Nightshift + lack of appetite + I'm sick of water

[fallingstar24]

So I'm on Day 12 and everything is a-ok. Or it would be if I had a personal chef. 

 

I work nightshift, and just recently dropped from 3 12-hour shifts to 2 shifts per week, in hopes that it will give me enough recovery time to have more of a day time schedule on my off days. Anyway, although I've tried various routines and tips, usually I am awake all night every night. So, pre-whole30, I usually ate one solid meal a day, and a few snack meals (and lots of Diet Coke). I am having a hard time with not having a normal routine to fall back on- I don't associate any particular time with my meals. It just doesn't feel right cooking meals in the middle of the night (and that's only partly because I am finding I don't like cooking). It also isn't a time I can go grocery shopping, and usually by the time the store opens, I'm getting too sleepy to be productive. 

 

My next issue is on days that I'm awake like a normal human: my body isn't used to a meal at noon, and I always feel a little sick at the prospect. I mean, it makes sense- daytime people wouldn't think making a full meal at 2 am was necessary if they happened to still be awake. A snack, maybe, but if the body is used to not eating while you are asleep, your hormones reflect that. But I'm still not sure what to do about it. Plus being awake during the day makes me feel kind of off anyway.

 

Third issue: meds and beverages. I started out thinking La Croix weren't bad, loved having something bubbly and kind of flavored to drink, but now not only do I not like them, I'm feeling irrationally mad at them for existing. While I'm for real missing flavored, sweetened, or caloric beverages, I could deal with it better if I wasn't choking on meds/supplements when I take them with compliant beverages. I realize I have a bit of a phobic issue with choking/gagging/vomiting, and I had been coping by always drinking diet soda when swallowing pills, because the taste and the bubbles distract my mouth. But now, even small pills are taking a couple attempts to get down, and larger capsules are awful. 

[jmcbn]

I'm not really understanding your schedule from your post re nightshift & normal days - can you give a bit more info about when the 12hr shifts start & finish, when you are currently eating/sleeping, and the same for the days you are off?

 

Re the meds, my sister has a huge cocktail of meds to take & struggles to choke them down with water. For any that she has to take with meals she crumbles them up into her food to kind of lessen the load. If this is not possible for you how about trying some fruit infused water as a change from the La Croix? 

[fallingstar24]

Thanks for your response, jmcbn. I think I was having a lack of appetite day sort of combined with a kill all the things day. I don't know that I'm going to be able to nail down a good routine, personally, and will just have to play it by ear and do my best to have real meals instead of snacks, and space them out appropriately (ie, not have a snack to try to stretch how long I can last before I actually have to cook something). 

 

As far as my work schedule goes, I work 7PM-7AM 2 days a week (usually back to back, but not usually the same days every week). Because this is a recent change (I was doing 4 shifts a week for a couple months due to having a high census on my unit), I was pretty much living on a nightshift schedule 24/7. On work days I'd eat something light beforehand, or whatever I had time for, then a snack at 9 or 10 PM, and a meal around 12 or 1 AM, then another snack before going to bed when I got home. On my nights off, I'd usually get take out (I rarely woke before 6 pm) around 8 PM, then just snack as needed while watching tv (lets be honestly, I'm not really productive in the middle of the night, even if that is my normal wake time). 

 

Now, since I'm only working the 2 shifts a week, I'm making a strong effort to be awake more in the daytime on my days off. Usually, to flip schedules, I have to be forced to stay awake by something external like a doctor's appointment. Otherwise, I try to stay awake, crash in the afternoon, then get on a weird and awful schedule of sleeping from 3 PM- midnight. Anyway, last time I worked I ended up failing my first sleep schedule swap attempt, forced myself to stay awake for 24 hours (during which I had no desire to eat or cook food so I probably didn't get as many meals in as I should have, but I was just trying to get to that 24-hour mark), then slept for like 13 hours. 

 

I decided yesterday that the Whole Foods hot bar/salad bar is my new best friend, so that has helped ease the pressure of cooking 3 meals a day immensely. 

 

For the problem of choking on my meds, the ones I'm having the most difficulty with are large capsules, and I don't know if the capsule is there for absorption reasons, so I'm not going to crack them open just in case. I decided I'm just going to have to use fruit/veggie juice, coconut milk beverage (Pacific brand has a compliant one!), or a mixture of La Croix (for the bubbles) and juice. Hopefully it won't take long before I get back into a proper groove of not even having to think when I swallow meds, and can just take it with water, but in the meantime, I think the "technically compliant but not recommended" beverages are going to need to be my solution. When I get paranoid about choking on the meds, I need liquids I can take a large gulp of, and unfortunately if I don't like the taste, I can't get in more than a "dainty sip" at a time without semi-gagging on the drink alone. I know the Whole30 is helping change my taste buds, so hopefully if I keep pushing, I'll keep making progress. Thanks again!