She only wanted to know what would be a good thing to eat for breakfast.
And that started the nuances ball rolling. Well, that and a snippet of a podcast interview.
A hopeless podcast junkie, I was listening to an episode from one of my newer finds earlier this week, when the conversation between the interviewer and his guest turned to the nuances of doing ANYTHING, but especially something new. How at every level of doing ANYTHING, there are nuances you won’t understand until you do “it” – whatever that “it” is (episode #247 in case you’re interested in the full convo.)
Which got me thinking about the question I’ve been asked several times over the last few weeks; “What would be a good thing for me to eat at _____________?”
Fill in the blank with breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner, it doesn’t matter, really. What matters are two things:
- When you ask yourself that question, are you aware of the many nuances your brain must process and you must understand before you even arrive at the answer?
- I certainly can provide a satisfactory response, but then I would be overlooking the many nuances of the question, nuances that when considered by YOU are integral in helping YOU make the best choice for YOU at that time.
Here’s something interesting. Research performed by Dr. Brian Wansink discovered that we make 200 daily food decisions. I’ve long been fascinated by this study, and actually use the data in one of my group programs. The research speaks to how our environment impacts food decisions, and environment is definitely one of the nuances we must consider (and master!) in order to answer “What should I eat for lunch?”
Ready for an example? Let’s go.
You: “Cathy, what would be a good thing to eat for lunch?”
Me: Considers ALL of the following. . .
- What you LIKE to eat for lunch.
- Level of hungry you’re at.
- Options that sound good to you.
- Whether you’re eating at home, at a restaurant, or at your desk.
- Type of restaurant you’re interested in; fast-food, fast-casual, drive-through, fancy-pantsy.
- Whether you’re traveling or on home turf.
- Type of food served; Mexican, Italian, burgers, BBQ, soup and sandwich, salad bar, Mediterranean, healthy, or health-be-damned-I’ll-have-the-cheesefries.
- Food available in your refrigerator and cupboards/pantry.
- Time allotted to eat; grab-n-go schedule, designated lunch hour, got-all-day.
- Whether you’ll eat alone or with others.
- What you had for breakfast and at what time.
- Temperature of foods most appealing; hot, cold, room temperature.
- Whether you’d rather chew or drink your meal.
- Texture of foods you find most appealing in this very moment.
Given all of those considerations, one would think I’d be hard-pressed to offer any sort of guidance, but the reality is, I could easily throw out “salad + soup”, “sandwich + fruit”, “breakfast for lunch”, and presto, you’d have your answer.
But those suggestions run roughshod over the nuances; maybe you’re not in the mood for salad and soup, or you’re all out of salad and soup, or you need to eat lunch while driving so eating salad and soup would pose too grave a danger.
See what I mean?
It’s the play between these nuances that determines what actually ends up on your plate and in your belly. You are in charge of what you eat.
There’s nothing wrong with getting some input to help you with balanced eating – it’s easy to get overwhelmed by that detail – but trust your body (and your brain). They know what you need.
Now. What’s for lunch?