Eating the same thing every day?

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  • mylittlerainbow
    mylittlerainbow Posts: 822 Member
    I basically eat the same thing for every day - cook up a huge quantity of something and then that's what I live on. My steel-cut oats/bulgur breakfast hot cereal lasts for 16 days, and I eat it morning after morning. A pan of roasted veggies lasts just over a week and I eat that night after night for dinner. And then lunch is usually an entree-sized salad with tofu or edamame or shredded egg in it. It saves thinking and planning! I'm not really a foodie and don't much care what I eat.
  • sampson2010
    sampson2010 Posts: 102 Member
    NVintage wrote: »
    Harvard has already done all the research for you. If you're going to eat the same thing every day this has all the nutrients you need! :)

    Breakfast: 8 ounces nonfat yogurt with a cup of papaya and kiwi and 14 walnut halves

    Lunch: 1 small whole-wheat pita with a green salad including 1 cup of dark green lettuce, a red pepper, 1 cup of tomatoes, ½ cup edamame, and unsalted sunflower seeds sprinkled on top. Don't despair! You can add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and pepper as dressing.

    Dinner: 4 ounces broiled wild salmon (about the size of your palm) with a yogurt sauce. On the side, a ½ cup of barley and lentils with a cup of steamed asparagus or baby bok choy.

    https://www.inc.com/robin-camarote/this-extremely-simple-1-day-meal-plan-will-increase-your-productivity-mental-health.html

    I appreciate you sharing this, NVintage -- I think it adds an interesting piece to the conversation. I agree with some of the previous posters that this might be a good foundation for a healthy diet, but it definitely wouldn't be my "perfect day." Aside from the fact that I need a lot more than the 1200-ish calories that these three meals would provide, there are at least three things on the list that I can't eat (allergies/intolerances). Plus I'm not sure how appetizing broiled salmon and steamed asparagus would be on Friday if it were cooked the previous Sunday! (Hmmm... unless I could convince my husband to broil salmon and steam asparagus every night and deliver it to my office. 🙂 )

    I'm being a bit facetious, but please don't think I'm critizing your post. Like I said, I'm glad you shared the article -- reading it just reminded me of how much one size does not fit all when it comes to diet. In my OP, I referred to the "perfect day" somewhat tongue in cheek, because I know that it would only be "perfect" for someone with my height, weight, metabolism, activity level, grocery budget, dietary restrictions, taste buds, and time/resources available for cooking! Which means, I guess, if I ever do come up with perfection, there's not much of a target market for me to sell my plan to. 🤷‍♀️
  • sampson2010
    sampson2010 Posts: 102 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    Now if SUSHI was all I could eat daily AND AFFORD..............................I'd do it for life.

    Ah, and this is where the conversation gets interesting! If you *had to* eat the same three meals every day for six weeks (or for life), what would be on the menu?
  • NVintage
    NVintage Posts: 1,463 Member
    I just read that article, but couldn't find if there were any research done or if it was just a menu that the Harvard nutritionist( Dr. Helen Delichatsios) happened to recommend. If I find any more info on it, I'll drop it in here!


    janejellyroll wrote: »
    NVintage wrote: »
    Harvard has already done all the research for you. If you're going to eat the same thing every day this has all the nutrients you need! :)

    Breakfast: 8 ounces nonfat yogurt with a cup of papaya and kiwi and 14 walnut halves

    Lunch: 1 small whole-wheat pita with a green salad including 1 cup of dark green lettuce, a red pepper, 1 cup of tomatoes, ½ cup edamame, and unsalted sunflower seeds sprinkled on top. Don't despair! You can add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and pepper as dressing.

    Dinner: 4 ounces broiled wild salmon (about the size of your palm) with a yogurt sauce. On the side, a ½ cup of barley and lentils with a cup of steamed asparagus or baby bok choy.

    https://www.inc.com/robin-camarote/this-extremely-simple-1-day-meal-plan-will-increase-your-productivity-mental-health.html

    I was curious so I logged this menu on Cronometer. Assuming 2 tablespoons of sunflower seeds, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, and 2 tablespoons of yogurt with dinner, this would be about 1,231 calories and doesn't meet the RDA for choline, vitamin D, calcium, iron, or potassium (the calcium and iron are female-specific, this may meet the RDA for men). In the context of a varied diet, I wouldn't worry too much about days where one failed to meet the RDA for those things -- but if you are eating the same thing every day (as is suggested here), it could be relevant.

