Whenever I have a day shift at work, it means waking up between 4:30 and 5am. Because of this I don’t tend to eat breakfast. I just don’t feel good starting my day on a full stomach.

I usually just have a cup of coffee and one for the road. It gets my system going. About three hours into my day at work and I’ll start to get hungry, so I’ll have a small snack. That tides me over until lunch. By the time I get home for dinner, I’m pretty hungry- and that makes dinners taste that much better.

On my days off however, I eat a really big breakfast after waking up. But that is usually because I sleep in. So my breakfasts are anywhere from 11am to 2pm. The kids love this on when my day off coincides with their days off as well. That means everyone gets a big breakfast.

It seems like a strange routine. But because of working long shifts and doing alternating shift work, I try and eat at relatively the same time each day. Nights are a bit tougher. I try to not eat much after midnight. Maybe just a light snack before the end of the shift. I’m not quite like a Gremlin.

How do you cope with long work days or shift work?