Breaking Out From Your Food Rut

In many of the previous articles I have emphasized how important nutrition is to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. In reading through those articles you may have noticed a few recurring messages associated with healthful eating. The main take home message is to consume a high calorie diet packed full of protein which consists of clean foods. But there is only so much tuna you can eat!

Make sure you eat a variety of foods. This is one of those recommendations that gets thrown around a lot when planning a weight gain diet but is not specifically addressed. It’s also something that is much easier said than done. I know for myself, I get into food “ruts,” eating the same foods or fixing the same recipes for months on end.

Not only is eating the same foods over and over again boring, it may also lead to an overall lower quality diet. An aspect of the “food rut syndrome” involves getting so bored with what you’re eating that apathy sets in, going to the grocery store to buy those same old foods just isn’t cutting it, and you increasingly find yourself at the fast food drive-thru window on your way home. Sound familiar?

So, what can you do to get that food variety back in your life to gain weight? Actually, there are many different things you can do to break that dreaded food rut. Here are some food rut boredom busters you can try:

• Pull out some of your old cookbooks and peruse for a recipe that makes your mouth water. If you’re over your old cookbooks, go out to your favorite bookstore and treat yourself to a new one!
• Be spontaneous. Go to your favorite grocery store or farmer’s market and try a new food. A place to start may be the produce section. Pick out a fruit or vegetable that always looked interesting to you – but you have no earthly idea of what it is or where it comes from. Ask the produce manager for help if needed.
• As you’re walking down the supermarket aisles, yes walking not running to get through as fast as possible, stop and take the time to pick up a new food item. And since you know how to read food labels, you can look at that new food item and know with confidence if it is something you want to add to your weight gain diet.
• Try cooking some of your favorite foods different ways. I’ll give you an example. I love spinach and always have one of those packaged and pre-rinsed bags in my refrigerator. I have about ten very different and easy recipes I fix from that one bag of spinach. Depending on my mood, I may saute the spinach with garlic and olive oil and top with Feta cheese, or fix a spinach salad topped with mandarin oranges, mushrooms, and Italian dressing. Sound good? Try asking your friends and extended family members how they cook some of their favorite foods. What you’ll find is that there are so many easy and tasty recipes out there just waiting to be cooked. The key is just getting introduced to them.
• Make a commitment to yourself that you won’t eat the same foods for breakfast twice in one week. If that seems too threatening, try at least to add a different jam to your toast once in awhile. One thing I tried recently that I thought was fun was to get a large food storage container, go out and buy four to six of your favorite dry cereals and combine them. You can try different combinations of the cereals with different fruit toppings for variety.
• Lastly, instead of fast food, try a new ethnic restaurant. Be adventurous! Grab your significant other, don’t tell them where you’re going, and take them somewhere neither of you have been. There may be many benefits to this one!

I don’t know about you, but I love to eat and I love trying new foods. Eating is something we all have to do if we want to gain significant size to fuel our workouts, so we might as well enjoy it.