brand new

[TxGirl]

I am brand new. Finished the book "it starts with food" and "whole 30". Have cleaned out the pantry, freezer and fridge, got the grocery list ready. Grocery shopping will happen tomorrow.

My biggest hurdles that I forsee are "when to eat"  I have been doing an 80/20 plan for clean eating so as bad as I have now been educated to see, I don't think it will be such a stretch to eliminate the 20% bad.

However, I work nights 3 nights a week, then flip flop back to a day schedule.  For example, today I am up at 6am to get kids off to school and run the house then go to work at 6:30pm and I will be up until 8 or 9 tomorrow morning when I arrive home from work,take the kids to school, run at least 30 minutes, shower, go to bed.

fridays i sleep almost all day, wake up usually around 4 or 5, get myself ready for work and eat before going in. I then eat at 2am for an arrival home at 8ish, sleep all day and back to work that night.

sundays are the other weird day as I get off work sunday morning, but instead of going home to sleep, I get the kids, go to church, do our grocery shopping and wait to sleep until sunday evening so I can stay on the kids schedule for the remainder of the week.

i find I either eat nonstop on weekends when i am working or not at all because I am simply too tired to eat.

 

I have been relying on Diet Dr Pepper for that caffeine fix on the nights I work when exhaustion is more than I can handle, but otherwise two cups of coffee a day usually holds me just fine. Cutting the Stevia will be difficult. I already drink it without cream.

 

So help with planning a schedule of eating when on my work weekends would be appreciated.  Right now, Thursday, I ate breakfast, lunch and will eat dinner. then at 2am I will eat again then I have been coming home and having scrambled eggs immediately before going to bed or I find i wake up at 10 or 11 hungry and can't go back to sleep which leaves me even more tired when i go back to work and more likely to eat the junk that is always around.

Thanks!

[ShannonM816]

When you wake up for the day, eat within an hour. Ideally, you'll make your meals big enough that you can go for 4-5 hours between meals, so then you'll eat every 4-5 hours until you go to sleep.

 

You might find some helpful information in this post on surviving the night shift.

[NorthernStarfish]

Wow, You are super Momma!! I couldn't function with that kind of sleep deprivation! I was a walking zombie when my twins were newborn, and am still dealing with the health problems from that sleep deprived first year. I've never been able to tolerate caffeine, energy drinks, soda etc. Kombucha is my secret weapon. It gives me a buzz and keeps me awake. I brew my own but you can buy it at the store. I'd suggest stocking up on those and seeing if they help you in place of the soda. If they do, it's very very easy to brew your own. On the when to eat, I was just going to say when your hungry, but Shannon's answer is far better. I think once your body gets over sugar cravings it will fall into a pattern of when to eat. But initially my focus would be on making sure I was eating whole 30 approved food, regardless of the time. Good luck Mama!

[TxGirl]

Thanks Northern Starfish. I appreciate the input.

 

Unfortunately I can't eat every 4-5 hours while working a 13 hour shift. We get one break a night. I do eat my meals big enough to last 4-5 hours, problem is I just don't get a break to eat that often. Plus in the link above "surviving night shift" she obviously has a lot of help and a spouse to make sure that the kids get where they are needed go to and 7 days on and 7 days off would be awesome and only 10 hours!!! When your schedule is 3 on 4 off or even worse 1 on 2 off 3 on etc then it gets a lot harder to have any type of schedule.

I count it a good days sleep if I get 6 hours