Why do we “need variety” in our food?
Because we need variety in our lives, and if food is the primary way you get variety, you have a problem on the horizon. Read on.
In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray was ecstatic when he realized the freedom he got by living the same day over and over; until he was miserable.
The law of familiarity ruined his happy hormones because there was no variety left in his life, no element of surprise.
None of us want to end up the main character in our own Groundhog Day. So when work is the same and problems are the same, we look for variety elsewhere, even if we have to create it.
-Themepark rides.
-Taking a new route to work.
-Gambling
-Drinking beyond being tipsy.
-Binging Netflix Series (I love Pennyworth right now)
-Obsessing over the news or politics
-And the most common…Food.
Variety is good! Get it! But here’s my concern.
Do you remember your lunch from last Thursday? Me, neither.
But I bet you remember your first kiss, your birthday, and the last compliment you got.
If you narrow down to variety through food, you’ll miss out on some of the big, meaningful ways you could get it.
The National Library of Health reported that Americans rotate the same 12.5 meals as their diet. So, even though we THINK we’re finding variety, we’re only doing it with a dozen meals.
I’m not preaching that you become a saltine cracker and never try a new dish, but eating the same twelve things isn’t variety. Especially when half of those meals are holding you back from memorable forms of variety.
Like:
-Picking up a new sport.
-Asking a stranger for a date with your reclaimed body confidence.
-Hiking up Machu Pichu before it closes for good.
-Jumping rope with your kids or grandkids.
-Being around to see amazing things.
I am preaching that “I need variety in my diet” is too often a false fix for “I don’t have a life that’s providing me with enough interest right now.”
The Closer:
I used to miss an extremely toxic relationship and feel like I was supposed to go back to it, even though I didn’t want to. Whose been there?…Raise your hand, dammit.
I could not for the life of me understand WHY I would feel drawn towards something that was obviously damaging to me and others. I therapied about it a lot.
Until I realized, my life in that the relationship, as bad as it was, was still better than the life I was currently living.
When I started making my current life MORE exciting, MORE loving, and MORE fulfilling than my old life in that relationship, I didn’t suffer that ominous feeling anymore.
I didn’t want the needs and emotions of the past. My brain and heart were telling me, “Hey, f*cker, what’s the deal? You promised us a good time, but you’re letting us down. We got you here, and now you have to make us (and you) happy.”
I still miss some elements of that time, but just the lessons and pieces I’m grateful I got to experience. Honoring those elements helps me appreciate what I experience and fill my life with today. I was free of that feeling to keep building a better life.
You can do this with food, alcohol, or {insert toxic beanie-baby hoarding habit} too.
Ways to find variety.
- Join a workout program where you learn new skills.
- Do something for entertainment and not productivity (music, crafts, art, reading).
- Try completely new restaurants for variety instead of varying the same stuff you think you like.
- Re-imagine your space. Organize your home or office differently.
- Sign up for something crazy and tell another person you’re doing it. I committed to auditioning for a musical, and it was incredible!
- Visualize a different body, health, and life, and focus on that visual daily- how interesting and new is the path that leads there?
If you build variety and excitement in other areas, your dependence on the false fix of food variety will greatly diminish. PLUS, you’ll have all this cool new stuff in your life.
I’ve written enough about the same thing.
Have fun with it.
