I think I owe a lot of my success to successfully tracking my food (for the last 270 days straight through MyFitnessPal) to not liking much variety in my diet.
As in, I am a-okay eating the exact same meal days in a row. In fact, I tend to go through phases with key staple meals. The past few weeks, for example, I’ve had a lot of pigs in a blanket (crescent rolls + turkey dogs), one-eyed sailors (eggs and bread), and club sandwiches for lunch. With some carrots, raspberries, and healthy kettle popcorn as a snack . . . my grocery list is pretty easy.
Yes, I’m pretty boring and picky (though come on, I’ve gotten a lot better – there are vegetables on those sandwiches, dammit!). But my body doesn’t get tired of the same foods easily. This makes it really easy to plan my diet every day and has kept me on track as I’ve gotten in shape and lost weight. Even with the frequent indulgence of my Pizza Hut craving, it’s repeatable, so it’s plannable. And when it’s plannable, it never feels like cheating when I do want greasy or fast food. It’s part of my own brand of balance.
It’s hard to see me doing this forever. Ten years of tracking everything that goes into my body . . . uffda. But the mindfulness tracking has given me about what I’m eating has been really valuable. I’m going to keep the habit up as long as it makes sense, even when I’m not trying to lose weight.
And getting the same sandwich at the same sub shop all the time means the workers know my name and order. Which, as anyone who’s a regular somewhere knows, is fantastic.
With Love,
Natalie