Graveyard Shift-- When to eat??

[Maggieb123]

Hello Internet!

I am approaching my start date (4/27)and I just received Melissa's "Whole30 Day by Day" book in the mail today-- it's getting real! This will be my fourth round but it has been a while since my last one!

I am starting to get worried, not about my meals but the times I eat them. You see, work graveyard shift from home (9p-5a) five days a week now and I am also a full time mom to a normal sleeping toddler.  I usually get about 4 hours before my son is up and then we get our afternoon nap time of another 2-3 hours if I'm not meal prepping....

When should I eat?

I keep going over my schedule and I don't know where three meals are going to fit. I guess one around 10am (let's call that breakfast) one after naps around 4pm (lets call this lunch) and one before I start my shift 8:30pm (let's call this dinner before you go to bed 8 hours later)

I guess I will just have to go ahead and see how I feel after a few days. Luckily I am off work  the weekend of my start so I am able to sort of keep track of my hunger for the first days without worrying about when I will sleep as much. 

Does anyone else have a difficult work schedule? How do you make it work?

Many thanks in advance!

[ShannonM816]

This is one of the best resources I know for eating Whole30-ish/paleo while working night shift:  https://nomnompaleo.com/post/55156756199/surviving-the-night-shift -- I think she addressed it more than once, so if you use the search function on that website, and search for night shift, you should find anything else she's written about it. I know there have been other people on the forum asking about this as well, so it might be worth googling Whole30 night shift or something along those lines to see if any past discussions turn up. Hopefully other people will weigh in here as well.

It sounds like you're planning to eat your first meal within about an hour of waking up, which is what we'd recommend, and then eat every 4-5 hours after that. If you need a fourth meal or a mini-meal, that's fine, it sounds like you have longer than average days, and may need more food than other people might.