[313] - Vending Machine or Victory? - 3 Simple Rules for Night Shift Nutrition and Beating Midnight Cravings

We share a simple, evidence‑based plan to beat midnight cravings by aligning food timing with your body clock. Learn how a pre‑shift dinner and a 2–4 a.m. snack swap stabilise energy, protect gut health, and end the vending‑machine spiral.

• Why circadian misalignment drives cravings and weight gain
• The case for a main pre‑shift dinner with lean protein and complex carbs
• How digestion slows overnight and what that means for food choices
• The 2–4 a.m. dip and a protein plus fibre snack strategy
• Practical non‑perishable options to replace vending‑machine sugar
• One small commitment this week to build momentum
• Workplace education options for teams needing structured support

All you've got to do is go to the link in the show notes and start a conversation
Don't forget, rate and review this podcast

Follow the link in the show notes. It'll take you straight to the seminar experience webpage. Everything's on it. You can book a call and have a chat with me about it

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released

It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review in the app you're currently using.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Mission
• 4:36 The Real Cost Of Night Eating
• 6:49 Rule One: Front Load Your Fuel
• 11:32 Rule Two: Strategic Snack Swap
• 14:15 How Circadian Timing Shapes Hunger

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:41

Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to a healthy shift. My name is Roger Sutherland, certified nutritionist, veteran law enforcement officer, and 24-7 shift worker for almost four decades. Through this podcast, I aim to educate shift workers using evidence-based methods to not only survive the rigors of shift work, but thrive. My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and well-being so they have more energy to do the things they love. Enjoy today's show. And welcome back to a Healthy Shift podcast. I am absolutely thrilled that you have chosen to listen to another episode of this show. My name is Roger Sutherland, and I bring evidence-based strategies to support you, the shift worker, to help you to thrive and not just survive in your shift working life. One of my main goals is to give all shift workers more energy to do the things that they love outside of their shift working life. You think I'm a magician, I can actually do this, and I can do this very simply with simple strategies. And one of them I'm going to talk about in today's podcast for you. One thing that I wanted to say to you was don't overcomplicate it all. One of the main reasons why we feel so awful as a shift worker is circadian misalignment. And when we get that circadian misalignment right, like I spoke about in the last episode around light, your bedroom, controlling your stress, we sleep better, we feel better, everything comes good. And then we have more energy to do the things that we want to do outside of our shift working life. Now, if you're a working mum and you've got a high schooler, a primary schooler, and you've got a substantial mortgage, hectic schedule. I know where you eat when you're tired. The vending machine. I know that the lights of the vending machine are your grab and go. You skip a meal because you're trying to rush out of the door and you hit a wall at 2 a.m. And that goddamn chocolate bar is the quickest answer to your low energy. I know you're looking around, you're wondering how I know, but I know because I've lived it. You know the caffeine and sugar high is fake, and the crash is coming. But what else are you supposed to do? Because you're just too busy trying to appease everyone else to figure out a new meal plan. You don't need a new meal plan. Let's talk about it today. I've been there. My vending machine was the go-to for decades. But once I learned about nutrition, and particularly once I learned about the chrono nutrition, which is the eating overnight and how our body interacts with food during the day and the night. And as a veteran shift worker through all of my own journey, I wanted to cut through the noise and give you three simple practical strategies that protect your health without adding hours of cooking to your already overloaded week. So let's talk about that. Because today in the episode, what I want to focus on is night shift nutrition and how to beat those relentless goddamn midnight cravings. Because they're there. We're tired. What do we do? We crave the sugar because the sugar's the glucose, which is the energy that the body craves. So let's talk, let's start and talk about why night eating matters. So before we get to the rules, let's just quickly understand what the main problem actually is. The shift worker often faces shift work weight gain and poor gut health. And why is this? And I think if you really think about it, you can work out why it is. But the the goal is why. Now it comes down to your biology. Because when you sit there and you eat chocolate, chips, carbohydrates, and everything, every meal at two o'clock in your mor in the morning, your body is actually biologically ready to rest. In fact, it is resting. It's not designed to digest at that time. Your master clock, that circadian rhythm that we've spoken about in I don't know how many episodes, is telling your digestive system it's okay now, you can rest, but you're up and about and you're on nights. That doesn't mean that your digestive tract is actually functioning. It still goes on that normal cycle. And eating against your body's clock forces it to digest food when it is at its least efficient. Now, this slow process is what leads to hello ladies, bloating, digestive issues, and crucially, it makes your body more likely to store calories as fat. You feel sluggish, you're heavy, and the energy that you want from that food never really kicks in. You get a high and then you crash. Now, the goal is not to starve yourself, it is to eat with the clock and not against it. And that brings us to rule number one. Rule number one is to front load your fuel. Your largest and most impactful meal when you're working night shift in your working cycle should happen before your night shift starts. Think of it as your most important fuel up. What we do is we call this front loading our fuel. We are fueling our body. We need to fuel it. We're working overnight, so we've got to do it. So if you start your shift at 7 p.m., your biggest