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.
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:
There are steps you can take to overcome these hurdles. You can:
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.
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:
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:
Pull from the rainbow of colors below:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
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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
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This article was written by Sharon Odegaard, edited by Gail Olson, and clinically reviewed by
Elizabeth Thompson, MPH, RD and Nancy Strot, MS, RD.