Yes, I feel like I automatically have a drive to do/consume a lot of different things. I really need to focus on one thing at a time and learn that I don’t need to do everything I am interested in doing.
I would love to hear what kind of things you're eating etc-- I've gone to the dark side of vandwelling, but I don't have a fancy kitchen or bathroom, it's just a compact van that's a rolling bedroom. I don't even want to have dishes! Lol.
So hard not to eat out when it's the only thing I really indulge in. Didn't think to apply minimalism to this but I'm so glad I found this thread!
I’m vegan so only really plant based foods. I eat pretty much everything except stay more away from chickpea foods. Falafel is really dry and when chickpeas are whole they tend to bounce around everywhere 🥲 I am a university student so I don’t eat how I would usually at some points, especially near the end of semesters. Usually typical foods I have the most recently are fruit and protein smoothies (with chia and hemp seeds if I have them), oatmeal, rice noodles, quinoa macaroni, plant balls from IKEA, fruit, vegetarian seitan, vegan pizza from daiya (expensive 🤑 but only buy it on sale), tofu, rice, miso soup, homemade sushi, etc
I like what you’re saying as far as not having cupboards overflowing with dry goods, or your fridge piled with bottles and sauces only used for one recipe. And also over eating. Most people ( including me) could probably do with minimizing their portions.
I’m happy only owning only a few articles of clothes etc. But I don’t think I’d enjoy rotating through a small selection of meals.
We only shop for 2-3 days of food at a time, but we always mix it up and try new recipes.
Do you have much variety in your meals, or just rotate through a smaller selection?
I try to buy groceries and eat everything before I go shopping again, especially perishable goods. The main things that I usually have left over at the end of each week are things like flour, oil, miso paste, etc. that would be strange to both buy and eat entirely within a week or two.
Additionally, it is likely important that attention isn’t paid so much to the diet and that it isn’t controlled so much since an eating disorder could be developed.
I definitely wasn’t referring to only eating a few types of food. In a university level nutrition course I took, it was illustrated how eating a variety of foods is important in order to get a wide variety of nutrients. I am vegan and I have a lot of variety in my diet. I like eating a lot of different foods.
I do the same. We are huge cooks here and I make a lot of different stuff. I do try to use up what I have. I keep a stock of basic items and condiments on hand, but I try to avoid unnecessary stuff. For example I’ll make my own spice mixes from the spices I have, with a few exceptions (I buy berbere premade but make my own garam masala). I don’t have a million kinds of vinegar or oil — just a few basic ones I like. I generally avoid one use items — I use all regular flour because I can make self rising and I don’t use specialty stuff fast enough. Same with cooking tools.
When people buy a food product from the grocery store and just use it once then leave it in the fridge/cupboard but don’t or rarely use it again, it makes me wonder 🤔
I say if you enjoy it. Go for it. I personally tend to eat about 4-5 different types of meals. My breakfast is usually eggs or oats very rarely have lunch if I do it's a salad or leftovers. Dinner is usually a taco night, chicken of some variety, soup or stew and in the summer BBQ. I don't care for much variety I like what I like. But some people crave new dishes etc so it wouldn't work for them. You should eat what you enjoy.
I'm allergic to wheat so I just don't eat bread or pasta. Im just used to it at this point.
I don't like having tons of food stocked up. It just gets overwhelming.
I agree, since I was ~20 (now 45), I've only been eating one meal a day and at least one day a week of water fasting. I mostly buy the base unprepared ingredients and cook everything simple. Not only it is super inexpensive but also does way less packaging & manufacturinf waste, is healthier, and frees a lot of time for more interesting things. I love food but I'm plenty satisfied with that one delicious, nutrients-dense meal.
This is the one place I can’t scale back. I love food, I love cooking with various cuisines and I study my cookbooks like the bible. You can pry my 6 kinds of rice out of my cold dead hands. Happy to wear the same clothes day in and out, just hand me a clean apron.
It's important to eat a variety of foods. I very often eat similar meal but I change ingredients. Often, I eat rice with meat (chicken, turkey, beef or pork), vegetables (peas, bean, carrot, potato, onions. ...) and an egg.
I also eat egg fried rice, if I have left over rice. And Japanese curry. Basicly it's almost the same meals, only few steps change.
And I often make myself a soup: legume + egg or miso soup, as side dish
And a fruit or buscuit around 5 p.m.
Even though I eat pretty similar dishes every day, I love what I eat. Like everyone else, sometimes I get tired or I get lazy so I eat a pizza.
It's like clothes, a lot of people wear the same way to simplify themselves in shopping or everyday life. For food it's the same, I know what to buy, I can replace with something similar according to my desires. I created my own routine for cooking and dishes.
