My question is basic, but one I've been meaning to ask for awhile. It seems like I'm routinely eating the same foods, day, after day, after day. Not that I mind, as I enjoy what I'm eating, and it sure makes planning and grocery shopping alot easier. Is it ok to eat the same thing over and over? And better yet, let's say I was completely out of carbs at work, with the exception of a big tub of quaker oats (yes, it has happened more than once). Is it ok to eat oats as my carb for 4-5 meals in a day??? My typical proteins/carbs on any given day are as follows:

Protiens: egg whites & cottage cheese (these two are my breakfast and mid-morning protiens every single day). Then there's chicken breast, tuna, ground turkey and salmon. That's it....every day. Is this ok, or do I need to provide a little more variety?

Carbs: Oatmeal, low-fat yogurt (not too much of this because of the sugar), black beans, brown rice and sweet/white potatoes.

Fats typically include extra virgin olive oil, almonds and peanut butter. I'm not so sure I'm getting enough essential fats. I normally put the olive oil on some greens (my veggies or a light salad)...whip up my egg whites using it in the pan also. Peanut butter and almonds is generally just a spoonful or small handfull a couple times a day.....that's it.

Any food suggestions and/or comments would be most appreciated.

Thanks! Jay

My suggestion is to write everything down and see where your shortcomings are...if you find that you aren't getting enough fats or proteins or carbs, figure out a way to solve the problem. I don't think its so bad to eat the same foods over and over, looks like you're eating clean foods so its probably not bad at all. However, if you eat the same things you're going to get the same nutrients and you might be short in some areas (like say...Vitamin C or something) so I would recommend taking a multivitamin as well in order to be sure you're getting your RDA of all your vitamins and minerals.

I'm convinced that variety is important in many ways. The human body likes predictability, and a diet that your body anticipates will probably have predictable results, if any at all.

My wife's trainer for her figure competitions changes up her diet biweekly. Every two weeks they assess her progress and then dial in her diet accordingly. They vary everything every two weeks. I know this is an Achilles' heel in my training because I'm stuck on the same diet I've been on for basically the last year. I will create a new series of diet plans this weekend based on same principles my wife's trainer has her applying... just to see where it takes me. My only problem is I'm such a picky eater, it's hard to create a diet because my choices tend to be limited.

i belive variety is one of the most important thing in a diet, without variety everyday, everything will become boring
if you check out my diet in my journal, you will see that i'm never really tasting the same thing twice, and i have a huge range of foods!
another thing i noticed last night when i was cooking a whole heap of vegies for today, is that there is tons of colour! looking at this huge plate of vegies, it looked awesome, just all the colours, so vary it up as much as possible!

As far as ur body goes, variety does not matter. Protein is protein, whether it is from chicken or tuna. It is a psychological thing. I personally am trying to change my body to eat for nutritional values rather than taste.

actually chicken and tuna would have different proteins in them, while they both have all the essential amino acids, i would imagine that they have different quantities of them and some different non-essential amino-acids, also different vitamins and minerals, there would be alot of difference!

i think u asked the wrong question. If ur going for the whole package, then of course, variety matters.