Need ideas as far as food:

I agree, now where do they hide a good bagel

 

that stuff is disgusting reheated or cold...

My answer for the op is hungry man dinners. Cook em in the oven at home and then refrigerate at work (power cooler for the win, or just lunchbox with ice.....), and then reheat. Tastes waaay better than cooking them in the microwave in my opinion.

 

Another thing I used to take was summer sausage, cheese and crackers.

 

If I was going back OTR I'd pack up a Nutrisystem program. It's all there for what you need and it's not all that bad. 30 days runs about $300 which would save some money and you'd get healthy too.

But just running at night and needing only one meal I'd look at what Phroiaz is saying about TV dinners. Or have the wife make leftovers so all you have to do is re-heat.

 

Because of your hours, you should take this very seriously. Depending on how well you sleep during the day, your biological clock could be severely comprised thus really screwing with your metabolism. I think you should consider consulting a professional dietician.

 

This is more along the lines of leftovers, but here are a couple of quick and easy meals that are good leftover. Just need to find a microwave at a store or something.

1. Get a boneless/skinless chicken breast or two, cut into bite size pieces and season how you like (I prefer Angelo's poultry seasoning). Heat a skillet and melt a little butter in it. Cook the chicken on med-high heat until starting to get golden brown. I enjoy this with rice and green beans.

2. Get a pound of burger meat, season with Lawrys season salt, garlic powder and some Worcestershire sauce. Dice half of a med onion fine and the other half in fairly large dices. Mix the fine diced onion with the meat mixture and make into patties. Cook the patties in a med to med-high skillet until they are done along with the large onion dices. I like to add Worcestershire sauce as I'm cooking too. I enjoy this with rice, green beans or corn.

3. If you have the time and a smoker, smoke ya a brisket or a pork butt. This will be enough meat for several meals. You can freeze the meat so you dont have to eat it all at once.

I have a recipe page at http://cookinwithchuck.blogspot.com with some good stuff there. Not necessarily for eating on the road, but some of the stuff there should be trucker friendly.

 

Speaking of the biological clock. I worked shift work for many years, changing shifts every month. Your body never has a chance to "reset the clock" when you work like this.

However, since you pretty much work the same hours, you can make your life revolve around your "work clock." In other words, keep your sleeping hours pretty much the same, whether it is during your work week, or during your time off. Your biological clock will eventually reset itself to where it gets used to these hours.

Thousands of folks work other than the "normal" day shift, and have no problem with it. You just have to "train" your body to make it your normal schedule.

 

I haven't had much success in training my body in these types of situations. It is part of the reason I'm OTR. My schedule still does vary quite a bit, but 80% of the time I'm sleeping at night and driving during the day for the most part.

Different kinds of local jobs I've had, I've ended up working all kinds of crazy hours. I can do it, but it messes with my sleep, digestion, and everything else. My best hours of operation are between 9am and midnight.

 

Perhaps I should have mentioned also that thousands of other folks DO have a problem with it. I firmly believe that a lot of this has to do with your age when you first start doing it.

I believe it is much harder when you have worked a "normal hours" job for many years, then go into different hours when you are middle aged, than it is to start out as a kid doing shift work.