A lot of us are creatures of habit. I certainly am. I order the same dish at Lang Van every Wednesday (ginger tofu with vegetables). And maybe you really love these foods, and the routine of ordering them and eating them feels nice and cozy.
That’s fine! That’s great! Dig in. But also be aware of these signs that eating the same foods all the time is no longer serving you. Is it time to consider switching it up?
(1) You eat your routine meal and find yourself immediately scrounging for something after.
This is often a lunch problem. You eat your usual homemade salad or sandwich that you schlepped to your office (or home office). Then 10 minutes later, your hand’s in the office snack drawer or stuck in a bag of chips in your pantry.
Face it: You’re either bored of what you’re eating or you’re not adding enough variety (or enough nutrients) to your homemade dish.
(2) You’re not looking forward to your meal.
Food should be exciting! Let it be an experience, let it be an adventure. Not only will that help increase your sense of emotional satisfaction (which can translate to physical satisfaction) with your meal, but it will also help add some simple joy and satisfaction to your day as a whole.
Grab something new from Trader Joe’s that sounds interesting, or grab something from a café you haven’t tried yet. Or maybe just pick something from an entirely different section of the menu you always order the same thing off of. (I really need to branch out at Lang Van.)
(3) You view your usual picks as “safe foods.”
This is a tricky one. Maybe you turned to a routine salad because that’s what you started trusting your body to consume when you were letting go of disordered behaviors. Maybe you turned to that routine salad because that’s what makes you feel comfortable in your body due to your dieting mentality.
Either way, deeming these foods as “safe” means you’re not trusting your behavior around other foods, and/or you’re not trusting your body to be able to take in and process different foods without weight gain, etc.
But your body can handle a lot! Give it something new. Even if you just start adding to your safe foods, versus trying to change it all up at once. Add – and trust your comfortable fullness cues. Your body knows.
