Welcome And Mission

Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to a healthy shift. My name is Roger Sutherland, certified nutritionist, veteran law enforcement officer, and 24-7 shift worker for almost four decades. Through this podcast, I aim to educate shift workers using evidence-based methods to not only survive the rigors of shift work, but thrive. My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and well-being so they have more energy to do the things they love. Enjoy today's show. And welcome back to a healthy shift podcast. My name is Roger Sutherland, and I am your guide on your own, your very own shift working journey. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining the show. I do sincerely appreciate it. Today I'm going to go back over a topic that I just think is one of the most important topics that we need to discuss for our shift working community. And that is the truth about timing and why your body clock actually trumps your diet. So many shift workers are out there looking for diets. So many shift workers are out there battling fat gain because they can't work it out why they're gaining so much food or why uh weight or why it is that they're craving certain foods overnight and things like that. And this is one of the things that I really do help clients with a lot. And this is where I get my most success in meal timing because cutting out or learning and having knowledge around knowing when to eat and what to eat really does make such a significant impact, particularly for you ladies. And one of the main reasons why it makes such a difference for you is because of that compromised digestive tract that you actually have. Your biologically, quite apart from the way you look, you are biologically different internally when it comes to your digestive tract as well. And I've discussed this over and over again. And it's important that people understand that there is a difference. And this is one of the main reasons why females do, well, when I say one, it's one of many reasons why females struggle with shift work so much more than what males do. Anyway, let's get on with this episode because this one's it's going to be short and sweet because I don't want to just go on and on and on and lose you with this. I'm going to make it really short and sweet. Buckle in. So if you're listening to this, there's probably a good chance that you're driving home and the rest of the world is waking up, or you're on your way into work and you're in your transit. Fair call, you probably are. Or you're walking, out walking. That's where most people listen to them. So let's go through this. Now we often talk about what to eat to survive our shift. But today we're talking about when to eat. All right, because this is important. There's a lot of noise out there about fasting, and frankly, most of it is geared towards people who work nine to five. But for us as shift workers, the rules are different. And today, what I want to do is I want to clear up the confusion between intermittent fasting and time restricted eating. And I want to show you how to actually thrive in this career that you've chosen, not just survive it, because it's important that we understand the difference between intermittent fasting and time restricted eating and how to optimize it for you. So, first of all, let's look at the science between intermittent fasting and time restricted eating. Let's kill that confusion because people use intermittent fasting and time restricted eating interchangeably. But let me be clear with you, they are different. And from a biological perspective, they are very different. Now, intermittent fasting is generally focused on the duration of the fast. It is often about that calorie restriction or metabolic switching. Getting your body to burn fat for fuel, sorry, by going long periods like 16 to 24 hours without food. Keep that in mind. That's intermittent fasting. Some people do what they call 5-2. Fast for a whole day, eat for three, fast for a whole day, eat for two. It works that way. That's intermittent fasting. You don't just restrict for, you know, um 10 to 12 hours and then start burning ketones and going through autophagy and all that. It's garbage. It is absolute rubbish. The absolute best way to elicit autophagy, which is the recycling of dead cells, is resistance training. Full stop. The autophagy from resistance training is so much better and so much more efficient in our body than anything else. So keep that in mind as well. The other thing is time-restricted eating is about alignment. This is important. It's less about how many hours you starve yourself and more about ensuring that you're actually in an eating window which is matching your internal 24-hour clock, which is your circadian rhythm. Now you can't avoid this. So if you're a shift worker and you're doing IF because you're doing intermittent fasting, because that's what Jenny does, um, how does that line up with your biological clock? It doesn't. And this is where we have massive problems. And again, I want to re-emphasize the rules are different for shift workers than they are for nine to fivers. Now, in the world of science, time restricted eating is specifically designed to keep your metabolism in sync with your brain and your body clock. For a shift worker, intermittent fasting can actually be stressful. What about if you're fasting at the wrong biological time for when you're awake? Time restricted eating is the tool that I use with my clients to fix that problem. So the biological day and fat going. Now your body is not a calculator, it's a clock. It literally is. Every single cell in your body has a clock and it has a circadian oscillator. And this means that your body has a biological day and it has a biological night. And you can't change that. That is literally what it has. Now, during your biological day, which is when the sun is up and your body is anticipating and expecting activity, your insulin sensitivity is high, and your enzymes are ready to digest and store nutrients optimally. Your body is a high performance machine and it is ready to handle the fuel that you put in as long as you put it in at the right time. However, when you start eating food chocolates, lollies, chips, damn jenny, and that cake, if you're eating that during your biological night, which is what most of the shift workers do at two o'clock in the morning, your body is physiologically close for business. You've got to be understand that. Melatonin has risen and insulin sensitivity drops off a cliff. Your body's gone to sleep. Yes, you're awake, but your body has not. It's still got that