Please Feed The Models

How Meal Prep Can Make or Break Your Cam Shift

I spend an awful lot of time talking one on one with cam performers, strippers, Pro Dommes and other sex workers. Something that I feel comes up again and again is FOOD. When I worked at the stripclub I used to wear a little half shirt that said PLEASE FEED THE STRIPPERS. Literally doing physical labor and exercise and you need calories!

Our favorite customers were the ones who brought in a sandwich from our favorite place or in My case, My favorite tortellini soup and some fresh crusty bread! Yum! I can still feel the vibes of the dark club, eatin that soup wearing a bikini clackin My heels together happily under the bar. Belly full lapdances from a happy stripper just hit different.

When I managed the club, I noticed this pattern over and over:

A dancer would come in, sorta frazzled, late rush to get ready and hit the stage. That first hour was spent trying to get a few dances. Enough to buy a few drinks and buy yourself some chinese food. TONS of dancers actually missed out on sales because they were hangry.

I wondered what it would look like if I took the problem away. What if I FED everyone so they didn’t need to worry about making that first $50?

I started doing things like< taco bars, salad bars baked potato bars, pasta bars and sandwich bars. The dancers (and other staff) LOVED it. People were well fed, and HAPPY. It actually made a huge difference in morale. Sales went up! The customers even noticed and some would donate funds for our food or bring in big pizzas or subs to share. Ya know, I am a firm believer that alot of community happens around sex work spaces. But I digress….

FOOD is important well, for everyone. But most definitely for sexy people. Being sexy requires you to feel good about yourself and it’s very hard to feel good when you are hungry or hangry or even if you ate the wrong food.

I remember being on the set of an indie film, where I was playing a stripper and filming at a stripclub. The owner of the club was requiring me to do a few stage sets in order for us to film there. So, I was doing like 15 minute stage sets and then toweling off the sweat and filming takes for the movie. Tired, hungry, wobbly, trying to remember lines. Dealing with the politics of the strippers working at the club hating me and the actors from the film judging me for being a stripper and the owner trying to get me to work there and the customers wondering what was going on. It was alot. I was SO relieved when someone said we were braking for a meal. I was in a bikini with a hoodie over in and heels, sitting in some uncomfortable chair when I found out it was pizza. Greasy like diner pizza or something. I was so sad. Like, I was the only person in the cast who had to be filmed in a bikini spinning around a pole. I don’t want to do that after eating pizza. I want to take a nap. It was so greasy! I felt like such a diva when I asked if there was any way I could get something else. Everyone was super annoyed and I am so sure I *WAS* perceived as a diva but I ended up with a turkey sandwich (much better option!)

Just, knowing myself and how food makes me feel I knew eating pizza would likely make me feel sick and not give me the nourishment I needed. So like, if pizza is your food that makes you feel good and nourished and not oily and gassy then that is wonderful for you! Everyone is different and you gotta know yourself.

In 2014 I started paying close attention to food and the relationship I had with it as it related to Me dancing at the club. I started eating super healthy. Packing high protein snacks. Eating fruits and yogurt and rice cakes in the morning. Drinking black and green teas instead of coffee. Packing massive chop salads and soups with crusty bread and veggies with hummus. Foods that I felt good eating in a bikini.

Now, when I got HOME from the club at 4 am that’s a different food story. After a long night and a long drive and so much physical activity I wanted to carb load! I actually probably wanted the greasy pizza and wings and Chinese takeout.

Ow, where I lived everything was closed so I had to just be smart. I was way too tired to cook, so I had to meal prep.

I would make some awesome pasta with veggies, big batches of chicken fried rice and chili and cornbread. If I had made money and had a good night AND had food ready when I was hungry I was guaranteed to have a great night sleep and feel great when I woke up.

In 2015 I started using #strippersnacks and began sharing the little snacks I was bringing to the club. Prompting other dancers to share what they were eating. Dancers are in general a great group of cooks!

When I began camming BEFORE going in for shifts at the club I doubled down on the meal prep because my time was even more limited. I began making big batches of things I loved and that made me feel good that would last for a few days at a time.

I know that lately meal prep has been a trendy topic and some folks can take it to various extremes.

These days since I don’t cam or dance, but I DO long hours in the office, and out on the farm, I still need to maximize my time. I can’t sit around figuring out what to make each day and shopping for ingredients. I live in the country and so I need to plan a weekly or bi weekly grocery trip so I can be home process all the food and have what I need to succeed.

