • _nice_
    _nice_ Posts: 55 Member
    And exercise doesn't seem to affect my eating patterns, after a 50 minute work out yesterday at 11 am I still forgot to eat lunch.
  • rpnlw
    rpnlw Posts: 1 Member
    I hear your pain! Lol. I also am a nurse doing 2 wk rotations. Very hard to track meals. If you hear of a good way to enter meals, I'm all ears! :0). Good luck. Lori
  • jharper85
    jharper85 Posts: 1 Member
    I am a night shift nurse too, working 7p-7a.
    I track my calories and exercise from midnight to midnight, regardless if I'm working or not. A typical midnight to midnight for me consists of eating my "dinner" around 0200, have a snack around 0500 (so I'm not tempted to eat when I get home), go to the gym after work, and then (try) to go to bed without eating. If I'm starving, I'll have a small, light snack before bed. Wake up around 1600, eat with my family before work, and then have another small snack around 2300. Then start my calorie count over at midnight. This keeps me on a schedule regardless if I'm working or if I'm off and flip my schedule. I hope this helps! It's definitely a challenge trying to lose weight when working nights! Good luck!
  • _nice_
    _nice_ Posts: 55 Member
    So on your nights off when do you eat?
  • lizzyparr
    lizzyparr Posts: 5 Member
    I'm also a nurse, but I work both nights and days varying week to week.

    I find when I'm working it's easy to stick to my calories, I also have fitbit so it allows me to eat a little more when I'm working, as I walk about 5 miles a shift.

    So far I've lost 12lbs, and I have 29 to go. I've found my days off the hardest, as that's when I want to sit around and binge because I'm so exhausted. I've had to be really strict with myself on those days, and try and get back to a 'normal' eating habit when I come off nights etc as quick as possible.

    It's hard, and that's why so many nurses and shift workers are overweight I think. I make sure I drink at least 2 litres of water during a shift, and I try my hardest to actually take my breaks and bring healthy food with me.

    Feel free to friend me or take a look at my diary, I'm not perfect, but I am trying :)
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