Ep #70: Boring Food

Oh hey! You want to talk about boring food? Great, let’s do it.

When I tell people about how I eat day to day they usually think I’m such a weirdo.

I usually eat the same breakfast 6 days a week, this past week it was actually all 7, and the only reason I eat differently on that 7^th day usually is if I’m out for breakfast. And when I’m out I usually get the same thing no matter where I go.

Then here’s the other part that people don’t understand. I usually eat the same exact dinner 3 or 4 nights a week. I live alone and am only cooking for me so it’s just easier for me to cook for one if I do it this way. I waste less produce and I can buy a pound of meat and use it all up while it’s fresh.

I have no problem eating this way and I actually really like it.

The question I get asked most often when I tell people about this is, “Don’t you get bored eating the same thing over and over?”

And the answer is no, I don’t.

Many of you out there want a lot of variety in your food. You get bored of eating the same stuff.

I don’t think there’s a problem with wanting variety. It’s not like I eat the exact same meals every week, and I go out to eat at different restaurants and order different things rather often. There’s so many different flavors out there, let’s experience them!

But when you get so caught up in having variety, I’d stop and ask yourself why it’s so important to you.

One thing I’d look at is whether you actually like the food you’re eating. If you’re craving variety, is it because you’re dying for something better than what you’re eating? Can you just not stand to eat the same bland thing again and again?

I know you want to eat healthy, but healthy doesn’t have to be bland or taste mediocre.

I consider my breakfast that I eat 6 days a week to be healthy and I love it. The food is delicious and it’s a combination of fat, carbs, and protein that fuels me well for the day. It’s foods that other people may roll their eyes at or think is weird for breakfast or the food is super boring but I don’t care. It works for me and that’s all that matters.

My other meals are what I consider healthy too and again, super simple and delicious.

So when I’m eating them day after day I don’t feel deprived of flavor or crave something different because I’m perfectly happy with what I’m having.

It’s partly because I’m just choosing to not think it’s boring.

Think about this. Why choose pizza over a salad? Because a salad is boring. Pizza is fun, right?

I’m not going to sit here and argue about which is more boring and which is more fun, but what happens when you start labeling these foods this way? You feel bored when you eat boring food and have fun when you eat fun food.

People usually label healthier options as boring. That means you could be eating the most delicious salad and missing out on the pleasure of enjoying it because you’re thinking about how boring it.

I don’t sit there and think about how boring my breakfast is each day, which is a label I’m sure many would put on it. I think about how good it tastes and how good it’s going to make me feel. Or when it’s the 4^th day of me eating the same dinner I had the previous 3 days, I’m not thinking about how boring it is either. Again, delicious and it’s properly fueling me.

When you think things are boring, you ruin your experience of them. This is true for anything. You think a party is boring, you’re going to ruin your fun. You think a person is boring, you’re going to feel down when you’re around them.

You have the option of thinking about how boring it is or they are or you can look for something good in it. This is your experience you’re determining by how you look at it. The food is just food, the party is just a party and the person is just a person and when you say they’re boring, you feel bored.

Food itself isn’t exciting or boring, you just think it is. That’s why sometimes you can be excited for something or feel excitement when eating it and other times you’re not. Think about eating chips and salsa in the atmosphere of a lively Mexican restaurant with your best friends vs at home alone first thing in the morning. Still exciting? Same food, different thoughts going on for you.

You’re not doing yourself any favors by labeling your food as boring, all you’re doing is just blocking yourself from enjoying it.

Another problem I see people fall into is expecting too much from their food.

Is it the best part of your day? Is it the only pleasure you get in your day?

If it is, then what if that food is only moderately pleasurable and not amazingly orgasmic? Or what if you’re thinking about how boring it is and the pleasure isn’t even moderate, it’s totally lacking? Then you get zero pleasure in your day and the best thing isn’t there anymore.

That’s why it becomes so hard for you to let go of those highly pleasurable foods. You need them to have goodness in your life. If those become boring foods, or just okay foods and not the amazingness that you want, then what are you left with? No pleasure, no fun, no good times.

You don’t want to eat the so-called boring foods because then your life has too much boring in it. Boring food plus boring life equals no pleasure.

When I eat my same stuff or even when I eat healthy stuff when I’m out to eat, a lot of the time it’s not highly pleasurable foods. It’s not things that are full of sugar or refined carbohydrates like bread or processed in a way that is designed to enhance the pleasure of food. You all know about that right? How there are food companies out there designing food to be highly pleasurable so we’ll want them more.

I’m eating healthy foods that give me moderate pleasure and I’m happy with that. I don’t need to get more pleasure than that because I’m finding it elsewhere in my life. I get it from the work I do helping you all stop binge eating and working with my clients, from spending quality time with people I love, from watching tv and movies I like and not while eating, from reading good books, and from all the other things I like to do.

Instead of getting a huge surge of pleasure from food, I get moderate pleasure from different areas of my life. I spread it out. So that way when I’m eating regular ole food, it’s not disappointing or boring, it’s lovely.

I get pleasure out of eating natural, whole, fueling foods and from feeling good. I think that’s really the ultimate pleasure. Feeling good, feeling healthy and happy.

Now don’t get me wrong, I indulge in pizza and french fries and things like that, I’m not a perfectly clean eater. But I don’t expect those foods to provide me with all of my pleasure day to day.

When you’re not relying on those foods to be your entertainment and to be the best thing in your life, it’s so much easier to eat less of them. If you are, it’s so much harder to let them go and not eat them as often.

So how much pleasure do you expect to get from your food? What would your life look like if you only got moderate pleasure from foods that are just good, not amazingly orgasmic?

Food is meant to be pleasurable, if it wasn’t we wouldn’t want to eat it and we’d die. We get pleasure from eating vegetables it’s just not as intense as the pleasure you get from a cookie. And the interesting thing is that the more intensely pleasurable foods you eat, the less pleasurable the vegetables are.

So if you eat less of the intensely pleasurable ones then you’ll find more pleasure in the less intense ones.

You may have noticed this if you’ve ever not eaten sugar for awhile. Natural foods become more enjoyable. Fruit becomes more enjoyable. Your taste buds seem to adjust.

You can make those boring foods less boring simply by eating less of the exciting foods. I swear it’s a thing, I’ve experienced it and by doing it have even stopped desiring a lot of the highly pleasurable foods I used to long for. It’s crazy.

So now, what to do? How can you get away from finding your food to be boring?

First things first, stop calling the food you would like to be eating boring. If you want to eat simple meals with whole, natural foods, then find the good in them. Don’t turn yourself off from those foods by thinking negatively about them, appreciate them.

And second, spice up your life! Make your life exciting and so you don’t have to rely on your food to be. Sure, from time to time we all want to eat joy foods that are not going to properly fuel us and are only meant to be pleasurable, but if you have other sources of pleasure and excitement in your life then you’ll have less of a need for them. You won’t be starving for them. And you can find more pleasure in the simpler foods.

So how do you want to experience pleasure in your life? What do you want to do with your time and do you want food to be your main source of entertainment? It’s okay if you do, but just know that if it is, then it’s going to be a lot harder to eat less of it.

Appreciate the food you want to be eating and don’t rely on your food to give you all your pleasure, excitement, and entertainment. Create excitement and pleasure where you want it to be. Talk to you next time, bye bye.