Do You Eat the Same Food All the Time?
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There was an interesting story in The Atlantic recently about The People Who Eat the Same Lunch Every Day (one man ate “a peanut-butter sandwich, with various fruit, vegetable, and dessert accompaniments . . . nearly every workday for about 25 years”), and I thought it might make for a fun conversation here.
I definitely do eat repetitive meals sometimes, and I'm always fascinated to meet someone who does it more rigidly.
So, let's discuss — do you eat the same lunch (or dinner) every day? Do you feel like it's most useful with the concept of decision fatigue (think Obama and Zuckerberg wearing the same thing every day), from a meal prep perspective, or from some other perspective (comfort, nutrition)?
First, a quote from The Atlantic article about how common this is:
One of the few existing surveys of people’s eating habits estimated that about 17 percent of British people had eaten the same lunch every day for two years; another indicated that a third of Brits ate the same lunch daily. But it’s hard to say for sure how common this really is, since these surveys tend to have been conducted by food purveyors, who might be inclined to exaggerate the ruts that diners are stuck in (and then try to sell them a way out). Still, loyalists who stick to a single meal for months or years—they are out there.
For my $.02, I've known two people who eat the exact same food all the time — every day, for months on end. One of them was my former personal trainer (dinner: spinach salad with strawberries and chicken) and one was a close male friend (dinner: Boca burgers).
My trainer was one of those older women who is super skinny through calorie control and cardio (one of the reasons I stopped seeing her since I want to gain muscle, although I liked her personally), and my guy friend was just really busy with law school and he'd decided Boca burgers were an easy thing to grab. He told me he knew it was time to switch it up when, upon the first bite of his Boca burger, he felt bile rising in his throat.
Personally, I definitely tend to alternate lunches between just a few meals, usually involving eggs: an omelet, eggs over hard, runny eggs with savory oats, or an egg sandwich from the freezer… I recently decided that because my willpower decreases during the day, that I should probably have my “no thought required” meal for dinner and instead try to find something else to eat for lunch… I'll let you know how that works out. (Today: fat-free, plain greek yogurt with PB2, hemp hearts, and chia seeds.) In my own head I tend to view these as healthy habits, but that's me.
{related: how to build good habits}
For those of you who do this from a purely nutritional perspective (or for ease of macro counting or something else), what foods do you eat — and how did you choose them?
I just splurged on the GenoPalate food assessment (since I'd already done 23 and Me years ago) and I may try to work some of their recommended foods into my diet on a much more regular basis. (Recommended starches and grains for me: quinoa, russet potatoes, amaranth, sweet potatoes, bulgur. I eat none of those regularly, unless fries count as potatoes…)
Readers, how about you guys — do you eat the same food all the time, or repeat meals regularly? (What are they?) For those of you who have successfully integrated that strategy into dining with others (partners, kids), how does that work out? How do you view the habit — something good to continue and grow in other parts of your life to cut down on decision fatigue, or something a bit weird?
Stock photo via Stencil.
I have probably about 8 meals I rotate through for breakfast/lunch/dinner. I like not having to think.
I eat cereal for breakfast almost every day, and certainly on weekdays. I like it, have done it since childhood, and I have zero energy to reinvent the breakfast wheel every day, so to speak.
I have eaten an egg sandwich nearly every day for breakfast for the past 15 years!
Me too, and I have the tuchus to prove it! FOOEY!
I don’t. I like variety! Meal prepping is easier on your wallet or waistline but it just sucks too much joy from my life. A year ago one of my coworkers gave me a coupon for a free week of Hello Fresh and it changed my life. It guarantees that 3-4 nights a week I’ll have a home cooked meal without having to menu plan. Grocery store strips are streamlined since I’m mostly restocking basics, or grabbing some meat on sale to freeze for when nothing on the Hello Fresh menu is appealing and I skip a week. Breakfast is my most streamlined meal because I rotate between oatmeal or a smoothie. I’m working on figuring out a couple of go-to lunches I can throw together quickly to save money during the week.
