Hi everyone! I am an RN and work 12-hour shifts on a fairly busy hospital floor. All the nursing pages make jokes about "you know you are a nurse if you think it is a special occasion if you are sitting and eating off a plate!" And this is fairly true.
Despite any and all good-faith attempts at taking a real, honest-to-goodness lunch break (uninterrupted) while at work, it just doesn't happen. I find myself taking stuff that I can eat on the run - mixed dry-toasted nuts, low-fat cheese sticks, high-fiber cereal. As for veggies or fruits - well the best I have been able to do is take a couple of V8's with me. Most times I also keep some kind of protein or meal bar in my purse. I can't eat an apple on the floor, it is too messy (allergic to bananas and melons) and by the time I get to the second bite it is all brown.
I do eat a really decent "breakfast," I don't worry about fat or calories with that as long as I get a lot of protein and complex carbs. But at the end of the day I come home starving. And then I eat whatever is in front of me, usually something not very healthy but very satisfying, right before I crash.
On my days off, I do my best to get a bunch of veggies and high-fiber foods. But that doesn't always work either, and that is my own fault.
I am sure that it sounds like I am whining, and maybe part of me is. I continue to try to take healthy foods to work, but the "binge" eating at the end of a hard shift has been difficult to shake.
So, I am looking for other nurses who have similar problems (or anyone else with similar issues while working), and how you deal with both trying to get healthy foods for work to eat on the run AND not end up starving and eating whatever is in front of you, even if it is a giant piece of lard wrapped in something someone calls a bread.
Thanks!
Layni
Despite any and all good-faith attempts at taking a real, honest-to-goodness lunch break (uninterrupted) while at work, it just doesn't happen. I find myself taking stuff that I can eat on the run - mixed dry-toasted nuts, low-fat cheese sticks, high-fiber cereal. As for veggies or fruits - well the best I have been able to do is take a couple of V8's with me. Most times I also keep some kind of protein or meal bar in my purse. I can't eat an apple on the floor, it is too messy (allergic to bananas and melons) and by the time I get to the second bite it is all brown.
I do eat a really decent "breakfast," I don't worry about fat or calories with that as long as I get a lot of protein and complex carbs. But at the end of the day I come home starving. And then I eat whatever is in front of me, usually something not very healthy but very satisfying, right before I crash.
On my days off, I do my best to get a bunch of veggies and high-fiber foods. But that doesn't always work either, and that is my own fault.
I am sure that it sounds like I am whining, and maybe part of me is. I continue to try to take healthy foods to work, but the "binge" eating at the end of a hard shift has been difficult to shake.
So, I am looking for other nurses who have similar problems (or anyone else with similar issues while working), and how you deal with both trying to get healthy foods for work to eat on the run AND not end up starving and eating whatever is in front of you, even if it is a giant piece of lard wrapped in something someone calls a bread.
Thanks!
Layni
I'm Brittany and I am not a nurse yet but I am going to school to become one. I am almost finished with my pre-reqs and am so excited to start actual nursing school.