Is variety really necessary?

[Jeudrietr]

Would it be a bad idea to eat the same 2 or 3 foods over and over?

Breakfast:
2 eggs
1 piece of chicken
water

Lunch:
large salad with chicken
water

Dinner:
Chicken
Small side salad
Water

As you can see, it'd be just eggs, chicken and lettuce.

Assuming that the person would be completely content with the food choices and not crave anything, would this be okay?

Supplements could be taken if there was an issue with vitamins and such.

Opinions are appreciated.

[slimndown]

Re: Is variety really necessary?

I eat the same foods over and over on a weekly basis. It' really easy on the budget to have the same breakfast, the same lunch and same dinner throughout the week with little change until the next shopping day. If you are happy with what you are eating then it should be just fine. Just be sure to change things around on a weekly basis with different meats and veggies because there are no amount of vitamins created that are better than nature's answer to our needs. If you eat the exact same thing forever - you may become a little bored, but if it works for you and you're seeing results and take comfort in eating the exact same thing - have fun!

[jsj0305]

Re: Is variety really necessary?

Hmmmm, I'm very interested in hearing everyone's opinions.

I would have to say that so long as you are content, are getting all your veggies and water, enough calories (to prevent going into starvation mode), and your intake percentages are right, go for it. I have to eat the same things day after day due to limited funds, but it works.

As for the supplements, I take them everyday reguardless of what I eat.

One last thing, their are different things you could have...such as an omlette with chicken instead of eating them seperate, or maybe a chicken salad w/ mayo, instead of the typical lettuce salad.

Just out of curiousity, why such little choices? If it is b/c of money, their are some really inexpensive things to eat...I eat them all the time! If you want some ideas, lemme know!!

[Desertthorn]

Re: Is variety really necessary?

The more variety of veggies the more vitamins and minerals you will get. Supplements cannot replace the veggies. But eggs are nearly a perfect food... Be interesting to see what 2big saids

[Elizellen]

Re: Is variety really necessary?

And try to get some of your veggies in at breakfast to help spread your carbs throughout the day and keep your blood sugar levels stable.
Moochiecat often reminds us that some of the lettuces (iceberg for example) are nothing more than chewy water with little in the way of nutrients in them. so as the others said make sure you vary your veggies and add some of the darker green stuff to get more nutrition out of your allowed carbs.
Also Dr Atkins told us that our veggies ought to make up over half of our allowed up to 20 net carbs - so if you only have very lowcarb veggies in your 3 cups you wont be able to have many other carbs - eggs, sweeteners, coffee, tea etc all have some carbs in them btw.

[Elizellen]

Re: Is variety really necessary?

A further suggastion - you ought to be eating some fat with those meals as we are supposed to get a ratio of 65% fat/30% protein/5% carbs across the day.
Try entering your menu as listed in www.fitday.com (you can open a free 'account') and I guess you would be fairly high on the protein especially if you are thinking of skinless chicken.
So you will need to add some fullfat dressing to that and most of those are about 2 carbs per tablespoon from what people here say!!
You definitely will need to use some of the higher-carb veggies on the allowed list or you will have most of your carbs from non-veggies, the opposite of what Dr Atkins suggested!!

[not2late]

Re: Is variety really necessary?

I agree with everyone who said vary your veggies. Lettuce isn't a great source of nutrition. If you like salads or raw veggies, try adding some of the other veggies on the salad list to your salads. Some of the "other veggies" are nice raw too like spinach, tomatoes, cauliflower and broccoli.

I don't see where you'll run into a nutritional problem with chicken, especially if youvary your vegetables.

Eggs aren't a problem, unless you have an egg allergy.

[2big4mysize]

Re: Is variety really necessary?

yep on what the others said about the veggies.

but Dr Atkins said to mix up your proteins so you don't develope an allergy to them. Eating the same protein source over and over your body may recognize it as a forgein entigy and make antibodies for it as mine has soy proteins and I am now deadly allegic to soy.

[shadewolf]

Re: Is variety really necessary?

there is a thing called 'appetite fatigue' you'll know you have it if all of a sudden you're sitting down to eat your usual meal and it grosses you out so bad you simply can't bear to take a bite. it's happened to me a few times. there was nothing wrong with the food, just i'd been consistently eating it for way too long. at least with me i need to have a decent amount of variety in ingredients and preparation methods lest this demon get triggered again. i switch things up on a weekly basis. today i'm cooking up a 12kg turkey so it can be diced and used over the next while. when that is gone, i'll switch to venison for awhile. i always make sure to have some sort of fish at least once per week. usually salmon or tuna or sole or shrimp. whatever is readily available at the stores. you're really lucky if you can stay happy with the same meals for a long period of time! i end up spending my sundays trying to plan different things to eat/cook all the time.

[allierw26]

Re: Is variety really necessary?

I'm like shadewolf, I go thru stages where I love something and eat it all the time and then I simply can't stand it. I used to love love chicken: breasts, wings, thighs, you name it. I can't stand the sight of chicken without feeling nauseous now. Same with most hamburgers. Variety really is the spice of life--and you learn to eat a lot of new and different things that way (says the once self- and family-described pickiest eater on earth).

[PrinceJeff]

Re: Is variety really necessary?

The hardest part for me when I finally get back on track after christmas will be recipes that require stuff like 1/4 cup chopped this or 1 medium this sliced thin. Veggie counts and recipes are difficult.

[yemenitegreen]

Re: Is variety really necessary?

Princejeff, I know it's not easy but you might consider buying a food scale and a carb / nutritional value counter book. I found that most of the carb counts in the Atkins books are pure geusstimate, anyway. I am used to weighing my food, and calcukating on a piece of paper. It is far more accurate since cups and medium veggies are not as precise as 1 ounce or 30 grams of onion... (and you could always use fitday, too).

yemenitegreen