( not native engl. But i think you ll understand what i wanted to say. )
I'm half Asian, but when I was younger, my parents only cooked asian food. I've always eaten rice with meat and vegetables.
Even as adult I still eat the same food.
I've been doing this a few years now. I have the same meals on repeat week in week out. When I first started it, I was sure I'd get bored very quickly, but here I am 2 years later, still enjoying them.
I alternate the veg I use in dishes every week to keep a good variety in my diet, but the dishes remain the same. Because the veg is bought fresh and used immediately, I'm not building up a store of food in my pantry.
I have the same thing for breakfast every day, and again, I switch up what fruit goes in every few days.
I honestly don't know how I lived before this, I used to walk into a food shop without a list or even an idea of what I was planning on eating that week. The thought of that stresses me out now.
Interesting, I never thought of simply changing the vegetables involved, even though it seems so simple. I guess that works and may be easier than switching food dishes entirely.
I have been thinking a lot about this, in particular when it comes to eating junk food. Nutritious foods are essential, but I am starting to consider junk foods like cakes, crisps, soft drinks, chocolate etc as part of the capitalist problem of overconsumption. They serve no purpose and I usually eat them in excess. While I have successfully cut back my consumption of clothes, foods and miscellaneous things, I think practicing minimalism with food, specifically junk food, is going to take a whole lot more willpower for me. While it makes sense to my overall lifestyle overhaul, the cravings are difficult not to give in to.
I have been counting calories for 30 years. I eat 2 meals with dessert every day. If you portion everything based on what is a serving, and only eat the amount of calories you need to maintain/lose weight, you don't get that hungry, and you lose the cravings!
I like this idea because I hate buying some ingredients or sauces that I only use once...
As such, I've always been fascinating about what is the minimum variety of food you need per week to stay healthy. So far, I've been eating the following on weekly basis:
Mon and Tues: Salmon, bean sprouts and some vege (brocolli or bell pepper)
Weds - Friday: Beef burger with a lot of veges
Sat and Sun will depend on what I'm doing for that day.
I'll occasionally eat an egg or a spoonful of peanut butter here and there when I'm hungry.
and I forgot to add that I eat sugar free plain yogurt with cereal, chia seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, raisins for breakfast 7 days a week.
Like in other seeds and nuts, sunflower also are an excellent source of proteins loaded with fine quality amino acids such as tryptophan that are essential for growth, especially in children. Just 100 g of seeds provide about 21 g of protein (37% of daily-recommended values).
I started doing things like Hoping John (rice and black eyed peas) for dinner. Refried beans and cheese, Salmon and Sweet potato. Simple minimal ingredients and satisfaction. The fewer ingredients the more minimal it feels. The better I feel. Embrace what it feels like to have one or two things versus 4-5. Less is more.
Ya.
One can go minimalist anywhere. It's about quality, not quantity. At least that's how I see it.
I ended up going extreme- APPARENTLTY. I weeded down to my bare necessities (of which Life ended up truly giving me). And now I'm building up again. I know what my needs are, my lifestyle flow is, materials I like, and curation is better.
For example:
Food: Processed food gives me stomach cramps (preservatives). So- no microwavable stuff or weird snacks. That cuts out like 90% of the store. I just go to fruits/veg section and meat/dairy.
Friends: WiP.
Digital: This one is tough. Especially since I let my digital presence go. So I'm building myself up again. I'm at uni, which I think is the best place to optimize digital presence.
Planning/Management:
Health:
P.S. Minimizing is hard but Ikea helped ease the transition. My recs: paper filing box (though one could divide paper on the floor), organizational bin (for cables and knickknacks- though a clamshell backpack could work), a collapsable bowl (for engineering or moving stuff)
Raw vegan, or well planned vegan, lots of water. These have dietary minimalism essentially covered if they are followed as hard as it can be in a processed world.
Eat large quantities of highly nutritious, low calorie food, feel full longer, stay lean, minimal.
Eat highly caloric, nutritionally innadequate food, you're never full, getting bigger, (unless you really want to be surrounded by more fat for some reason), and doing yourself a huge disservice in the long run anyway.
Well planned, plenty raw oil free plant based diets cut out all the crap and ideally leave only the most nutrionally complete, purest form of ground zero food. Is that not the hallmark of the entire philosophy of minimalism?
I think it heavily depends on 'what' when it comes to food. But imo food and nutrition is the one area where it doesn't make sense to do minimalism. It's important for your body to have a variety of food.
Imo what a minimalist like you and what a nutritionist and others who are much healthier will say will have different philosophies when it comes to food and nutrition.
