Do you eat the same meals?
 

Im still figuring out what i want to eat and maybe get on a schedule.Do you eat the same meals over and over again or do you switch it up?Right now i eat grilled chicken cesars wraps at least 2 times a day.

I eat the same meals pretty frequently. I also started keeping a list in my phone of typical breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas. I'll usually make a big batch of something that I eat all week for lunch. I eat chicken cesar salad at least twice a week. I pretty much always have cottage cheese with pineapple for breakfast. I have 3-4 different snacks I switch between. It makes it easier for me to plan, because I know how much of each thing to eat, the calories in each, how full they make me feel, etc. And once I get sick of something, I have a list of go-to meals so that I don't have to think about it too much!

For me, weight loss has been sooo much about planning ahead and being prepared for anything. If it means I eat the same thing day in and day out, so be it.

I eat almost the same breakfast daily and lunch is a variation of just a few things. Dinner is when I experiment. But, I do better with routine. Otherwise there is too much thinking which for some reason overwhelms me (when it comes to food). When I get overwhelmed I eat outside my plan so it's best for me to keep it simple during the day.

Breakfast is normally the same thing (no sugar added hot cocoa or tea with yogurt) and I have a few options I rotate for lunch at work (frozen meal, sandwich, or veggie burger with fruit/veggies and a dairy like string cheese or yogurt...peanut butter also frequently makes an appearance because yum).

Dinner is much more varied, but only because I eat that meal with my husband who can't stand repetition. I, on the other hand, could probably subsist off of a handful of foods until the end of time. :D He thinks I'm a weirdo, but I've always been this way and was, until I moved in with him and adopted a lot of his eating habits, quite thin. So I've returned to my boring repetitive eating habits and the weight has been gradually coming off.

I'm sure this isn't the solution for everyone, but for me it takes a lot of the stress out of meals when I've got a plan.

I eat the same lunch every weekday: turkey sandwich on multigrain bread with lots of vegetables and some hot sauce. I really enjoy it and it saves me the danger of thinking, "hm, what am I in the mood for today?" Or "what looks good in the cafeteria today?"

For dinners I tend to cook several meals worth of a protein and eat it for a few evenings in a row, adding different vegetables to the meal each evening. This is mostly a time-saving technique - when I come home from work it is late and I am hungry and not up to preparing a whole meal; much easier to heat something up that I cooked over the weekend and maybe invest just 15 minutes in preparing an extra vegetable.

OMG No!. That would be a recipe for disaster for me.

However, I have some recipes which are formulaic and which i can get endless variations by using them.

If you want to see my recipe ideas, read through my thread but especially look for my bean salad which is also a lentil salad. Its very healthy and very tasty and can be as variable as you like.

Of course i do cook some of the same meals often but they are always slightly different. I mean even my spaghetti with tomato sauce has a lot of variation in it. Sometimes i add mushrooms, sometimes onions and mushrooms, sometimes i add smoked salmon. Sometimes i leave out the tomato sauce and put in sun dried tomato pesto instead. Anyway endless.

But like others have said, if i make a big dish of something i might have to eat for four meals before its all gone. If i can, i put some in the freezer for some other time.

More or less, yes. I have a few breakfasts I can make quickly and easily and same thing for lunch. Dinner is more creative. Some people do really well eating the same breakfast or lunch but I tend to get bored that's why I have a few ideas I can pick easily from. It helps not to have to think too much about a quick meal.

Right now its basic and routine. Will get more creative once closer to goal.

I eat the same breakfast and have a few variations on lunch and dinner. I stick with what I know is safe. I also have a few variations on snacks. If I'm craving salty carbs I air pop popcorn with some garlic salt or if I'm craving sweet I have some melon or craving ice dream I have a fruit bar and so on. It may sound a bit boring but honestly, I used to eat the same thing over and over before I was trying to eat healthy (i.e. I'd order the same extra value meal at mcdonalds or when I went out I'd usually order prime rib).

I need variety or I would quit. Plus... it's hard to get all your nutrients in if you aren't eating a variety of foods.

WIth that said, I tend to eat only one or two different things for breakfast and a few different things, but pretty routine for lunch. It's dinner that is completely varied - and very seasonal.

I eat pretty much the same lunch everyday. I rotate meats for dinner, But on Monday's we have meatballs, Tuesdays pesto chicken, Wednesdays pork loin etc...So it comes to same meal for each weekday.

I love eating the same thing everyday. Always did even when it was Nutella and 1.5 loaves of bread. Coincidentally enough, that love has helped me with my current diet because I feel happy in my "bland" routine. i still like changes - just more rarely than most people - like foods on special vacation or trip and I'm happy to taste everything, but as far my meals go - same old same old is great.

I go through phases where I eat one meal a lot for several weeks. This time it's cheese and sourdough bread. Last time it was chicken breast and vegetables. One day I just decide I'm tired of eating it and switch to something different. Meatballs sounds good, I think I'll have a go at that! :)

I have a few standard meals or sides that i use, it makes it easier as i know that those meals are ok for my macros etc.i do try out new things and add them in if thye work for me

I like to eat the same things. I know how they make me feel/their calorie or carb counts, plus I make sure they're things I really enjoy.

