I need to peel a few pounds, and I know I do best with structure. The more structure, the more likely I’ll succeed. So I had the brilliant idea to eat the exact same thing every day, without fail.
Today is day nine, and it’s the first time I’ve felt the pang of wanting something else. Not sure how long this will continue (certainly not past the weekend, when I am going out to eat with friends), but it’s been an effective strategy for me.
I eat four times a day: breakfast, lunch, an afternoon snack, and dinner, the exact same foods. Even though it is just 1160 calories per day, I can’t say that I’ve been hungry at all.
This was never intended to be any sort of long term solution; rather a short term experiment, mostly just to see if I could do it. My initial goal was to go seven days.
I eat the same seven things - in order - for dinner each week. Three different things for lunch - 3x2 +1 again in the same order, and cereal x7 at brekky (albeit different varieties), and fruit (always apple + banana, with other seasonally induced variances) at night. Have done for years.
I need to lose about 10 pounds. I was eating the same thing for breakfast every day. A breakfast burrito (frozen). I changed that out to oatmeal. And a bit less for lunch. I’ve never eaten a big dinner.
I did lose about 10 lbs over the fall. But fell off my ‘diet’ over the winter (just to o busy and cooking a 15lb rib roast over Christmas didn’t help). Back on it.
Works for me. I really don’t have a problem with eating the same thing all the time.
I routinely eat the same thing for 4-6 days in a row. I cook enough for that many meals, and keep reheating it every day until it is gone.
The one time I vary it is when I cook up 5 or 6 potatoes, and each day pan-fry some of them with a piece of meat in single portions in the freezer, which rotates , along with diverse veggies.
Otherwise, things like beans&rice, chicken curry,. pot roast, spaghetti, a big pot lasts me 4-6 days. But breakfast and lunch I vary.
When I’m doing the Keto thing I’ll have the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day, but I try to vary dinner. Honestly, the breakfast and lunch don’t bore me at all, and I suppose I could do the same with dinner, except my wife wouldn’t like that very much.
When I was in high school I ate the same thing for lunch every school day - a ham and cheese sandwich. It was expedient - we only had 20 minutes for lunch, and the sandwich line was much shorter than the hot lunch line.
I certainly wasn’t trying to lose weight in those days but I’m sure it contributed to my staying skinny - two slices of Wonderbread, one slice of ham and one slice of American cheese with mustard probably wasn’t contributing a lot of calories (though not exactly health food either). I’d have done better having yogurt with a piece of fruit, though yogurt wasn’t on offer in my school back then.
Doing that is also the only way I can lose weight, I ate virtually the same fixed meals every single day for 6 months with only minor variations to the theme and an occasional like once a week cheat snack, it worked I lost 60 pounds, but yes it got very monotonous after a while.
I have a friend who basically is doing this. She’s using a program. She’s lost over 100 pounds. It works for her. I think I would lose weight doing it but only because I would starve to death. I can’t stand eating the same thing all the time.
I’ve contemplated doing something like that in order to shed a pesky 10 pounds I’ve put on over the past few years. I have a pretty high tolerance for eating the same food over and over again, as long as it is tasty. And yes, the structure would make it easier, and even fun in some ways - like a game you are challenging yourself to. The only hard part is socializing - whether it’s lunch with co-workers, a date, or a party, food is usually involved.
Can I ask what you’re eating? 1160 calories sounds about right for me to shed a few pounds.
I worked at a place (helped open it up, so the breaks were slim) that had very few food options close by. I had Taco-Bell 7-Layer Burritos for lunch every day for over a year.
Breakfast: 1 banana Lunch: Ham & cheese sandwich (2 thin slices deli ham, 1 slice cheese, lettuce and mustard on onion roll) and 1 oz. veggie straws Snack: 1 cheese stick & 1 SlimJim-type beef stick Dinner: 1 can Progresso chicken noodle soup and 12 Ritz crackers
This is working for me because I don’t mind the monotony if it’s something I like. Another reason is that this method takes all the decision-making and calculating out of the equation.
mmm
I used to work across the street from a Target, so every day I would walk over and get a Fresh Express Salad, yogurt and a chocolate milk. I was able to do this virtually every day for a good 2 weeks, but I eventually stopped for the weirdest reason: I wanted something hot. My office was cold, the meal was cold…I just wanted some damn warmth.
Now that I work closer to home, I go home every day and have a turkey and salami/pepperoni and cheese sammitch.
Sort of. A few years ago I needed to lose weight for health reasons. I changed how I ate. In practice, with exceptions here and there I rotate between the same dozen or so meals with a focus on fruits and vegetables and avoidance of fried foods. I was able to lose 120 pounds over a couple of years.
I have gotten a little less disciplined the last year or so so the weight loss has slowed but it can be done. Congratulations on your good start.
One day in a particularly grueling college semester, I realized that I had eaten exactly the same thing every day for nearly two months. The same type of cereal for breakfast, granola bar for lunch, and sandwich (roast beef, cheese, tomato, horseradish) for supper. I had a heavy courseload and was working two part-time jobs at the time, and was running mostly on autopilot for everything else.
More recently, I’ve developed a grim, but effective, diet plan. It’s simple: 3 protein bars a day, of a brand that has the proportions of protein, fat, and carbs I’m after. I normally stay on it for 5 days at a time, then take up to 5 days off, during which I try to eat normally and sensibly. While on it, I take a multivitamin supplement and monitor myself carefully for salt cravings, since the bars are pretty low-sodium and may not cover all my vitamin requirements. I’ve determined–again, experimentally–that 5 days is as far as I care to push it. It’s not hunger (surprisingly, I don’t get very hungry during the “on” phases), but a craving for variety that becomes distracting after about 7 days.
You’re not shaving in the dark trying to save paper?
I’ve done it for 3 days but then get bored. I wish I could do it more, would save time and money. I know someone who basically drinks Soylent Green most meals. Me, eating is a pleasure.
Yeah, I know. I didn’t realize that until a few days in. I figure that while the sodium levels of the individual foods is high, my overall sodium is likely lower than what my body is used to receiving.
Oddly enough, I do cook. Well enough to impress folks at times. I was looking for structure and convenience.
Anyway, this is a temporary thing.
Today is day 12. I almost caved a couple times, but I’ll probably go 14 days, then re-evaluate.
mmm
