Something that has come up as conversation with some of my clients recently is how do you figure out what to eat when you don’t know what you fancy eating? Decision fatigue is real and as we have to eat many times a day, this can surmount to a real challenge if we ignore it altogehter.
I thought I would share some ideas that might help, plus I am feeling like I am a bit stuck myself. Ever since the beginning of the pandemic I feel like it is such a chore to try and figure out what to make for breakfast / lunch / dinner. To be honest I am not entirely sure how I ended up in this predicament as I do remember past times when I was making 95% of all my meals myself and it didn’t seem to feel like such a burden.
Is decision fatigue? Or I am bored with what I am currently eating, but don’t have to have the creativity to think about new recipes or food combinations to try?
There was a time when I could open the fridge or pantry and just ask myself, What do I want to eat? And it was easy to hear the answer. Clearly not the era that I am currently in.
It can feel like such a difficult task to feed one’s body
If you are feeling not only uninspired, but are also trying to tally up calories, or concerned with making sure that each meal / snack is the “best” one, this daily requirement of feeding yourself take up a huge amount of brain space. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Before we explore how to deal with the lack of motivation in the moment, if you resonate with it being difficult to make a choice because you are overly concerned about it being the “right” or “best” choice, you may want to look into if you need to let go of some food rules, give yourself permission to eat ALL foods or create some general structure around eating.
And as great as all of these foundational parts are for building a healthier relationship with food, they aren’t necessarily useful strategies for coming up with ideas in the moment. Read on.
Three ways to reduce decision fatigue around food:
- Check in with your body to see how hungry you are.
Do you want a snack or if you need something more substantial?
This tends to be context dependant; How much time you have? How long since you last ate? And how long until your next eating opportunity?
2. Food Availability
What food are easy accessible to you in the present moment? If nothing calls to you directly when exploring the options at hand, you can ask yourself the following questions to help guide you:
Do you want something hot or cold?
Do I want something sweet or savoury? Or a mix of both?
Do I want something crunchy or soft / smooth?
From there try and make the most satisfying meal / snack available to you.
If it isn’t possible to make a good match right in the moment, because what you have to hand isn’t exactly what you want, see if you can make the most suitable match from what you do have. Remember, perfectionism does not have a place in eating. Good enough is good enough.
3. Nourish your body with the food you’ve chosen / had to hand
Remeber that fed is best. Bottom line is that food will ALWAYS be the best way to satisfy physical hunger. If you find throught the inquiry above that you are in fact emotionally hungry, then it may be worth taking the questions in a different direction and check in what else you might need? Rest, sleep, connection, a hug?
If it is challenging to connect with your body
Visual stimuli may help. Browsing food pictures / recipes on Pinterest, of flicking through a cookbook to see if anything you see in pictures may stand out, and that you might want to try out.
Feeling stuck in a food rut can really suck and considering we do need to eat many times per day, it is worth the effort to try and get out of it, even more so if you have been stuck for awhile. I wrote this blog some years ago on how to get out of it, which may be worth you checking out also, for a different angle.
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