Any night shift workers?

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

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

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.

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.

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.

This content has been removed.

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"?

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.