I also had your problem! I'm also a 3-night a week nurse and from what I've managed to figure out is that the nights that I work are the times when I actually have no problem staying within my points. I completely understand what you're asking about the 'stretching points over 24 hours' thing, but since we're asleep during the day most of the time, I think that's what helped me out in figuring out that part. This is what I used to do:
From midnight to about 8 am, I'll probably have two - three 'small meals', which usually consists of bars or shakes (whatever is most convenient for me at work). Then I'll be asleep from lets say 8am to about 2-3 pm and since I start getting ready for work at 5pm then I only have time to have one good meal. When I'm at work, I don't have any time to even think about eating between the hours of 7pm and 11pm, so then I'd be able to get in about one more small meal (if I'm lucky) before midnight hits.
Then of course the times when I'd get home from work in the morning and wouldn't have to go back in that night would just mean that once I wake up at about 3 in the afternoon, I can eat maybe about 2 or 3 more meals and I'd be fine. This of course was when I'd make it a point to eat something at least every 2-3 hours. The trick was finding low point stuff that I could eat and keep me within my range (that's where the bars and shakes came in).
Of course I say this is all what I used to do because, well, I have a hard time sticking to anything and started eating a bunch of crap again whenever I wanted lol I'm just telling you what would work for me when I was losing on WW.
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