Healthy Eating Tips For Night Shift Workers

There's no doubt about it, working night shift takes a special kind of bloke.

I've never done it so I won't even try to imagine how challenging it must be, although from the friends I have who work night shift or just crazy, variable hours, I do know healthy eating is really hard to achieve.

I'm sure many of you who work night shift will have something to say about this but from how I see it, you should try to just treat your day like any other day and get three decent healthy meals into you along with some healthy snacks to help when those hunger pangs kick in.

Calling these meals breakfast, lunch and dinner makes no sense. The hours are too variable and the unique nature of the time you are eating make these terms in-effective and confusing.

Here are just a few suggestions that I hope help you to maintain healthy eating whilst at work over night.

Before Your Shift

Treat this as your biggest meal and try to ensure you have a good source of protein such as lean chicken, fish, beef or pork. Protein will help you to feel full for longer whilst you enter into the late hours of the evening and morning. Don't forget to keep half your plate for veggies or salad to ensure a healthy balance.

Oats are also a great food for you if you want to feel full and need a slow release of energy. Oats can be soaked over a few hours and you can top them up with fruits, nuts and yogurts to add extra flavour and volume to your meal.

During Your Shift

As you progress over the night small snacks are going to be the best way to fuel your body.

Assuming this is practical and possible for you, try to incorporate healthy snack options such as fruits, nuts, seeds, crackers, cheese or even a light sand-which or some toast with avocado.

Vegetable sticks or crackers with a hommus or tzatziki dip can be a simple and healthy option too!

If the shift is a long one and you have another 4 or more hours to go, you might want to have something more substantial such as a sandwhich, salad or even making extra from your pre-shift meal and using this to ensure you eat well and don't fall to the temptation of the vending machine or take away across the street.

After Your Shift

So you're on the way home after a long night and no doubt itching to hit the hay. But before you do, having a simple light meal will do wonders to ensuring you don't wake up due to hunger. Soups or a small portion protein meal such as scrambled eggs with a side of steamed or pan fried veg can be simple, tasty and easy to prepare.

Shift Your Thinking

It is tough to change and sure as heck easier said than done. Rather than making total, wholesale changes, start out with changing just one meal. Take notes and record what worked, what didn't work, how could you do it again to make it quicker, easier, healthier. Then, once you feel confident, lock in that step and move to the next meal. As you feel more confident and in control, you will soon find making the required changes easier and certainly more liberating as you take back control of your eating habits and health.

Get back to healthy living.