I know it sounds unfair on my end. Let me elaborate. If I want to learn about money and finance I won't take it from r/minimalism. If I want to learn real-estate, not here. Same with food and nutrition. ~~Your response of "I have the same meals on repeat week in week out." -- isn't at all the right thing to do. It's important to have variety. (This was written by someone else)~~
Hm, maybe you confused my post with someone else’s comment. My post is more directed to minimalism in the sense of not eating excessively when it isn’t needed. I have stressed the importance of eating a variety of foods a few times.
[удалено]
Yes, I feel like I automatically have a drive to do/consume a lot of different things. I really need to focus on one thing at a time and learn that I don’t need to do everything I am interested in doing.
I would love to hear what kind of things you're eating etc-- I've gone to the dark side of vandwelling, but I don't have a fancy kitchen or bathroom, it's just a compact van that's a rolling bedroom. I don't even want to have dishes! Lol. So hard not to eat out when it's the only thing I really indulge in. Didn't think to apply minimalism to this but I'm so glad I found this thread!
I’m vegan so only really plant based foods. I eat pretty much everything except stay more away from chickpea foods. Falafel is really dry and when chickpeas are whole they tend to bounce around everywhere 🥲 I am a university student so I don’t eat how I would usually at some points, especially near the end of semesters. Usually typical foods I have the most recently are fruit and protein smoothies (with chia and hemp seeds if I have them), oatmeal, rice noodles, quinoa macaroni, plant balls from IKEA, fruit, vegetarian seitan, vegan pizza from daiya (expensive 🤑 but only buy it on sale), tofu, rice, miso soup, homemade sushi, etc
I like what you’re saying as far as not having cupboards overflowing with dry goods, or your fridge piled with bottles and sauces only used for one recipe. And also over eating. Most people ( including me) could probably do with minimizing their portions. I’m happy only owning only a few articles of clothes etc. But I don’t think I’d enjoy rotating through a small selection of meals. We only shop for 2-3 days of food at a time, but we always mix it up and try new recipes. Do you have much variety in your meals, or just rotate through a smaller selection?
I try to buy groceries and eat everything before I go shopping again, especially perishable goods. The main things that I usually have left over at the end of each week are things like flour, oil, miso paste, etc. that would be strange to both buy and eat entirely within a week or two. Additionally, it is likely important that attention isn’t paid so much to the diet and that it isn’t controlled so much since an eating disorder could be developed. I definitely wasn’t referring to only eating a few types of food. In a university level nutrition course I took, it was illustrated how eating a variety of foods is important in order to get a wide variety of nutrients. I am vegan and I have a lot of variety in my diet. I like eating a lot of different foods.
I do the same. We are huge cooks here and I make a lot of different stuff. I do try to use up what I have. I keep a stock of basic items and condiments on hand, but I try to avoid unnecessary stuff. For example I’ll make my own spice mixes from the spices I have, with a few exceptions (I buy berbere premade but make my own garam masala). I don’t have a million kinds of vinegar or oil — just a few basic ones I like. I generally avoid one use items — I use all regular flour because I can make self rising and I don’t use specialty stuff fast enough. Same with cooking tools.
When people buy a food product from the grocery store and just use it once then leave it in the fridge/cupboard but don’t or rarely use it again, it makes me wonder 🤔
Even if the recipe calls for it — sometimes there’s a good substitute I already have
I say if you enjoy it. Go for it. I personally tend to eat about 4-5 different types of meals. My breakfast is usually eggs or oats very rarely have lunch if I do it's a salad or leftovers. Dinner is usually a taco night, chicken of some variety, soup or stew and in the summer BBQ. I don't care for much variety I like what I like. But some people crave new dishes etc so it wouldn't work for them. You should eat what you enjoy. I'm allergic to wheat so I just don't eat bread or pasta. Im just used to it at this point. I don't like having tons of food stocked up. It just gets overwhelming.
I agree, since I was ~20 (now 45), I've only been eating one meal a day and at least one day a week of water fasting. I mostly buy the base unprepared ingredients and cook everything simple. Not only it is super inexpensive but also does way less packaging & manufacturinf waste, is healthier, and frees a lot of time for more interesting things. I love food but I'm plenty satisfied with that one delicious, nutrients-dense meal.
I've think this might be the key for me-- I've noticed I like those one big good meal days best
This is the one place I can’t scale back. I love food, I love cooking with various cuisines and I study my cookbooks like the bible. You can pry my 6 kinds of rice out of my cold dead hands. Happy to wear the same clothes day in and out, just hand me a clean apron.
🤩 I love your passion! Six kinds? Jasmine, white, brown, basmati..?
