Over the past few months, we at Cutting Edge Fitness have been asked many questions and suggestions specifically suited for the Night-Shift. We did some researched, asked some nurse-confidants who have experience with working nights and long hours, and have come up with some helpful tips to take care of your health, body and suggestions to help to manage food choices when faced with a challenging schedule.
The good news is that everyone can benefit from many of the take-aways from this blog - so enjoy!
Those who go to med school, nursing school, any intense studying program - or anyone who is busy most hours of the day know what kind of a toll it takes mentally and physcially on your body - with lack of sleep and figuring out how to eat to fuel your body best. When you feel good and have good energy, your work and life benefit and can feel easier than being over-tired, feeling sluggish and bogged down from poor nutrition and poor quality of sleep.
We surveyed some nurses who work nights and have discovered that the hardest thing is making time to eat during your shift. Most nurses are always go-go-go, so they don't make time to eat. When they do eat their body feels it is going crazy and craving all the foods that you don't want to eat if you're trying to lose weight. Mainly food that are high in carbs or sugar. Plus alot of nurses bring in candy or cookies, so there is always bad food out in the open to pick from. So it's easy to see how a nurse who hasn't had time to eat all night to stop by the nurses station and picks up a quick dose of sugar.
Work on doing a good job of packing your lunch each night, so you're not going to work empty handed is one of the best and critical first steps to start with. Relying on the cafeteria or snacks that others bring in is not the way to go.
The 2nd thing would be to make time to eat every few hours. Set an alarm to go off to remind yourself even if your super busy! It may sound silly, but it works and will REMIND you to eat!
Working nights can be slower than working days depending on the unit. When you are so busy, you don't eat, then you eat anything you can get, and devour it in a second, probably not the best choices.
But when you are working nights, it tends to be slower so you may be eating to stay awake. It is cold and can feel depressing at night, so all you really want is comfort food. Doctors bring in pizza, nurses order out, and many nurses bring in junk foods - either to get it out of their own house or to treat everyone. There are always baked goods, candy, pizza, and most fast food places are open, etc which allows for “easier” but not nutritionally sound choices to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Pack your lunch, usually one bigger meal, which is like dinner (salad with chicken or whatever healthy you cook for dinner at home). Work in eating this at around 10:00PM-11:00PM, then bring a bunch of snacks.
One nurse we spoke with (who is fit and makes preparing her foods in advance and staying on a good eating schedule a priority) said she feels she better overnight, if she does schedule eating this relatively "bigger" meal at that point in time. She suggests something we call "clean" that is all natural and includes protein. Choosing a fresh salad with chicken or hard boiled eggwhites or even oatmeal (non-processed, unrefined raw oats) because it serves to be hearty and warms her up. She also suggests packing fruit, veggies, yogurt, nuts, and mix protein powder into the oatmeal or yogurt, bringing healthy NON-PROCESSED little things you can pick at - this will keep you fuller, longer.
Her most recent new habit to control eating is tea. She usually makes a cup of green tea at 3:00AM, to sip on while documenting patient papers with and warm up, instead of eating. Some people drink coffee all night, you want to make sure you are staying hydrated and minimize cream/milk/sugar so try to stick with the tea and water.
Avoid excessive reliance on caffeine. This habit may get you by the occasional slump, but can become addictive and disruptive to your circadian rhythm. If you feel the need for a "rush", excuse yourself from your duties for a few minutes and take a fast walk. This will wake you up!
We have learned some tips to stay on a healthy timed schedule of eating and on a practiced, well-balanced food-plan is to make time to eat when you get home in the AM, then going straight to bed. Many people are advised "never eat before bed." - we recommend everyone takes a step back and looks at "The Big Picture"... if you are eating every few hours and your calories are monitored, it is OK to eat something before bed, and cottage cheese (or something that contains casein protein is recommended as it is a slow-digesting protein) Many nurses may eat something at work around 5:00AM at work, and then get home from their night-shift at 8:00, and feel they need to eat something. We hear many night-nurses who don't eat before I sleep, have trouble sleeping, and then are awake at noon the next day zapped of energy. Finding a healthy way to enable your body to sleep is critical - if you do not get a lot of sleep and are constantly tired, chances of eating for energy or making a poor food choice increasing - so you want to learn to maximize your sleep during the day.
At this point in the schedule we recommend small something, a few hard boiled eggs, a whole grain English muffin, or even small (<200 calories) protein bar. This may be tough, who wants to be cooking at 8:00AM? Having prepared foods in the refrigerator is always the key to having an edge on this tough work-schedule...and any schedule!
The big take-away for the night nurse - AND all professions for that matter, is to PREPARE, and bring in healthy snacking food for at night, when your guard tends to be down and you are more tempted to pick at something. Drinking tea, and/or one sugar-free hot chocolate that is a "treat" and will warm you up during the late night/early morning hours is another calorie-saving tip!
We hope some of these tips and habits are helpful for those who are on the evening-work schedule - and have given you some ideas about PLANNING and preparation!
Happy Nurses Week - and Thank You for helping us!