    Basically, this is the foundation of a very healthy diet, but if Harvard is saying this particular diet will provide everything you need (the article isn't 100% clear if this menu comes from Harvard or not), then they're not being completely accurate.

  • NVintage
    NVintage Posts: 1,463 Member
    Thanks, I couldn't eat that every day either! A sushi lunch buffet, now, I could probably do for at least 6 weeks. haha...

    sampson2010 wrote: »
    NVintage wrote: »
    Harvard has already done all the research for you. If you're going to eat the same thing every day this has all the nutrients you need! :)

    Breakfast: 8 ounces nonfat yogurt with a cup of papaya and kiwi and 14 walnut halves

    Lunch: 1 small whole-wheat pita with a green salad including 1 cup of dark green lettuce, a red pepper, 1 cup of tomatoes, ½ cup edamame, and unsalted sunflower seeds sprinkled on top. Don't despair! You can add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and pepper as dressing.

    Dinner: 4 ounces broiled wild salmon (about the size of your palm) with a yogurt sauce. On the side, a ½ cup of barley and lentils with a cup of steamed asparagus or baby bok choy.

    https://www.inc.com/robin-camarote/this-extremely-simple-1-day-meal-plan-will-increase-your-productivity-mental-health.html

    I appreciate you sharing this, NVintage -- I think it adds an interesting piece to the conversation. I agree with some of the previous posters that this might be a good foundation for a healthy diet, but it definitely wouldn't be my "perfect day." Aside from the fact that I need a lot more than the 1200-ish calories that these three meals would provide, there are at least three things on the list that I can't eat (allergies/intolerances). Plus I'm not sure how appetizing broiled salmon and steamed asparagus would be on Friday if it were cooked the previous Sunday! (Hmmm... unless I could convince my husband to broil salmon and steam asparagus every night and deliver it to my office. 🙂 )

    I'm being a bit facetious, but please don't think I'm critizing your post. Like I said, I'm glad you shared the article -- reading it just reminded me of how much one size does not fit all when it comes to diet. In my OP, I referred to the "perfect day" somewhat tongue in cheek, because I know that it would only be "perfect" for someone with my height, weight, metabolism, activity level, grocery budget, dietary restrictions, taste buds, and time/resources available for cooking! Which means, I guess, if I ever do come up with perfection, there's not much of a target market for me to sell my plan to. 🤷‍♀️

  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,215 Member
    I'd say I take a hybrid approach in that I basically eat the same thing every day but dinner varies. Like some others' mentioned, I'm also not one that's a huge fan of leftovers so batch cooking/meal prep isn't for me; especially with a wife and toddler. If it were just me, I'd probably find things I could tolerate/enjoy reheated and take that approach out of convenience. I structure the rest of my day such that I can hit a calorie window and a protein minimum easily for dinner and leave it at that.
  • KickboxFanatic
    KickboxFanatic Posts: 184 Member
    How much time do you have between today and when you start your 6 weeks?

    If you have a week or two, another approach might be to cook an extra serving at dinner and freeze them. Then you'll have various dinners to rotate thru or swap out if you need a break from the "perfect day".
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 978 Member
    GummiMundi wrote: »
    Some people do fine with eating always the same thing, others not so much. So here's a suggestion, if you don't mind... instead of creating only one "perfect day" plan, as you called it, create two or even three different ones, as a back-up. You can spend the first week eating according to plan #1, and see how you feel by the end of that week. If you realize you don't want to spend week #2 eating the same thing again, you can move on to plan #2. On week #3, you can either go back to plan #1, or go to plan #3. And so on, and so forth, until you finish those hectic six weeks you're about to have. I hope this makes sense?

    This is also what I was going to suggest - have more than one meal plan and add a bit of variety week on week. Will you plan for a more creative meal on one or both days of whatever two day break you get (be that the weekend or another two days) during your six week stint? That would also break the monotony and could make you feel like your two days off are a real separation from work.

    Although I haven't tried it and am one of those that would struggle to eat the same thing every day for any period of time, I am analysing my diary via a spreadsheet and highlighting days that were pretty close to perfect with regards to cals, carbs, protein and fibre. Once I have enough to give me some variety, I may try a period of eating such meals, perhaps for a week or two at a time, without logging just to see what happens. At a minimum, I'd like those menus to become more of a staple of my meal planning.

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