6 Must-Try Meal Planning Tricks for Nurses

Long shifts make it easy to live on caffeine and whatever is fast, and your body pays for it. A little planning is what keeps you eating well on a nurse's schedule. Here are six tricks that work.

1. Plan ahead

Use a day off to map out your meals for the week. Knowing what you will cook and having the food on hand keeps you out of the takeout line and cuts your spending. Plenty of free templates and recipes are online, and writing the plan down makes you stick to it. Build it around your schedule: quick meals on long shift days, a new recipe when you get off early.

2. Make a grocery list

A list keeps you from impulse buying and saves time and money. Inside the store, skip the center aisles where the sweets and preserved foods sit and spend your time on the perimeter, where the whole foods, fresh produce, and dairy are.

3. Get creative

Eating the same thing every week dulls your taste buds and pushes you back toward junk food. Add one new dish a week to keep meals interesting. It does not need to be complicated. A new salad recipe is enough to make lunch worth looking forward to.

4. Bring healthy snacks to work

On a critical shift it is easy to skip a meal, and that risks hypoglycemia, which leaves you tired, irritable, and less effective. Keep snacks that need no prep: apples, oranges, salads, trail mix. Go easy on dried fruit, since it carries enough sugar to spike your glucose.

5. Stock up on good food

Schedules change fast, and covering a sick coworker's shift can blow up your meal plan. Keep a batch of healthy freezer meals ready so you are not reaching for junk. Pasta, chicken dishes, and prepped fruits and vegetables all freeze well.

6. Learn your portion size

Healthy food is not a license to overeat. Oversized portions still drive weight gain, diabetes, and heart problems. When you are not sure of a serving, use the hand method as a guide, read food labels, eat off a smaller plate, or split a serving with a colleague.