Food Ideas for Shift Workers

It is true that shift workers have a higher risk of heart disease, stroke, hypertension and diabetes. It is vital that, as a shift worker, you nourish your body with really good food. However, this often seems impossible when working shifts and often having to do double shifts. I share with you some tips on how to make nutritious eating easier when working shifts.

In the podcast, I cover 

Ideas for night shift 

Ideas for having to work an extra shift or if called out 

Prioritising your meal breaks

and a protein packed bliss ball recipe

For information on the VIP program mentioned in the show go to

https://www.veets.com.au/vip-program

For full show notes go to www.veets.com.au/35

Hope you enjoy this podcast 

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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Hope you have a delicious week

With gratitude Veet

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Transcript

Introduction

Are you a nurse, care worker , doctor 

police office, 

firefighter or other first responder 

or someone who works night shift in another profession

like a service station or a cleaner or hotel receptionist

or someone who often gets asked to do an extra shift, or super long hours?

Or someone like I have often been, where I raced from one job to the next and not getting home until after 10 pm., when I had started the day at 8 am?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this podcast is for you, as I am sharing with you ways to still nourish your body with good food, despite being called out, on call, or having to do a double shift.

And if you answered no, still listen up as you still may get some tips that you can take into your every day life.

It’s ironic that the people that are there taking care of us, like nurses, care workers, doctors, paramedics, firefighters etc. are often compromising their own health to look after us.

It is so easy to fall into this. My father was a police officer and there were many nights that he would not come home after leaving for work at 7:30 am in the morning. Sometimes we wouldn’t see him for days if he had to go out to a remote area.

And I hear of friends who have just finished a 12 hour shift nursing and they have to stay on for another 8 or 10 hour shift.

What do they eat when this happens? 

I guess they have to rely on those machines in hospitals and maybe get a takeaway if they can – but this really isn’t a healthy option, as you know or can imagine.

Here are some ideas I have on what to do if you are a night shift worker or you have to take extra shifts on.

Working night shift 

We don’t normally eat through the night, but if doing an 8 hour shift, you need to have a meal, no matter what time of the day it is. 

I used to take a fruit salad and nuts and then a sandwich for breakfast when I finished at 7, as I needed the sustenance before going off to university.  Before going on night shift, I would pack 3 meals.

1. Fruit salad, for half way through the night with nuts. 

2. Sandwich for breakfast. 

3. Left over dinner from the night before, for lunch at uni. 

Maybe fruit and nuts won't cut it for someone on a very rigorous shift – as I was only turning clients in their beds and making sure they didn’t have seizures in the night. 

Food suggestions for night shift 

Crackers, fruit sticks and home made hummus. 

Protein packed bliss balls (recipe at the end of this podcast). 

A portion of your evening meal that you made before coming to work.

Wrap or sandwich. 

Smoothie. 

Banana, date and peanut butter.

Pistachios (complete protein). 

Always also pack what you are going to have for breakfast, as if you do have to stay, you have your breakfast to eat before commencing your second shift, or you can just take it home, or stop at a park or beach and eat it on your way home.

Ideas for when you may end up doing a double shift 

1. Meal prep is essential – and there are a few ways you can approach this. You can make a meal each day – so if your shift starts at 3, you could make a meal in the morning – take it to work for dinner and have another portion for tomorrow – you could still take that to work – labelled, just in case you have to stay on and then you have something to eat. 

Then freeze two portions of the meal for other days.

Or, when you have a day off, you can prepare all your food for the week and portion it out.

Salad jars are a great idea for this.  You can take 3 with you on your first shift, then you have food if you have to do an extra shift, or if you don’t do an extra shift, you can take it home again and eat it for dinner, in the comfort of your home.

Order for making a salad jar 

dressing at the bottom or in a separate container 

grain 

protein

cooked veg

raw veg

seeds and seaweed 

Or like one of my fabulous clients – he takes 3 days out of his annual leave, each quarter, and cooks as many meals as he can, then freezes them and then just buys salad veg weekly, so he has something fresh to eat with his frozen food.

2. Have an airtight box of snacks, that you take to work with you at the beginning of the week – e.g.  - crackers, rice cakes, loaf of healthy bread, nuts and seeds and dried fruit, plus a bag of fruit and some avocados  – then put home made hummus, pesto and cashew cheese in the fridge at work labelled with your name.  Then you have food on hand if you are called onto an extra shift, and if you aren’t, you can take some of it home for your breakfast, lunch, or dinner the next day.

