I don’t know about you but I tend to eat the same types of food for long periods of time. Before I gave up meat, I had a year where I ate roast chicken weekly if not daily. Another year it was turkey on pita. The year I was pregnant with my second daughter, it was roast beef sandwiches. When Bea was born, she weighed just under 11 pounds and was almost 2 feet tall. She is clearly made of iron!

I gave up meat about 12 years ago but still have binge foods – spinach, salmon, nuts. Recently, my daily fare includes spicy almonds and guacamole. These aren’t bad for me, but when you eat the same foods over and over, you can overwhelm your body with certain “same” ingredients. And you may miss out on hearing cues your body is telling you about new things to eat.

And, eating a mix of foods is a treat for your body. When you discover foods your body has been looking for, you feel stronger and more vital which helps with getting exercise. And eating a healthy mix of foods can help clear your system and your head.

Knowing how strong habits are, especially eating habits, how do you break out of a “same-old” eating rut?

What I tried once before and am preparing to do again is to cook everything in a cookbook, an idea inspired by the movie Julie & Julia. When I did this before, the practice pushed me to shop differently, to try new foods, and to learn new ways to cook. I have two new vegetarian cookbooks that I have targeted for August to help me break out of my current food rut. There are a lot of foods I don’t eat but I’ll still go page by page from appetizers to soups to main dishes and see what new tastes draw me in.

Breaking old habits and starting new ones are equally difficult tasks. But isn’t it fun to be challenged and to shake things up a bit? And nothing lifts your energy like making a decision and taking your first baby steps in a new direction.

I’ll leave you this morning with a sunrise shot from our time last month at a Florida beach. Sunrise shots are an added benefit to being a morning person. Happy summer!

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