How to Break Free From a Food Rut

Eating the same few foods day after day is boring. It also can leave you short on the nutrients you need. Learn how to move beyond a food rut! Dare to be a bolder eater—and you might just become a healthier one, too.

When it comes to food choices, there’s a fine line between a comfort zone and a rut. Eating the same few foods, even if healthy ones, means you might be missing out on key nutrients that come with a more varied food plan. In fact, research suggests that only by eating a diverse array of whole foods can you get all the nutrients your body needs.

Thankfully, breaking free from a food rut is not that hard. In fact, it can be easy, fun, and delicious. It takes the boredom out of eating and puts the enjoyment back in. All it takes is creativity and a willingness to become a more adventurous eater, along with a little planning. The perks? You’re more likely to get complete nutrition and greater enjoyment from your food. The following tips can help you move past your rut.

Pinpoint the reason for the food rut

The first step is to pinpoint how you fell into a food rut in the first place. This may take some self-reflection. And there may be more than one reason. First, human beings tend to be creatures of habit. But you can also fall into a food rut because of:

• Too little time or energy to plan, shop for, and prepare a variety of healthy foods
  
• A lack of motivation or inspiration to explore new foods
• Not knowing your way around a kitchen or a lack of cooking skills
• Too little information on how to choose healthy foods

There are steps you can take to overcome these hurdles. You can:

• Find easy and quick meals and snacks to make if time is a problem
• Save yourself the shopping time, recipe finding, and menu planning by signing up for a meal-kit delivery service
• Inspire yourself by cooking with a friend once a week and swapping recipes
• Search online for new, tasty and healthy recipes you’ve never tried before
• Choose one night each month to explore culturally inspired cuisines
• Take an online cooking class or watch a cooking show
• Choose restaurants you haven’t tried before that serve healthy foods

Learn how habits are formed and changed

There is some truth in the belief that humans are creatures of habit. There is a science behind this. The more you repeat certain actions, the more likely they are to become ingrained habits. Habits, once formed, may also be outside your conscious awareness. You keep repeating the same actions—like maybe eating the same foods over and over—without really thinking about it. For example, you also might be on autopilot when you get dressed or brush your teeth each day.

Habits also become ingrained because, each time you repeat an action, the reward pathway in your brain gets a little jolt of feel-good dopamine. This cements the habit even more deeply.

So, say your body cues you that you’re hungry. You then eat the same few foods you enjoy. And your brain gets a reward. You repeat. And since you don’t have to think when you’re eating the same foods each day, doing so may become the path of least resistance that you’re most likely to keep following. The next thing you know, you’re eating the same foods week after week.

But you can use this same cue-repetition-reward loop to form new eating habits, as well. Here’s a sample of how this might work.

• Cue: You feel hungry for a snack.
• Behavior: You reach for a new kind of fruit you just bought at the grocery store.
• Reward: You enjoy the new taste and texture and notice how good it feels to try something new.
  

When you repeat this set of steps over and over with new and different kinds of healthy foods, you may start to move past your rut. You’re likely to form a new habit of eating a diverse, nutrient-rich diet. It may take time and conscious thought at first. But with practice, you can form a new healthy habit to replace the old one.

Look at the big picture when building your new food plan

To break free from a rut, you’ll also want to explore new foods, new recipes, and a new way of meal planning. As you start to do that, it can help to step back and look at the “big picture” of balanced nutrition. This means building your new food plan on the food groupings listed below. Make sure to get a variety of:

• Fruits and veggies
• Whole grains
• Animal- and plant-based proteins

In addition to these 3 main building blocks, be sure your food plan also includes unsaturated fats. These fats can be found in avocados, fatty fish, nuts and seeds, and plant-based oils, such as olive, safflower, sunflower, and soy oils. And limit foods high in saturated fats. Try, as well, to drink plenty of water, and eat soups, broths, and juicy fruits and veggies to stay well-hydrated.

Color your plate with a rainbow of fruits and veggies

If you tend to eat only one or two kinds of fruits and veggies, you have a wonderful new world waiting for you. Eating a wide variety of fruits and veggies in a range of colors offers new tastes and textures. It also helps give you all the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants your body needs. Some research suggests you’ll also get a host of health perks, like these:

• A lower risk of heart disease, high blood sugar, and some cancers
• A lower risk of poor eyesight and poor night vision
• A stronger immune system
• Better bone strength
• Healthy cholesterol

Pull from the rainbow of colors below:

• Orange/Yellow: Apricots, carrots, oranges, bell peppers, peaches, sweet potatoes, mango, pineapple, pumpkin, butternut squash, cantaloupe
• Green: Avocado, asparagus, kale, spinach, romaine lettuce, kiwifruit, green bell peppers, broccoli
• Red/Purple/Blue: Strawberries, beets, kidney beans, cranberries, raspberries, red or pink grapefruit, blueberries, red bell peppers, cherries, plums, eggplant, figs, tomatoes, watermelon
• White/Tan: Banana, mushrooms, dates, cauliflower, onions, white corn

Search for new recipes, snacks, and meals with each of the colors of the rainbow in them. Or, to come up with your own, you could:

• Color a salad of dark leafy greens with carrots, strawberries, mushrooms, and beets
• Whip up a fruit salad with sliced mango, oranges, blueberries, raspberries, and bananas
• Make a pot of soup or chili with carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, yellow corn, and tomato

Read more about the health perks of following the rainbow when choosing fruits and veggies.

Mix and match your whole grains

Whole grains are a good source of carbohydrates. And carbs help fuel your body to give you the energy you need to go about your day. But if you’ve fallen into the habit of eating a bowl of quick oats each morning, and no other grains for the rest of the day, you may want to mix it up some with these and other types of whole grains: quinoa, wild rice, whole wheat, barley, corn, or rye.