3. You can stock up at home or take to work some pre-meals – like organic soup, or miso soup packs, or organic dhal packs, where you just add water, and then you can eat those when you are called onto another shift and eat your crackers etc. with it.

4. Have mushrooms, avocado, tomato, and tofu at home, for when you get home from a double shift, so you can make a quick meal on toast with those things.

5. When you make anything like corn fritters, burgers, or savoury muffins, pop them in your freezer, so that you can grab them quickly and take them with you to work.

What to do if this feels overwhelming

If any of these ideas feel super overwhelming because you just don’t cook or can’t find time to cook, then I have a great program for you to do with me – its called the VIP program  where we work together for 8 x 1 hour sessions, where you learn fabulous ways to prepare food for shift work and extra shifts – we work together online, and cook together, and you get to put things in your fridge and freezer to help you with the busyness of your week.

Taking care of yourself 

It is true, I don’t know what it is like to work in a busy hospital where emergencies happen constantly, and I don’t know what it would be like when you are on call for a crime that has been committed or a fire that is raging but…..

You cannot work to your full capacity if you are not fully nourished, and in these situations, you need to have something on hand that you can grab quickly to either take with you, or eat when you do get a break. 

If asked to do a double shift, you can say yes, but say you need to take a break first, before you start again, and then work out from what you have brought with you, what you will nourish yourself with when you have your break.

If you don’t prioritise yourself, no one else will look after you. Shift workers and those caring for others have a higher risk of hypertension, heart attacks, strokes and diabetes, so it is essential that you take care of yourself and set the boundary that you need, to have a break, to eat the healthy meal you have brought in to work.

I personally, when working extra shifts, and when I worked 3 jobs at a time, ensured that break time to eat was a non negotiable. I guess I am lucky that if I don’t eat a meal in the day, I will faint, and I know I am no use to anyyone if I faint, so I make sure eating a meal is a non negotiable.

Tips

A great tip for when you are a shift worker is, when you get your roster and you transfer it to your calendar, also mark out time in your calendar when you are going to meal prep and make it a non negotiable.

Write down what you are going to cook and get the shopping arranged around that.

You could have a rotation of what you like to eat 

For example, I keep things quite simple. I know I love salad for lunch, so would make that with a few variations. Steamed veg and rice or quinoa every 2nd day does me perfectly, with a lovely tahini sauce. Then a curry once a week, or dhal is perfect, and a spaghetti with carbonara sauce, or a tomato sauce, with loads of pepita sprinkle. A miso soup with lots of green veg, and a baked potato with lots of green veg and hummus.  I could quite easily eat that on rotation every week – just changing up the pasta sauce and type of curry or dhal each week, and maybe have a stir fry sometimes, instead of a baked potato.

If you have a regular rotational meal plan, you don’t have to keep making new shopping lists. That is the beauty.

I have other fabulous tips over on podcast 15 – 3 ways to cook if you have limited time.

 Recipe 

Protein packed bliss ball 

1 cup dried fruit of choice (dates part of the mix) 

¾ cup soaked almonds or a mixture of other nuts 

¼ cup hemp seeds 

2 tbsp tahini 

2 tsp moringa powder or spirulina (optional) 

Zest of 2 oranges (optional) 

Roll in desiccated coconut or beetroot powder 

1. Process the nuts in a food processor until they resemble a fine crumb.

2. Add all of the other ingredients, except for the coconut and beetroot powder, and process until it is all combined. 

3. Roll into balls, squares, or blobs.

4. Place a small amount of coconut or beetroot powder in a bowl and roll each ball in the coconut or beetroot powder. 

Fun cooking tip 

Buy yourself a food bag that you love to use – I have a floral one that is insulated and has a zip. It makes me want to prepare food to fill it up, so I can just use the bag.  And invest in containers you like to take your food in. I used to have a tiffin – but of course you can’t put that in a microwave – but I never really liked to use a microwave anyway.  But if that is your only option then you may want to invest in glass pyrex.  That is what I now use for all of my meals.

For salad jars, a good size is 1 litre

I hope you find this podcast useful and if you have other ideas, please let me know, as I would love to share your ideas with as many shift workers as possible, to help them stay super nourished and healthy.

Hope you have a delicious week.