I get up at 5:30 AM to start the fire, and I already have water in the tea kettle, and my tea bag ad cup out and a spoon for yogurt and a little bowl. I have some oatmeal I’ve already made a batch of. Some weeks I make a few pre made breakfast sandwiches that I wrap in foil and can pop in the air fryer. I pre pack or plan my lunches, which are often leftovers from dinner the night before but also sandwiches, soups and salads. Soup is a favorite of mine and a great way to get extra vitamins and minerals and benefits from plants and animals by making bone broths. I also get up so early that I find I often want soup for a second breakfast around 9 or 10 am.

I write a weekly menu that includes breakfasts and lunches and dinners. I do cook dinner about 5 days a week now which is a privilege I enjoy alot. But even then, from scratch cooking takes alot of effort and planning so I have to make sure I have a plan, am using up what I have and not wasting food, and that my eeds are being met. Nobody wants to eat the same bland shit every day for 4 days. I make sure I switch it up and make great meals full of flavor.

I think it can beefit almost every single type of sex worker to be meal prepping. It can really improve your interactions with customers.

I know many cam models who have been doing it long enough to know they need:

Tae at the start of a shift. A break after 2 hours to eat a little snack, and then just like dancing; many cam performers want to carb load after a shift.

My personal favorite post cam shift meal is homemade mashed potatoes and gravy with chicken nuggets and broccoli.

Thats a really easy thing to prep! Aside from the nuggets which I can make in just a few minutes, I can make mashed potatoes and by day 3 of them I will just make them into potato pancakes and eat them a different way.

I think it’s a great practice if you are self employed especially, to write a weekly menu, that is informed by your weekly schedule. There might be some days you know you won’t have time to prep and that’s ok you can schedule ahead to order out, but it’s a great feeling to have the bulk of your meals be healthy and ready for you. It can change your whole day, your whole vibe and how you feel. Try it for a month and see what does and doesn’t work for you.

If it works out and makes you feel better, plan to regularly schedule meal prep into your work and home life to make things easier for yourself!

In addition to hopefully leading to a better attitude which leads to more sales which leads to more money which leads to more self confidence which leads to continued money….meal prep ALSO offers some additional benefits.

Stress relief in general. Food anxiety is real and trying to figure out what you’re going to eat all the time is mentally taxing. You can take that off your plate so to speak.

If you are trying to save money, meal planning and planning to use all parts and leftovers of what you buy and make, can really make a huge difference in savings. If you buy takeout alot you should see almost an immediate difference in your wallet when you eat homemade meals instead.

It can also offer variety into your diet, you can try different things and combinations and switch things up, you are your own private chef! Keep some notes about how you’re feeling, what you like the most and things you might want to try in the future.

It can lead to better eating habits and less last minute bad decisions for meals and snacks. Which leads to better health and that’s always a plus!

If you are stuck on ideas there’s endless blogs, vlogs and social media accounts about meal prepping with some good ideas and recipes that re-heat well.

I’ve highlighted a few of my favorites in this article but some of my other faves to meal prep are:

Dressings. I like to make seasonal fresh vinaigrettes for salads and veggies. I also make yogurt sauces with fresh herbs and lemon and use it for eggs, fish, cous cous and all sorts of other things.

Stuffed squashes. I make acorn squash hubbard squash and even pumpkin stuffed with various things. Ground lamb or beef, rice and veggies, layers of cheese and turkey, spices and ginger and butter. I love them fresh ot of the oven and they reheat well too. I’m also a fan of this as a fast meal that I can reheat and doesn’t have a ton of components I have to put together. One bowl!

As mentioned, I love making soups. I will buy a whole chicken and roast it with root veggies and eat for dinner. Eat it again for lunch. Take the meat off the bones and make chicken salad to go on the side of a green salad with crackers. And then make broth with the bones and carcass. If there’s enough meat leftover I’ll make a soup, but I always save quarts of chicken broth in the freezer so I can use it to cook with. I use it to quickly make a butternut squash soup, or make my Italian comfort food, pastina with egg.

I also love to pre make overnight oats and chia seeds and flax seeds and add fruits and spices and brown sugar then heat up to eat and add milk.

I am also always a fan of hardboiling a few eggs to eat on the go or in salads or for breakfast. Sometimes just a simple thing such as hard boiling some eggs can make or break your day!

Let me know if this is working for you or if you have any favorite meal prep strategies or recipes!