As a shift worker veteran of 17 years, I have spent a good portion of my life feeling tired, exhausted and sleep-deprived. But I have to share with you something amazing that happened to me today thanks to Yuri’s wonderful book – Eating for Energy.
After starting work at 0330am (yes that is not a misprint), I reluctantly rose out of my bed at the hideous time of 0220am and made my way into work.
Nothing different at work – pretty much the same stuff, but it was what happened after work that totally overwhelmed me.
After returning home I decided to have a Raw Energy juice made of apples, spinach, ginger, celery and carrots. Delicious and certainly energizing as you’re about to find out.
You see whilst my husband has been away touring around Australia on his motor cycle, our garden had become somewhat overgrown. Now as my husband is the ‘green finger’ of the family rather than myself – things were becoming desperate. The lawn had become very overgrown which is not uncommon when you live in a tropical environment where it rains a lot. And I do mean a lot.
So after surviving on just 4.5 hours sleep I decided to dig out the trusty old lawnmower – which I must highlight to everyone who is reading this, that our lawnmower in in fact an old-fashioned pushmower. Yes that’s right. No motor and certainly no seat to sit on!
But because I was feeling so good after drinking my Raw Energy juice - pushing that mower around our overgrown yard was in fact easy. Yes that’s right, easy even though I was running on very little sleep.
So it goes to show how important it is to Eat FOR Energy rather than for the sake of eating.
Just like Yuri explains in his book – Eating for Energy, food choice is so important. At the end of the day – the food that you chose to put inside your mouth will either invigorate you, or zap you of precious energy.
As an energy depleted shift worker I know which one I’d rather chose. How about you?
Kind regards,
Audra Starkey
[The Healthy Shift Worker]
Now if you are a shift worker and I asked you this question, “Are you in search of more energy?” you would probably look at me a bit strangely. Considering the majority of shift workers wander around in a sleep-deprived state, a lack of energy certainly rates high amongst the Top 10 Shift Work Struggles.
