As a shift worker, do you yearn to experience an abundant supply of energy? Would you like to find a way to squash that constant feeling of fatigue and exhaustion?

Well hold onto your hats because I’m about to share with you exactly how you can!

You see boosting your energy levels when you’re a shift worker is all about eating the right foods, and right foods equate to raw foods - foods that haven’t undergone a massive amount of processing, nor sprinkled with lots of additives and preservatives.

As most fruits and vegetables can be eaten raw, why is it that most of us insist on cooking them to death and destroying all of the goodness in them?

I believe it’s simply a habit that we have acquired over the years – but a habit that we can definitely change.

Now there are certainly many advantages to eating raw food as opposed to cooked food. To begin with they have an abundance of vitamins, minerals, and most importantly, enzymes. Enzymes play an important role in aiding digestion – think constipation, bloating, and flatulence … all of those fun things!

Eating raw foods can reduce over-eating habits; improve your overall health and vitality levels; and also lower your chances of developing life-threatening illnesses including heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

On the other hand, cooked foods have lost many of their vitamins and minerals and all of their enzymes through exposure to heat, water and air.

The longer food is cooked, the greater the loss of nutrients. Without the help of enzymes, cooked foods take longer to digest and have a much higher chance of fermenting of putrefying in your stomach.

And on top of all that, the extra effort your tummy has to put into digesting cooked foods leaves you with a lot less energy to expend on all of the fun things in your life!

So start eating some raw foods today.

* In the morning, instead of canned or stewed fruit on your cereal, try adding a grated pear or apple.

* At lunch, have a salad sandwich instead of meat or cheese.

* At night, have some salad with your dinner.

* And instead of reaching into the pantry for some crunchy potato chips as a snack (we’re all guilty of doing this at some point in time) – try munching on a crunchy apple or carrot instead.

Nature has provided us with an abundance of foods that we can eat raw – fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, some fish (OK – this may not be everybody’s cup of tea), sprouted grains and sprouted legumes.

I’m certainly not suggesting that you only eat raw foods, but at least increase the amount of raw foods that you’re eating right now.

So stop feeling sorry for yourself and feeling like an energy depleted shift worker. Remember that the more raw foods that you eat, the more energy, health and fitness that you’ll have.

Have you ever gone on a diet to lose weight but you ended up cheating a little bit – or perhaps even a lot? Now I want you to be brutally honest with me here … because I’m feeling pretty confident that you would be guilty of this, at some point in time.

Now when you committed this little “misdemeanour” – did you throw in the towel and quit, feeling miserable that you failed yet again on another one of your diets?

Well join the millions of other people around the world.

Because realistically – what’s a good diet without a bit of cheating?

And just to make you feel a little bit better – MOST people cheat whenever they start any new diet or eating program. Why? Because whenever you go on any new ‘diet’ – psychologically you think that you’re going to have to deprive yourself of food that you’ve grown to know and love.

Essentially you feel like you’re going to have to miss out on something. And to be honest, most people don’t have the willpower to beat temptation.

But the good news is that if you actually incorporate a little bit of “cheating” into your diet plan, it will actually enhance your chances of staying on the diet long term.

Now I can hear you say – “But won’t cheating defeat the purpose of going on a diet?”

Actually no – because being deprived of any of your favourite foods is certainly not an enjoyable experience, and who wants to do something that they don’t enjoy?

I don’t know about you, but if you were to tell me that I was never going to be able to eat another chocolate bar again or even a bowl of my favourite ice cream – then I would have to say – “you can keep your diet … I’m going to eat whatever I like!”

So what’s my little secret weight loss tip?

It’s called cheating in moderation.

Because if you can learn how to cheat in moderation, then you’re more likely to enjoy being on your diet as you can essentially ‘have your cake and eat it too’.

Now when I mean “in moderation” – I mean feeling totally guilt free about having something naughty to eat every now and then. For example, you could make Sundays the day that you allow yourself some dessert after dinner. (After all … dessert is meant to be a treat anyway, not a daily part of our routine).

So just remember, a diet made up entirely of healthy whole foods will certainly enhance your chances of leading a long and healthy life.

But a diet with mostly healthy foods plus a few splurges every now and then – will help ensure you lead a fairly long, healthy and happy life.

And one that includes chocolate chip cookies as well!