Any 12-hour night shift workers?

[PsychGirlie]

Hello everyone!!

I'm very new here so I'll give a quick introduction to what what I'm doing and what I need help with from all you weight loss champions !

I'm within a healthy BMI category. I was a vegan for two years and had a body that I loved... and a few months ago I started incorporating dairy into my diet and my weight went shooting up. The weight on my body is distributed very unevenly meaning I have a large belly and teeny boney arms :sigh: ... I look pregnant! Even worse I'm going on holiday in 10 weeks :O Will die if someone asks me when I'm due (again) when I'm on the beach... I have no intention of going back to my vegan diet as I'm a student and veg is so expensive!
Therefore, I've now started a calorie-controlled diet I aim for 1,000-1,200 calories per day (I'm a teeny 5'1), and right now I'm finding it breeze.

Although I have a major, problem... NIGHTSHIFT!!

I do 12 hour night shifts over the weekend. This is a huge problem because I'm left thinking.. what do I take with me as my food for 12 hours? and how do I change my eating pattern to suit that? Usually I would take with me pasta, or crisps, or sandwiches... but now these are all scored out as they're too fatty, too many carbs, etc, etc. It's not like I can make my vegetable bake, or egg white omelette in the middle of work, salad won't fill me up whatsoever ... even then in the morning I'm so tired and lazy to make something healthy to eat, I grab a pastry from the bakery or something...

So here's my major plea... for those in my shoes, (preferably those who also have little money too)... what meat-free food can I eat on night shift :cry:?

Thankyou!!!!

 

[Clareel]

Hi there, I also work night shifts and am a student so I feel your pain! I don't like to eat a big meal on my shift so I take snacks and things to nibble on like reduced fat houmous and veg like carrots, cucumber, pepper sticks. Pickled gherkins & beetroot are low cal and great for snacking, cup soups, boiled eggs, cracker bread with low fat cream cheese to spread, lots of fruit, peanut butter and apple and lots of coffee!

It can be done! Do you have any cooking/heating facilities like a microwave or kettle? I sometimes take a homemade chilli or soup (can be veggie) and heat that up. If not get an insulated flask and you can bring stuff like that.

Working nights can suck and sometimes there's nothing I want more at 3am than a big slab of chocolate and a bottle of lucozade but if you go to your shift prepared then you should be okay.

Good luck!

 

[*rach**]

i work 12.5 hour night shifts and this can be a problrm but may key is to plan. I have my dinner before leaving for work at about 6pm. I count my calories from midnight to midnight so then have something about 1-2 am normally soup or something warm to keep me full up and going. I then have a small snack at about 4-5 am with a bit of sugar in it as i am prone to having the shakes about this time. something like a rice krispy square or fruit. i get home about 8am and have something small to tide me over like toast. I then get up and repeat again! xx

 

[miss14]

I am in the same situation.. student and work 12.5 hour shifts at the weekend! I find that my first and last night I eat more, because I don't sleep so much in the day. I prefer to eat a large meal before I leave for work (6.30pm ish) which is full of protein - an omelette, tuna salad etc. Then I take snacky food in e.g. MUG SHOTS are my favourite and you only need a kettle and a mug, fruit, carrot/celery sticks, low calorie cereal bars, dried cereal. I follow slimming world so I can ate however much I want if I get hungry during the night, which is great for me! One night I was soooo hungry and ended up eating.. a banana, an apple, a mug shot, packet of quavers and two cereal bars.. and it was all within my diet plan! I'm also on a tight budget but find that fruit and veg is really cheap in aldi, I do my fresh food shopping from there every week for about £10, then my frozen foods come to about £10 but last 2 weeks!