biological oscillator that's going on that runs on a normal diurnal time clock. So when you eat in the middle of the night, that glucose stays in your bloodstream longer. And your body is going to store it as body fat rather than use it for energy because it can't get into the cell to burn. That's what insulin does. It takes it into the cell and we are insulin resistant overnight. Now, this is why we see higher rates of metabolic issues in our frontline workers, our 24-7 shift workers. It's not necessarily that they eat more because science shows that we eat pretty much the same. It's what it's that we eat when our biology is trying to sleep. That is the biggest problem. Now, why most people get it backwards? And this is one that I want you to really pay attention to. Because here's where most people get fasting wrong. And this is where I sit and I look at this on my social media and I think, oh, you goose. You're doing it all wrong. See, most people skip breakfast, they have a late lunch and then they eat dinner at dinner time at 8 p.m. at night before bed. Now, scientifically, this is early restricted versus late restricted eating. The data is very clear. Listen, front loading your calories, which means eating more during your biological morning and then tapering off as you head towards sleep is vastly superior for your health. Do you want me to repeat that? The data is clear. Front loading your calories, eating more during your biological morning and tapering off as you head towards sleep is vastly superior for your health. When you fast early and then you start eating later in the day, you are fueling up right when your metabolism is literally slowing down according to your biological clock. That's the facts. And you need to understand that. So when you see Jenny intermittent fasting in the morning, yeah, she's got it wrong. She needs to be doing it in the evening. Ideally, and I'll make this quite clear. Ideally, we want to be eating from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then fasting from 3 p.m. to 7 a.m. That's ideal. It's not always possible, but biologically, that is the ideal thing for us to do. Now, if you want to optimize your heart health and your waistline, what you want to do is you want the kitchen closed at least three hours before you plan to sleep. What this does is it allows your heart rate and your blood pressure to dip naturally, which will give your cardiovascular system the recovery that it desperately needs. And you'll notice for those of you that use tracking devices to track your sleep, when you eat later, it will tell you that your heart rate was elevated for longer. And that means there's more strain on your system. So let's go from surviving, just surviving to thriving. I know that this sounds very complex when you're dealing with a changing roster and kids and home and your mortgage and everything else that goes on with it, and all those bills have got to be paid. But it's one thing to hear the science, but it's another thing to know how and when to apply it during 12-hour rotations or when you're exhausted. And this is exactly what I do with my coach clients. We don't look at a meal plan and we don't do weights and measures and photos because that's pointless. Because until you get the basics right as far as when to eat and start to fix all of the other things around that, just little tiny habits and routines to get that body clock in line, the natural thing to happen is your body weight starts to fall off, the inflammation starts to go, everything, and you start to feel so much better. And when you start to feel better, you start to move more. When you move more, you're changing your energy balance, and therefore you start to lose weight. And that is how I work with my clients. This is exactly what I do with my coach clients. This is really important. I am the bridge between the scientific principles and I weave them into a strategy that will work for you. So you can stop living on caffeine and the vending machine snacks and putting on weight and feeling like garbage and just crawling from one shift to the next and actually really enjoying your days off and thriving. I move you from literally just surviving the shift to actually thriving outside of your job. That is my mantra, giving you more energy to enjoy your time away from your work. Because when that happens, you enjoy going to work so much better. I've got clients at the moment, and I've coached in the past that have been ready to walk away until we've given them so much life outside of their job that their job just becomes a side hustle now. They just go into work and do the work and then they come out because they they're just enjoying so much outside of it. And you can do that too. So if you are ready to stop guessing and start feeling like yourself again and you want to start thriving, I'm here to help you. I work with people one-to-one to build a sustainable plan, habits and routines that respects your body and your busy life. It's not a cookie-cutter plan. This is all about you and I. And every single week, you and I catch up and we have a conversation, we navigate the roadblocks and we get you absolutely thriving. We find solutions together. Now, in the show notes down the bottom, there is a link for you to go to my one-to-one coaching page. And on that page, you can click and book a free 15-minute consultation with me. Yep, it's with me personally, where I will tell you and show you how I can help you in your shift working life. Aren't you done with struggling? Like honestly, I haven't got time for this. Oh, it's not the right time. Do you know what? That's just excuses and it's bullshit. What you need to do is you need to just get that guidance and help. Because those that have invested in themselves and have done the coaching with me have never looked back. It's helped them enormously. And you can be one of those as well. So go to the show notes, click the link, book the appointment, let's talk. Because that's you got nothing to lose. It's obligation free. We can chat. It's in the show notes. All right. Thank you very much for listening to that. Time restricted feeding versus intermittent fasting. If you got something out of that, click that link in the show notes that says tell me about text me about the episode. I love hearing from you. And what I'll do is I'll catch you on the next episode. Thanks for listening. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released. It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on. If you want to know more about me or work with me, you can go to ahealthyshift.com. I'll catch you on the next one.