Warning: This is going to be really boring, unless you just are really interested in what Stephanie eats, and how she tries to eat healthyish working nights. Which basically is an interesting topic for everyone!! Anyways, here we go...
"Fitness nutrition" is a broad category. Clean eating, low carb, adequate protein, hydration, macro/micronutrient supplementation, macro balances... It's complex even before you get to TEF and carb cycling. Those of us who've done fitness for awhile figure out a way to eat that works for us. Some athletes follow a daily diet, others have go-to foods, others fly by the seat of their pants. After awhile, you learn the effects of certain style of eating upon performance, and naturally gravitate towards certain patterns that work for you.
For myself, I figured out what foods worked best before I did manual labor. My staples were lean protein and fruit/vegetables at every meal, and a daily small amount of complex carbs and avocados/flax/olive oil. I stayed away from dairy and wheat mostly, except the bread from Subway-- one of my favorite "cheat" foods has always been sandwiches.
Working manual labor makes nutrition a new game. Constant carb/calorie depletion, the nightshift atmosphere and lifestyle, and the difficulty of eating at work become new factors.
Carb and calorie needs are higher working manual labor. The first hours breaking down the truck are the most intense, then stocking/blocking/clearing the floor are moderately intense. If I'm lucky enough to have a coworker, there's "easy" work, like throwing candy. The first few months working manual labor, I didn't adjust my diet much at all. After all, I was eating pretty typically for fitness performance. By the end of my shifts, I was often working slow from depletion. My manager would often buy me and my coworkers sodas and sausage biscuits. I preferred diet soda (actually i'd have preferred water or powerade zero's, but i was trying to be more Normal), and would usually eat the biscuit and not the sausage. My coworker would get annoyed at me, saying that the sugar from Real Soda would give me energy and I'd burn it all anyways. He was probably right, but at hour 7 of a 9 hour shift I wasn't comfortable eating straight sugar.
The nightshift atmosphere and lifestyle is another factor, as well. On our breaks, usually the fun people to talk to are outside. Usually, they are smoking, drinking energy drinks or other forms of caffeine. Nowhere, and I do mean NOWHERE, is open at night to buy food. If I didn't bring something with me, I can't go anywhere except the 24-hour CVS or wendy's to pick up something. My go-to "meals" at work for a long time were the bottled Isopure drinks-- 40 g protein at 160 calories-- and zero-carb Monster drinks, which I'd buy when the store was closing. This was "weird" of me, because most of nightcrew doesn't eat at work. On my days off, I'm still running a nocturnal schedule, so the scenario isn't much different, except that my house usually is stocked with healthy foods. The lifestyle's a little different on days off when you work nightshift, too. If you go out to happy hour, you're having drinks for, essentially, breakfast. If you go downtown, you're having drinks for lunch. About half of socializing involves drinking, and anyone who does fitness finds ways to work around this while still having a life. (Part of "still having a life" includes getting new friends who barely drink, and are fitnessy people. Like, I might be going to trampoline-world tomorrow. I have some LEGIT friends.)
Finally, there's the physical-exertion limitation. Some people have iron stomachs, and can eat a burger and then go throw freight five minutes later. I'm guessing these are the people who can eat anything under the sun while cycling or running endurance and have no gastric distress. Others of us don't have this gift, and have to eat very slowly on our longer breaks, eat only liquid calories, or eat only before and after work. This makes timing meals a little more complicated. I found I can eat a smallish meal on my 30-minute lunch, but that's pretty much it for solid food I can tolerate at work. And anything I have to eat before work has to be an hour beforehand for anything smallish, preferrably two hours beforehand.
What works for me? I eat before work once or twice, once again at work, and once again afterwards. These are basically always smoothies (almondmilk, fruit, and whey), sandwiches from subway, or salad/veggie + protein + carb/fruit. The calories end up way lower than expected with my activity level, but then every couple days I'll eat more carbs (in super healthy forms, like candy, tons of straight juice, or crackers... I'm working on this) and it seems to balance out. I still am working on getting calories in more consistently and on not spending painful amounts of money on food, which would be way easier if HEB would give me free pineapple. I'm just saying.
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