The Grave Yard Shift

Yesterday, a long time friend of mine gave birth to a beautiful and healthy boy. I know there are billions of people on this Earth but I am still amazed at how women push those things out. In like a banana, and out like a pineapple….ouch and ouch!! Naturally my home girl was in the worst pain in her life and she was hungry azz hell, so she relied on that good ol Irish restaurant for some cuisine, McDonald’s. (Side bar yes I said to myself, “Oh God not Mickey D’s!!” but after seeing what she went through she deserved those french fries).

Anywho, it was a little after 10pm and I was worn out, hungry, and I wanted my bed ASAP!!! I could only imagine how my girlfriend felt but then I glanced at the nurses and I said to myself, “Ummm how in the hell do they do this for a living?!?!?” Almost everyone on staff looked tired and just worn down, not to mention they were all overweight. When I left, I walked passed the nurses station and overheard them ordering food and none of it was healthy. I couldn’t help but think to myself, "well there lies the source of the problem".

Working the late shift is unhealthy on so many levels. First off, the longer you are up the more you are going to eat. Secondly, if you are up late at night you will rely on the quick food sources to quell your hunger pains (vending machines, diners, pizza parlors, omg I am having flashbacks from college Poppa John’s bread sticks with garlic sauce…yummy!!!!) You get my drift, you are not eating salads! Lastly, you really are not motivated to workout. You are drained as all hell and not to mention when you get off of work it’s hard to go to sleep because your body is not used to that sleeping pattern or you have errands to run (taking the kids to school). A simple solution would be to change shifts, but that is not reasonable, but if you have a good game plan anything is possible, and here are a couple of tips:

First of all go food shopping!! You are just going to have to pick a day out of the week or every other week and go to the grocery store. Secondly once you get the food put it into a thermo container so it will keep your food at an ideal temperature (see an example here). In order to get your burn on at anytime of the day, why not join a 24 hour gym so you have no reason not go? On the days you have off from work, make it to the gym and push yourself to go at least one day out of the week that you do work (that way you workout at least 3 days a week).

I know that it's hard, but YOU ARE WORTH IT to make any and all sacrifices in order to better yourself, and of course with no excuses and definitely No Apologies!