Work 12 hour night shift-how do I plan meals?

stargazer_1118 · Post by **stargazer_1118** » Sun Apr 06, 2008 2:46 pm

I work from 4 in the afternoon until 4 in the morning 3 days a week. I am up in the morning to get kids off to school and then might take an hour nap before work. This means I'm up for about 20 hours. How do I plan only 3 meals? I would be starving if I could only eat 3 times..............HELP please!

Thanks !

silver · Post by **silver** » Sun Apr 06, 2008 4:14 pm

plan 4 meals. that's what i do. my working day starts at 5.30 and i go to bed before midnight. well, i try to...

anyway, i have a proper breakfast (after experimenting in order to modify i found out i just have to) i have some fruit and yogurt and maybe nuts at about 11.30. that's because i have lunch really late, about 3.pm. by then i'm really hungry, so that's my main meal of the day. my dinner time is between 8-9 p.m. my dinner and that meal i have before noon make a full meal. i just divided one into two and it suits me perfectly. i'm not saying it would work for you, but you might try. or you might try something else. no-s rules are not so strict. good luck

stargazer_1118 · Post by **stargazer_1118** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:11 am

Thanks for the tip!

Post by **reinhard** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:57 pm

Silver gives good advice.

3 meals is probably better than 4 if you can swing it, just because it makes it harder for excess to creep in, but 4 meals is much better than chaos. With a little bit of extra attention, 4 meals can work just fine.

Reinhard

roseha · Post by **roseha** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:38 am

I sympathize stargazer, it is very hard to work at night and lose sleep and not have normal eating patterns either.

Are you able to eat a good meal at home? And devote a little more time to it?

I am trying to sort this out too because I work 2 pm to 10 pm which isn't that bad but is still not the normal routine. I do miss eating dinner at home but right now I just try to have a dinner I like that is not too fattening. Often I get vegetarian Indian food (no bread or samosa now).

But I am trying to rededicate myself to N days yet again, and one thing I am doing is eating lunch at home if at all possible and eating it *slowly*. I hate rushing my meals but that's what I was doing twice a day - and eating fast food a lot - and it just makes it worse.

I don't know if this applies to you but I do think it's helping me to eat at home when I can.