I eat the same breakfast every day and if I am bringing lunch from home, it’s the same thing about 95% of the time. It’s just easier. I also ate a PB&J sandwich for lunch pretty much every day of middle and high school because my mom made me pack my own lunch and that was easiest:-)
I have the same breakfast pretty much every single day: poached egg on toast, side of bacon and an orange. I have pancakes or waffles for major holidays, and if I have breakfast out I’ll have an omelette (two-four days a year). If it works and still tastes yummy, why not?
I’ve probably had a blender drink based on mostly kale/parsley with a little fruit (more like cranberries and less sugary fruit) maybe with hemp protein or blob of yogurt, for about 2 years. I occasionally deviate to whole grain bread with avocado or sunflower seed butter, but I don’t like sweet things and eggs give me heartburn, so this works. It’s a routine but quick and healthy.
I typically skip breakfast.
Lunch is either leftovers, sauteed veggies with a fried egg or wedge of crustless quiche, or tuna salad with vegetables and/or crackers. Once in a while I’ll go on a sandwich kick, but I don’t keep bread in the house most of the time.
I have about a dozen go-to dinners. Some are quick and easy for low effort nights, and others are very labor intensive but good for days and days of leftovers. I rely on those when I have time to meal prep on the weekend. I usually do simple sides based on whatever produce is in season, but the entree part almost always something I can do on autopilot.
I eat the same breakfast every weekday (egg “muffin” frittata made with onion and red pepper chopped into scrambled eggs made in a muffin tin) and the same lunch every weekday if I bring it from home. Occasionally I’ll get lunch out with work friends or have a working lunch meeting where it’s provided. But otherwise I bring it from home and have the same thing (deli turkey sandwich on Arnold Thins with Laughing Cow cheese wedge spread on it and spinach, Chobani no fat Greek yogurt, baby carrots and a hummus dip, and 1-2 pieces of fruit). Dinner rotates through 5-10 favorites on my night to cook, and a similar range of options when my husband cooks.
I get very, very bored of all but my favorite foods, so no.
Same! That gagging feeling Boca Burger guy describes? I get that when I have the same food three days in a row unless it’s something I really, really like (inevitably something you should not be eating three days in a row, haha)
I eat the same breakfast every day. I just can’t think about it. Most weeknights, I eat the same or similar meal (salad with chicken, strawberries, blueberries, occasionally, a peach, with blue cheese and balsamic vinegar) mainly because I’m coming home hungry and tired from the gym and don’t feel like cooking or even eating something hot. I tried cooking different things and often didn’t feel like eating what I cooked. It’s also a good amount of food, so that’s good, since I work out a lot and need to eat a decent quantity. I also have a glass of wine and a little ramekin of M&Ms. My lunches vary, but it’s almost always something I have in the freezer at work, with either Greek yogurt or a banana for a snack at some point. It’s been funny dating someone new who always wants to know what I ate. I just laugh and say “same.”
I like the comfort of having the same things every day.
Breakfast: One cup (2 servings) of low-fat cottage cheese. 163 calories and 28 grams of protein. Sometimes I will have seasonal fruit (usually strawberries or watermelon) with it or instead of the cottage cheese if I am bored of it
Lunch: 2x/3x a week I go out, but the other days I have a peanut butter apple, cheese stick and three cuties. We have a short list of go-to restaurants, and I get the same things every time.
Dinner: This is the one thing that changes constantly. It is mostly me finding a recipe that looks good too me and that hubs would eat. Nights that he cooks we have half a chicken breast with either seasonings or BBQ sauce and a size of broccoli or green beans.
During the week I eat the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner unless I’m going out. This way I always get to eat my favorite foods and don’t have to think about it.
I once ate the same lunch (hummus, veggies, crackers, and cheese) every day for 12 weeks. I was teaching and only had a 15 minute lunch break, so it was great to have something cheap and high-protein that didn’t require heating up.
I typically eat the same breakfast every day–a fruit smoothie (made from orange juice + one of those giant bags of assorted frozen fruit) in the summer and a blueberry muffin in the winter. For lunch I’ll eat rice with butter or a frozen pizza.
Same breakfast everyday: a Dave’s Killer Bread Everything Bagel and whipped cream cheese.
I eat a bagged salad every day I’m in the office for lunch. With two small children, I meal prep enough for them and it cuts down on meal prep time for me there. And it keeps me from going out to lunch to save money.