I agree with this but didn't realise quite how important it was until this morning when i read in my current book that we need hundreds of different nutrients in our diets and without them we do not function quite so effectively and it makes weightloss harder.

So while i understand it may be easier to eat the same foods over and over again to stay on a diet, there is still a level at which you and me are probably not aware of that makes weightloss speed less than optimal.

I learned that we should eat 30 more different types of food each week to achieve our maximum nutrition.

one fascinating thing i read in the same book was that our body is producing cancer cells all the time. She writes " one of the reasons most people don't get cancer is that the immune system is constantly tracking down those aberrant cells and destroying them before they get out of hand. By eating a varied diet you help keep your immune system in top condition and thereby help protect yourself against cancer and other chronic diseases."

She follows this up with a convincing discussion about how nutritional supplements simply do not cut it in comparison with a varied diet.

So this all comes from a book called The Don't go Hungry Diet by Dr Amanda Sainsbury-Salis and on page 140 143.

so i don't want to make you start stressing too much but its worthwhile trying to include more food variety into your diet if you want long term success - which i do.

I eat mostly the same each day but massively vary my protein source (which is fish). So, it's oats for breakfast with fish. Then salad for lunch with fish. I stock at least 30 varieties of fish, so that makes for a lot of variety.

Ian a lot of variety of the same food type does not cut it. You are mainly getting a variety of flavours but not much more than that as far as i can tell.

The nutritional profiles of fish do vary. Oily fish are quite different to white fish. Plus the risks from mercury and other contaminants varies too. As does sustainability. Fish certainly provide more variety than meats.

Mostly the same until I get tired of it. I go with my cravings, within reason, of course!

I don't think i'm saying they don't vary just not significantly enough to provide the breadth of nutrition you and all of us would most benefit from.

But i don't expect you to change what you do because i recommend it. I know you are happy where you are. Its no sweat off my back.

I do find it easiest to lose and maintain when I'm eating mostly the same things up until dinner time.

For example, during the year when I was at my lowest weight, my work week diet looked like this:

B:
* Plain fage 2% greek yogurt; a del monte red grapefruit cup.
OR
* Oatmeal with mixed nuts (100 calories worth), cinnamon, and some milk.

L:
*Whichever breakfast I didn't have.
OR
* Packet of tuna or salmon, single serving of cheese, fresh fruit or veg.
* Fresh fruit, nuts, and cheese.
* Hummus or guac with fresh veg.
* Amy's bean burrito
* frozen Kashi meal

S:
* Protein bar
* Nuts

And then I'd have more variety at dinner. Sometimes I'd just eat tons of roasted veg with parmesan, but usually I'd have protein and lots of veg. I'd also often eat various types of eggs sandwiches. Sometimes I'd eat higher calorie foods for dinner, like hamburgers and fries, tacos, and various pasta dishes.

On the weekends, I had less of a routine.

Eating like this and working out most days made it easy for me to maintain a size 2, something that's been impossible for me to do w/o that structure.

Breakfast is very typical: cereal with a piece of fruit OR a big fruity green smoothie. I've been doing cereal for the past 2 weeks simply because that's what I've desired when I woke up.

Lunch: varies, but typically something like peanutbutter&jelly sandwich, canned soup, canned pasta, baked beans, veggies, fruits,
I like canned or quick stuff I can grab in the morning to take to work. I put my veggies/fruits in plastic containers days before so I pull them out of the fridge quickly when I want them.

dinner: varies, sometimes the lazy route of canned food again, but other times more elaborate like spaghetti, veggie burgers and fries, etc.

I will never be a cook-from-scratch kind of person. I just don't like cooking enough. But my diet is still a million times better than when my entire life was boxed, canned animal products full of HFCS and sodium galore.

There are a lot of things that I like and therefore eat over and over again, but I also cook once to eat several times. This means that I'm often eating the same things again and again.

For example, I'll cook one muffin tin (12) egg muffins so that I can eat 2 for breakfast daily. I make 1lb of shredded chicken breast to add to salads for the week. I also make one batch of stew, chili, or soup, and divide it into individual portions to freeze. I always make homemade gluten free squash/chicken nuggets and zucchini/turkey meatballs and have them on-hand in my freezer and sometimes make high fiber/low carb breakfast or regular burritos for my freezer.

This way I'm not always eating the same food several days in a row, but I have so many meals that are just a microwave away from being served AND I already have the calorie counts labeled on the foods.

I tend to go toward the same snacks - I've been eating baby carrots dipped in either ranch or hummus almost daily for 6 years!

A typical day for me is:
B: 2 egg muffins (100 cals)
S: serving of fruit (50 cals)
L: salad with chicken OR something I've made and portioned in my freezer (200 cals)
S: raw veggies with dip (150 cals)
D: VARIES so much 300-500 cals
S: VARIES depending on what's left from dinner (100-300 cals)