How Do I Eat Intuitively When I Have a Nontraditional Work Schedule?
Written by Isabel Vasquez, RD, LDN
So, you have a job with nontraditional hours. You don’t work your classic 9–5, maybe you even work in the middle of the night. Maybe your schedule changes often. If that’s true for you, maybe you have doubts about embracing intuitive eating. Maybe you're utterly confused on how to structure your eating.
In this blog, we’ll share some aspects of the intuitive eating framework that may help you nourish your body adequately and compassionately.
Let Go of Perfectionism
Ultimately, intuitive eating isn’t about rigidity, it’s about flexibility. You can adapt it to your unique lifestyle, preferences, goals, etc. There’s really no such thing as “perfect eating” anyway, so let go of that idea entirely.
Without waking hours including the “traditional” meal and snack times, you may be organically challenged to connect with your body’s cues (something called interoception) and let go of rigid rules.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing! It allows you room to really tune into your body and almost have a blank slate in listening to its needs.
So, let go of the idea of what times you should, when you should stop eating for the day, and what foods to eat at what times of day.
Still, Eat At Regular Intervals
Sometimes, not having the structure of diets can feel like you’re floating out in the ether with nothing to hold onto. While it can be helpful to become more comfy without set structure, it’s still important to eat at regular intervals throughout the day. Skipping meals won’t do you any good.
Usually going more than 3–5 hours between meals/snacks can result in ravenous hunger and eating beyond comfortable fullness. That being said, that’s just an estimate.
Sometimes you may need to eat more often or less often, depending on what you’re eating, how much you’re eating, how you’re feeling on that given day, your schedule, and a whole host of other individualized factors.
But if you’re just getting started and trying to get in touch with your hunger and fullness cues again, this can be a good frame of reference for how often to eat.
With that in mind, your first meal is when you wake up. Whether you want to call it breakfast or not is up to you, but that’s your first meal of the day. Keep in mind, you don’t have to have “traditional” breakfast, snack, lunch, and dinner foods at those times of day.
For example, snacks can be “meal foods'' just in different amounts, and dinner leftovers can be enjoyed for breakfast.
Embrace ‘Practical Hunger’
The intuitive eating concept of practical hunger may be especially helpful for you.
Even people with traditional work schedules question how to practice intuitive eating when they have a scheduled lunch break and meetings and can’t choose precisely what they want to eat when they want. This may be true for you too.
Related: What Are The Four Types Of Hunger In Intuitive Eating?
Maybe your body is just getting used to your work schedule. Regardless, you will probably have work duties that prevent you from eating precisely what you want when you want to.
However, intuitive eating isn’t just about eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full.
As the authors of Intuitive Eating state, “This rigid interpretation can leave you feeling as if you have broken a ‘rule’ or failed, if you eat for any other reason than hunger.”
Practical hunger can be thought of as planning ahead. You can choose to eat at a time when you aren’t that hungry because you know you will be busy for the next few hours, during which you’ll likely be overdue for some food.
Remember, Intuitive Eating Isn’t for Everyone
Lots of people working non-traditional work hours are working double shifts, overnight shifts, and just barely making ends meet. If food insecurity is present, then intuitive eating isn’t relevant.
The most important thing is getting connected with resources to access food and other support. Having consistent access to culturally-affirming, nutritious food is essential for health. This is one limitation of intuitive eating.
Final Thoughts
Overall, intuitive eating is a flexible eating framework that many people can use to guide eating while working a nontraditional schedule.
In particular, it’s a helpful way of letting go of perfectionism and focusing on eating enough rather than restricting food, even if your meal times are different from those working a 9–5 job.
You can get rid of the guilt of eating outside of traditional meal and snack times and of not eating traditional breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack foods. A different schedule is just another one of your unique needs worth accommodating with compassion.
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