Is Variety the Spice of Life?

When you think about variety in your food and you think of the saying “Variety is the Spice of Life” do you believe this? Do you seek for this in your meals? So many of us get excited about novelty with our food, seeking new recipes, going to new restaurants. 

Imagine yourself like a kid in a candy store, and you walk in and look around you at the walls - floor to ceiling - so many enticing options. It’s exciting. It’s an endless sea of yummy treats. 

Think about going to eat at a buffet. There so much to pick from. The appetizer table, the entrees, the salads, the pastas, the meats, and don’t forget about the DESSERT table. The entire table covered with a million tantalizing treats. It’s really no surprise that the vast majority of us overeat at buffets. Right? Well, we don’t intend on it of course, but we think “oh, let me just try a little bit of this, and that” and before you know it you have a heaping plateful of food that is overflowing. And one round isn’t enough. There is usually a second and perhaps a third round before even getting to dessert.   

And when we think about eating the same thing over and over and over again, we think it’s boring, and mundane, and tasteless, and there is no vibrancy. Like watching TV in black and white.

So what I want to bring to your attention is that the feeling of constantly needing something new and interesting on your plate may be sabotaging your weight loss efforts. 

I personally enjoy having things be automatic. I like devoting the majority of my brain towards what I am going to do with my day, the activities I am engaged in, my work, my children, getting exercise, learning, instead of spending lots and lots of time meal planning. But the only way I can do this is because I’ve basically automated my food choices.

Does this mean I have no variety whatsoever, no. But what it means is that I have a basic scaffolding for what my meals look like - and I add variety on top.

By making many decisions in advance, you set yourself up for success.

Plan your week. Plan your meals.

One option is to decide on some go-to options for breakfast, meals that are enjoyable, healthy, and very easy to put together quickly. Breakfast becomes automatic. (note: breakfast tends to be one of the easiest meals to be on “automatic”).

Focus on seasonal variety.

Some people enjoy variety on a daily basis. If you have the time and energy to mix things up that frequently, and you are on track with your weight loss goals, that’s terrific. I’m more of a seasonal girl. I look for what is in season, and I eat a LOT of those fruits and vegetables all season long. I find dinner recipes that I can rinse and repeat frequently.

Batch prepping is really helpful - especially if you are really busy. Cook up a big meal on Sunday afternoon, and divvy it up into food storage containers so it will last for several days during the week.

You get the idea - the goal is to figure out how you can streamline your routine to make things both enjoyable and automatic. This way you set yourself up for success. Is it possible to incorporate some amount of variety while making things automatic for you so you don’t have to spend much time thinking about it?

The last thing I want to touch on is the concept of food enjoyment. For some of us, we expect that each meal should be a 10/10 on the pleasure scale. I’m here to tell you that it is a-ok if your meal isn’t a 10 out of 10 on the pleasure scale. Can you come to grips with that? What if I told you that you could have permanent weight loss if you reduce your pleasure from food by one unit, and instead you put that unit of pleasure towards other things. So like let’s say at your current state you are at a 10/10 for food pleasure - you eat what you want and you love it, but then you have this little issue with wanting to lose weight? What if instead I said, what if you had a 8 or 9/10 pleasure from food - but now you bump up the pleasure you have from other things - like some activity you engage in with your family or friends - like going shopping and getting dressed in the morning and having everything fit you just great.

What would that look like?  What would your life look like at your ideal weight?

What would your life look like if food weren’t the most exciting thing. What if food was just one very tiny part of your life, and you created a life where everything else is way more exciting?

What if you surprise yourself by what you are capable of?