meal should be around five or six. What do we focus on here? This meal needs to be rich in lean proteins, right? Fish, beef, lamb, chicken, things like that. We need to be having those sort of things: lean proteins, lean cuts of meat, and complex carbohydrates. Forget the myth that you need to avoid carbs. What you need is stable energy that actually lasts you. All right. So you can Google complex carbs. It'll give you a list of what you can actually have there. But that's what you would need: lean proteins and complex carbs, because this is what maintains and helps and supports a stable blood sugar over a period of time. Now, the goal here, the protein, chicken, eggs, or lentils, something like that. It provides satiety and also muscle fuel. We need to preserve muscle breakdown. The complex carbs, which are like oats or brown rice or sweet potatoes, release energy very, very slowly. And this prevents this major energy crash that sends you scrambling for the vending machine later on. It's a simple swap. So stop eating a quick piece of toast before work and start seeing the pre-shift meal as your main dinner. Cook enough to make it count because this one change cuts down the need for that heavy eating while you're actually on shift. Think about when you have your main meal. When you're not on night shift, you have it at night. And then you don't eat again until you have breakfast. You can do this even while you're awake. It works. Trust me. So, lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, this is what's going to help you. Rule number two, we need a strategic snack swap. We need to do this approximately 3 to 4 a.m. And I know why. And so do you. Because when it gets to five, four to five, you're ready to eat absolutely anything. And the lure of the vending machine lights are about to absolutely do your head in. Once you're on shift, the goal is maintenance here, not a heavy meal, because this is how and where you conquer those midnight cravings. Everyone's got them, but this is how you conquer them. Your body is going to hit a natural energy dip around 2 to 4 a.m. Your circadian rhythm dictates this. It's inevitable. You've been programmed to go for sugar and fat because they offer you the fastest but the most destructive energy spike. So the solution here is a strategic snack swap. What you need is a snack that is high in protein and fiber, which are the two nutrients that will keep you full and will help to stabilize that blood sugar. Here are three simple, non-perishable options that you can actually have ready to go. Nuts and seeds. Who would have thought? A small handful of walnuts, almonds, or even pumpkin seeds, because they are high in protein and also in healthy fats, which helps you to maintain satiety. Get yourself a YoPro yogurt, put a handful of berries in it. Stir that through. You've got protein, you've got fiber, you've also got antioxidants, which are going to help to eradicate those free radicals in your bloodstream as well. Make sure that you get that. It's a lovely sweet treat to have at that time of the morning when you're looking for it. It is really easy. Hard-boiled eggs. A few hard-boiled eggs prepared in advance are an absolute protein powerhouse that you can sit in your work fridge just in a little container and then you can just go and eat a hard-boiled egg, no problems. Simple. Protein, fat, healthy, really good for you. Because replacing the junk with these strategic options, you can actually manage the dip without actually triggering your gut or sabotaging those health goals. This is really important. The core of sustainable night shift nutrition is simple. All you gotta do is focus on when you eat, not just what you eat. Now you've now got three rules. Front load your fuel, either high protein, high fiber, and choose strategic snack swaps and avoid the vending machine because it's not gonna help you. You I know in your life you just don't have time for complex meal prep. So just focus on this. It's very simple. This week, commit to replacing one of those vending machine items on your shift with a ready-made and high protein alternatives. That is your one step towards victory. If you're a member of a team, a nursing unit, police station, factory crew, and you feel this stress and fatigue is impacting your workforce. Remember that I run trauma-informed day sessions, the shift work seminars that will help. And I can come into your workplace and I can help you with these sort of things, simple strategies. All you've got to do is go to the link in the show notes and start a conversation. Every single seminar that I've run in workplaces has started with a conversation with someone like you, just listening to this. If you don't do something about it, nothing's gonna happen. Even organizations that staff have thought, oh no, they're broke, they've got no money, they won't spend it. You've got to understand, particularly here in Australia, it is legislated. They have to spend money on education around work, work, health, and safety. They're gonna spend it somewhere. Let's make it productive for shift work. You are responsible for this. You can do this. All you've got to do is strike it up and put it up the line. Or steer your management in the direction of it. Get them to download my free ebook, which is there. The seminar experience. It talks about everything that I do and how I go about it. Follow the link in the show notes. It'll take you straight to the seminar experience webpage. Everything's on it. You can book a call and have a chat with me about it, and I can tell you how I can help your team. And then I will liaise with your human resources or your team leader, manager, whoever, and I will help you to get a shift work specific seminar in your workplace. Remember, I do this from a position of experience. I'm not someone who's just researched it, I'm someone who's worked it. I've sat in your shoes and I know what it feels like. All right. So try that. So, what I want you to do also, if you could do me such a favor, would be go into the show notes and follow that link. And don't forget, rate and review this podcast. No one's rated or reviewed it for so long, and it's so simple for you to do. I'd be ever so grateful. It's all shit free. I'll catch you on the next one. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released. It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on. If you want to know more about me or work with me, you can go to ahealthyshift.com. I'll catch you on the next one.