I recently began working full time night shift again after several years, and work three twelve hour shifts a week, 7p-7a. I am having a problem with my eating pattern since I began staying up all night again, and I'm wondering if any of you who work nights could give me any advice.
Do you bring another full meal with you to work and eat it during the night? Do you snack during the night? If so, what kind of food do you take with you to eat? Our cafeteria is closed all night, so if I want to buy food at work I have to use the vending machines, which don't have very healthy options and I end up eating maybe a small bag of pretzels and a Snickers bar during the night and am then starving by the time my shift ends.
What I am looking for is a sensible, fairly healthy eating plan for the night shift where I won't gain weight by eating another big dinner in the middle of the night but won't be starving all night either. I don't usually take a traditional dinner break, it's more like we sit and eat while we chat and chart after we (hopefully!) get caught up by the middle of the shift. I wouldn't want to take a regular break anyway, since the cafeteria is closed and we don't go on break at the same time so there would be no one to sit with anyway.
Any and all suggestions would be very welcome.