As a tradie, we know how busy you can be onsite – barely having time to eat a meal or even a snack! But eating well as a tradie is super important to your overall health. It may sound obvious, but although eating Macca’s or a meat pie every day for lunch might be the quickest, easiest and cheapest option, it’s not always what’s best for your body and overall health.

In the 2017-18 National Health Survey run by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, data showed that two-thirds (67.0%) of Australians 18 years and over were overweight or obese. Besides this, a survey run by CSIRO found that tradies have the worst diets in Australia compared to any other profession. Even though tradies tend to do more physical labour than any other profession, these statistics are alarming. Being physically fit is important for you to be able to perform in your job, but it doesn’t replace nutrition or the need to eat healthy onsite. While you may not always able to have easy access to high-quality foods, there are ways to combat and work around this.

Barriers and how to drop the excuses!

If you’re a tradie and trying to eat healthy, you may be hit with all kinds of barriers onsite. While it may be easy for a lot of office workers and other professions to bring a packed lunch every day, this same option might not be as feasible for tradespeople. This, however, should not be an excuse to not eat healthy. Metabolic Balance Practitioner Melanie Hartskeerl from One Life Health says that “tradies, if anything, should be more mindful about eating, as their jobs are very physically demanding.” Here are some ways that you can ensure you are eating well and limiting your junk food intake during the week and limit your pie-eating to, (maybe) once a week.

Amenities - Working onsite doesn’t always provide access to a fridge or somewhere to keep a meal cool and fresh – especially during summer! Bring an esky! Many options around bringing a pre-prepared meal require time, effort and planning in advance – something that’s often pushed aside at the thought of having to get up at the crack of dawn. It’s certainly much easier to grab breakfast on the go!

Preparation is key: Although this was one of the barriers, it can easily be flipped to work in your favour. We’re not suggesting smashing out a full day of meal prep on Sunday (although feel free to, because this would eliminate a lot of work during the week!), but there are some easier, healthier options to get you ready for the week ahead:

· Double your dinner recipe the night before so you can take leftovers for lunch. This one won’t require any extra time or effort, as you are already going to be cooking dinner anyway, so why not just make extra?!

· Organise yourself the night before rather than the morning of work and pack your lunch and snacks before you go to bed. We know that it’s a pain to get off the couch at night and think about what you’re going to eat tomorrow, but you’ll thank us in the morning when you get an extra few minutes of sleep instead of frantically raiding the pantry!

· Add extra fruit and vegetables where you can – this doesn’t have to be a big effort but can be as simple as adding some lettuce and cucumber to your sandwich, or some cherry tomatoes to a salad.

Convenience and appeal – Sure, you could easily grab a salad roll and bottle of water from the servo down the road which would be a better option, but let’s face it, that pie and bottle of coke have been screaming your name since smoko this morning! Unfortunately, the healthy option isn’t always the most appealing to us, so habits set in and pretty soon it becomes the norm to buy the unhealthier option.

Swap don’t stop: It’s a lot easier said than done to drop unhealthy food for healthy options, but you don’t need to stop eating the foods you love entirely – you can swap out some of your favourites for healthier options – we found helpful some examples provided by the Cancer Council that we’ve included below:

Location – Similar to the amenities, often the location where tradies work plays a big part in what they eat. While office workers have access to a fridge, microwave, bench space, cutlery and other things to help them with their meal prep, tradies usually only have a grubby esky in the back of a ute to prepare their meals, making takeaway the more appealing option. As well as this, areas where they work often have an abundance of quick, easy and tasty meal options.

Find balance: Melanie says that “finding a balance of macronutrients – good fats, carbohydrates and protein is easy enough to do if you know where to go and what to look for.” She also advises that “taking tins of tuna, beans or legumes (chickpeas) are an easy snack or protein option that you can add to a salad for lunch.” Although it is hard sometimes when basic amenities aren’t available to use, bringing a little cooler bag or esky can help keep rice dishes, wraps and salads fresh. Bringing snack foods as well that will keep you fuller for longer and are filled with good fats will also help to eliminate any unnecessary snacking – especially on that bag of chips we know you’ve been eyeing off! Things like seeds and nuts, bananas, apples and Medjool dates are all quick and easy snacking alternatives.

To find some of Melanie’s recommended recipe ideas, click here.

Eating well as a tradie can sometimes be a challenge, especially when the temptation to buy fast food is there due to price, taste and convenience. However, it is important that tradies fuel their bodies with the right foods to combat their physically demanding jobs. Preparing meals in advance, swapping out foods for healthier alternatives and eating a balanced diet are all ways which tradies can look after themselves while onsite.