I never perhaps thought that one day I’d ever be writing about food, or associate myself as being a bit of a foodie. The relationship I had food and used to be easy going – I ate all I could and watched the pounds (lbs) like the food bill mount up. It wasn’t until late 2018/ early 2019, that I started to notice changes with my gut health and experienced sensitivities like stomach cramps, diarrhoea, constipation and flatulence when eating certain food, so I made the decision to visit my GP and find out what was going on with my gut. After I had my blood test to rule out the possibility of other conditions such as Coelliac Disease and Crohn’s Disease, my GP advised that it may be Irritiable Bowel Syndrome.

My relationship with food had to change.

Free From and Gluten Free options at the time were limited; and sometimes there wasn’t any at all. I had also not long started a job in the railway where a core skill and responsibility was food handling, so I felt I had a responsibility to demonstrate to my employer that I could manage my gut health as a shift worker safely, with all due diligences applied. That is when I also observed that as a shift worker with a diagnosed gut health condition, Gluten Free and Free From meals are not at a convenience and definitely priced at a premium, so that has meant spending all my rest days in the kitchen, meal prepping and batch cooking whilst battling the post shift fatigue and countless trips to the supermarket, all to keep my gut happy.

With upmost certainty that I won’t be the only one dealing with such a dietary situation, so I hope that with this section of the website that I can share ideas for quick and easy meals to batch for working lates/nights (if your job requires you to); breakfast ideas for the early shifts and advise of products that are destined to be “on the go” – tried and tested by a fellow railway shift worker.