Again, to get the most nutrients from grains, eat whole grains, at least most of the time. Some grains are highly refined by the time they reach the grocery store. Many of the nutrients are stripped out during the refining process. Look for the word “whole” before the name of a grain on breads, pastas, and other baked products. And buy new types of bulk grains you’ve not eaten before to use in new recipes.

Get creative with your whole grains and try new ways to prep them. Search online or in your favorite cookbook for inspiration. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Try a different type of rice each week. Rice is great in soups, stews, and burritos, and as a bed for stir-fried and sautéed dishes with sauces. Use wild rice or brown, red, purple, or black rice in place of white rice.
• Instead of refined grains, like couscous or white rice, mix it up with some quinoa or barley.
• Cook up some whole grain buckwheat waffles for a special breakfast. Try a savory twist by adding herbs and spices, chopped onion, and garlic to the waffle mix. Then top your cooked waffles with a savory veggie scramble or sauce.
• Serve whole corn tortillas with a meal instead of refined white bread or rolls.
• Add a snack of plain, air-popped popcorn in place of your usual afternoon or evening chips or pretzels.

Protein is a vital building block for bones, muscles, skin, hair, and nails. It is needed to repair and build tissues. Protein aids in digestion and helps regulate hormones. And it is part of the red blood cell system that moves oxygen through your body.

It may be surprising to learn that you can get protein from many different kinds of foods. Protein comes from both animal and plant sources. Animal sources include:

• Meat
• Poultry
• Fish
• Eggs
• Dairy

Plant sources of protein may be often overlooked. But they are also high in protein and lower in saturated fat. You can get plenty of protein by adding these to your food plan:

• Nuts and seeds: almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, sesame seeds
• Dried or canned black beans, red beans, pinto beans, peas, lentils
• Soybeans, edamame, miso, tempeh, tofu

Learn more about the role a plant-based diet plays in the health of the planet.

Try to get your protein from a variety of sources, rather than just one or two. And as with your produce and whole grains, look for new recipes online that appeal to you and use more than one source of protein.

Putting together your new food plan

While you are being creative and trying new foods, you may want a guideline for crafting your meals. Try the Healthy Eating Plate  from Harvard. This downloadable pdf features a graphic of how much of each food group to serve yourself when you fill your plate.

Do you have questions about your food choices?

Be sure to talk with your doctor if you have any health issues or questions about the type or amount of food you should eat each day. The amount of protein recommended depends on a person’s weight, for example. So, you may want to get personalized information when you work on your food plan. Is it possible to eat too much protein? Find out here.

All of the nutrients needed for the body’s functions aren’t found in one food or even in one food group. The key is to eat a variety of nutrient-rich foods to meet your needs. But keep in mind that a variety of unhealthy foods (think junk food) won’t do you much good. Use the food groups mentioned in this blog, along with the tips for adding more variety to your food plan. You can have fun trying new foods and new meals. And that kind of open and adventurous mindset can help you transition from a food rut to diverse, healthy, and enjoyable eating.

Not a member? You can find more helpful healthy living tips like this by joining the Silver&Fit^® program today! Learn more about everything the program has to offer here on our website.

This information is not intended to take the place of regular medical care or advice. Please check with your doctor before using this information or beginning any self-care program.

References

Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. (2021). Food sources for 5 important nutrients for vegetarians. https://www.eatright.org/food/nutrition/vegetarian-and-special-diets/food-sources-of-important-nutrients-for-vegetarians

American Psychological Association. (2021). Speaking of Psychology: How the science of habits can help us keep our New Year’s resolutions, with Wendy Wood, PhD. https://www.apa.org/research/action/speaking-of-psychology/behavioral-habits

Dorfner, M. (2017). Are you getting too much protein? https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/are-you-getting-too-much-protein/

Duhigg, C. (2014). The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Random House Trade Paperbacks: NY, NY

Ersche, K. D., Lim, T.-V., Ward, L. H. E., Robbins, T. W., Stochl, J. (2017, October 1). Creature of habit: A self-report measure of habitual routines and automatic tendencies in everyday life. Personality and Individual Differences, 116, 73-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.04.024

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (n.d.). Carbohydrates. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates/

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (n.d.). Healthy eating plate. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-plate/

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (n.d.). Plate and the planet. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/sustainability/plate-and-planet/

Harvard Health Publishing. (2021). The best foods for vitamins and minerals. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-best-foods-for-vitamins-and-minerals

Mayo Clinic (n.d.). Follow the rainbow to your health. https://mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/follow-the-rainbow-to-your-health

Mayo Clinic. (2019). Nutrition and healthy eating. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/basics/nutrition-basics/hlv-20049477

Nemec, P. B., Swarbrick, M. A., Merlo, D. M. (2015, September). The force of habit: Creating and maintaining a wellness lifestyle. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 53(9), 24-30. doi: 10.3928/02793695-20150821-01

Nilsen, P., Roback, K., Brostrom, A., Ellstrom, P.-E. (2021, June 9). Creatures of habit: Accounting for the role of habit in implementation research on clinical behaviour change. Implementation Science, 7, 53.doi: 10.1196/1748-5908-7-53

Piedmont Healthcare. (n.d.). Why is protein important in your body? https://www.piedmont.org/living-better/why-is-protein-important-in-your-diet

This article was written by Sharon Odegaard, edited by Gail Olson, and clinically reviewed by
Elizabeth Thompson, MPH, RD and Nancy Strot, MS, RD.

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