any advice for ambulance shift work

I did long shifts, and it is hard to not eat candy constantly. I know that I lived out of vending machines on my surgery rotations. It is possible to do better than that that though.

You might have more success with balancing your snacks instead of just going for veggies. Adding fat and protein to each snack will make you feel fuller longer. You just have to manage portions. If you pick celery, add some peanut butter. Cottage cheese and an apple or some veggies is another good choice. Greek yogurt is a favorite of mine as is a mix of a mini box of raisins and 0.5-1 oz walnuts or almonds. You can even add a little bit of chocolate occasionally if it's not a trigger food for you. Also make sure to drink water with your snacks as that will help you feel fuller.

Keep trying new combos until you find things you enjoy. If you have to force yourself to eat it, the candy is going to be harder to resist when you're tired.

The 8 smaller meals sounds like a good plan. This way you can eat every 1-1.5hrs which should curb any hunger pains.

My suggestion would be nuts. I love chocolate dusted almonds (24ct/serving)

I've also found that cruncy things help my brain. Carrot sticks, nuts, pork rines...ymmmmm.

Perhaps you can get your co-worker to do it w/ you, this way it will be easier as you won't be tempted as much if you are both making healthier decisions. Or, at least tell them what you are doing so they are less likey to put you in the position where temptation wins.

I think the thing is to be prepared and bring whatever snacks you need with you therefore you wont be so tempted by the candy as you'll have an alternative. Dark choclate, the 70% cocco stuff is good for an energy boost and the calories are not as high as milk chocolate if you feel you need a brain boost. Best of luck!

I agree here - be prepared. I pack a lunch daily and eat two meals and two snacks away from home five days a week. Boiled eggs, sugar free instant oatmeal, thin bagel sandwiches, salad with sugar free dressing, fruit, veggie snacks with a yogurt dip, pretzels, sugar free jello cups, 100 calorie snack packs - and microwave popcorn - string cheese or wedges. The advantage of the prepackaged is that you are immediately aware of the calories consumed. I have blue ice and a thermal lunchbox and even my salads do well in the Oklahoma heat. If you have access to a microwave you can do cups of soup too - the chunky ones, not broth.

Nuts and fruit will give you the energy you need. Perhaps blend your fruit and fill some bottles to quickly chug for energy. That combined with a handful of nuts will be a good energy hit.

I agree about pre-packed healthy mini meals. You also need to get some healthy carbs into you early in the day, because these give a sustained slow release of glucose into your blood, as opposed to blood sugar spikes then troughs (which will leave you feeling tired, grumpy and hungry). Oats or weetabix would make a good breakfast. Be careful of wholegrain bread as a lot of it has high fructose corn syrup, and beware of brown bread which is not wholegrain. Also lots of protein through the day, each snack should contain protein, this also helps to slow the release of sugar from the carbs into your blood, i.e. sustained level of energy.

I do meal planning like this - I start with a protein food, then for some meals I add a healthy carb, meals later in the day are low carb. Then add some vegetables, and if necessary, some healthy fat. Some examples of mini-meals that I like:

2 boiled eggs with or without home made wholegrain bread - you can use low fat mayonnaise/salad cream to make it into an egg mayonnaise sandwich. Tuna + low fat mayo or mustard/vinegar also makes a high protein sandwich. Or you can just stick the egg mayo and/or tuna mayo in a container and eat it with a fork, so you have the protein without so much carbohydrate.

if you like to eat boiled eggs on their own, they make an ideal, easy to grab snack. You can keep them in the fridge for a few days, i.e. boil them, peel them, store in a container in the fridge, grab one or two when you want a healthy snack. they're a great source of protein and healthy fat. (eggs have been frowned upon a lot in the past because the yolk contains cholesterol - however it's the healthy kind and has been shown to lower your blood cholesterol. of course how you cook your egg is important, boiled or poached beats fried)

1 low fat yoghurt - add half a teaspoon of pesto (for healthy fat) - dip carrots and pieces of egg in it. You can make all kinds of dips with low fat yoghurt. Or you could have hummous (find a low fat recipe, tahini has lots of healthy fat in, you don't need to add olive oil you can add extra flavour with spices etc) - you can buy small round containers that fit inside sandwich size containers so you can take it to work. IMO getting the right kinds of containers so you can take stuff like this to work will help

salad - start with a protein, e.g. chicken, tuna, egg... mix up with salad veggies of your choice, then make a healthy vinegarette with cold pressed olive oil and vinegar and/or lemon jucie, drizzle on the salad. This is a good choice for a work mini meal (done that myself lots of times) - quick to prepare, eat it out of the container at work. You can boil eggs, chicken breasts etc in advance and keep them in the fridge ready to be made into salads, to greatly cut down on preparation time.

Anyway there are some ideas that have worked for me, in terms of preparing and pre-preparing mini meals. I eat 4-6 meals a day, and don't like to spend hours in the kitchen. The key is to prepare well in advance, e.g. boiling eggs, chicken breasts and keeping them in the fridge, buying the right kinds of salad veggies, you can mix up vinegarette in advance and keep it in a bottle for quick and easy drizzling (home made is better than shop bought because you can be sure the oils are the healthy kind, no added sugar etc)

If you have access to a microwave at work, cooking e.g. an evening meal with extra, then sticking a small portion of it in a container in the fridge - you can take this to work the next day and microwave it in 3-5 mins and eat it at work.

I work 12 hour shifts an RN, with the same issues. First, I NEVER spend any money at work. No vending machines, no cafeteria- I do not bring money. That saves me a ton of junk eating.

Somethings I pack for my day-
cut up oranges, bags of mini carrots, light string cheese, fruit, greek yogurt, hard boiled eggs, salads in a tupperware, leftover chicken.
I even will try to pack snacks, like nutrigrain bars or 100 calorie packs.

For me, mostly, I do better when I just stick to the natural stuff. Eating too many of the snacky stuff like bars and sweets just makes me crave them more.

also if any one has any hints or ideas for food to make quickly that will satisfy my tired, grumpy, hungry brain after shift I would really appreciate it as well.

I'd really appreciate it too!

i was a nyc paramedic for 15 years too and now I'm an er rn.. still in ny,,,,,,, always working the odd shift,, on midnights now and can't find any resemblance of normalcy..... came down with ptsd from 911.. so I'm battling that and weight loss,, not an easy combo at all...

always looking for friends to support and hint me along,,,

Good luck! I used to be an emt-i and I know how hard it is! Especially since a lot of restaurants offer discounted food to public service workers. I always tried to pack a healthy lunch and just ate it whenever I got the chance. The smaller the container, the easier it was to eat, since you never know when your next call is. I also packed healthy snacks like grapes and popcorn if I was working a shift that 'didn't include meals'. Staying away from fast food was the hardest thing for me. Pre-planning what you're going to eat would probably help some.

My husband works a lot of 16 hour shifts. I make up trail mix for him to have between meals and it helps him eat healthier food rather than vending machine garbage. He also eats caramel and chocolate crunch rice cakes and drinks a lot. Good luck!

I have never doen ambulance shift work, so I cannot speak specifically to that situation. However, when I have to be out and about for a long time, I pack the following so that I do not succumb to temptation:
- hard boiled eggs
- cheese
- peanut butter (in squeeze packs)
- almond butter (in squeeze packs)
- nuts
- granola bars
- protein bars
- jerky (beef, turkey)