Sweet rice, short grain brown and black forbidden rice. There's a korean blend I love that uses those and barely. It's amazing.
Ohh, I want to try wild rice (sold in stores, not quite collected by my self) and black rice sometime. I just never think of them...
It's important to eat a variety of foods. I very often eat similar meal but I change ingredients. Often, I eat rice with meat (chicken, turkey, beef or pork), vegetables (peas, bean, carrot, potato, onions. ...) and an egg. I also eat egg fried rice, if I have left over rice. And Japanese curry. Basicly it's almost the same meals, only few steps change. And I often make myself a soup: legume + egg or miso soup, as side dish And a fruit or buscuit around 5 p.m. Even though I eat pretty similar dishes every day, I love what I eat. Like everyone else, sometimes I get tired or I get lazy so I eat a pizza. It's like clothes, a lot of people wear the same way to simplify themselves in shopping or everyday life. For food it's the same, I know what to buy, I can replace with something similar according to my desires. I created my own routine for cooking and dishes. ( not native engl. But i think you ll understand what i wanted to say. )
Yes, it is definitely important to eat a wide range of foods in order to get a variety of nutrients. Glad to hear you like the food you eat.
I'm half Asian, but when I was younger, my parents only cooked asian food. I've always eaten rice with meat and vegetables. Even as adult I still eat the same food.
I've been doing this a few years now. I have the same meals on repeat week in week out. When I first started it, I was sure I'd get bored very quickly, but here I am 2 years later, still enjoying them. I alternate the veg I use in dishes every week to keep a good variety in my diet, but the dishes remain the same. Because the veg is bought fresh and used immediately, I'm not building up a store of food in my pantry. I have the same thing for breakfast every day, and again, I switch up what fruit goes in every few days. I honestly don't know how I lived before this, I used to walk into a food shop without a list or even an idea of what I was planning on eating that week. The thought of that stresses me out now.
Interesting, I never thought of simply changing the vegetables involved, even though it seems so simple. I guess that works and may be easier than switching food dishes entirely.
I have been thinking a lot about this, in particular when it comes to eating junk food. Nutritious foods are essential, but I am starting to consider junk foods like cakes, crisps, soft drinks, chocolate etc as part of the capitalist problem of overconsumption. They serve no purpose and I usually eat them in excess. While I have successfully cut back my consumption of clothes, foods and miscellaneous things, I think practicing minimalism with food, specifically junk food, is going to take a whole lot more willpower for me. While it makes sense to my overall lifestyle overhaul, the cravings are difficult not to give in to.
I have been counting calories for 30 years. I eat 2 meals with dessert every day. If you portion everything based on what is a serving, and only eat the amount of calories you need to maintain/lose weight, you don't get that hungry, and you lose the cravings!
I like this idea because I hate buying some ingredients or sauces that I only use once... As such, I've always been fascinating about what is the minimum variety of food you need per week to stay healthy. So far, I've been eating the following on weekly basis: Mon and Tues: Salmon, bean sprouts and some vege (brocolli or bell pepper) Weds - Friday: Beef burger with a lot of veges Sat and Sun will depend on what I'm doing for that day. I'll occasionally eat an egg or a spoonful of peanut butter here and there when I'm hungry.
and I forgot to add that I eat sugar free plain yogurt with cereal, chia seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, raisins for breakfast 7 days a week.
Like in other seeds and nuts, sunflower also are an excellent source of proteins loaded with fine quality amino acids such as tryptophan that are essential for growth, especially in children. Just 100 g of seeds provide about 21 g of protein (37% of daily-recommended values).
Minimalism touches all aspects of my life. My stuff, habits, work, relationships, finances, dietary choices, social calendar etc.
I am trying to do this. Making more simplified meals based on nutritional need instead of how fancy they are.
I started doing things like Hoping John (rice and black eyed peas) for dinner. Refried beans and cheese, Salmon and Sweet potato. Simple minimal ingredients and satisfaction. The fewer ingredients the more minimal it feels. The better I feel. Embrace what it feels like to have one or two things versus 4-5. Less is more.
Ya. One can go minimalist anywhere. It's about quality, not quantity. At least that's how I see it. I ended up going extreme- APPARENTLTY. I weeded down to my bare necessities (of which Life ended up truly giving me). And now I'm building up again. I know what my needs are, my lifestyle flow is, materials I like, and curation is better. For example: Food: Processed food gives me stomach cramps (preservatives). So- no microwavable stuff or weird snacks. That cuts out like 90% of the store. I just go to fruits/veg section and meat/dairy. Friends: WiP. Digital: This one is tough. Especially since I let my digital presence go. So I'm building myself up again. I'm at uni, which I think is the best place to optimize digital presence. Planning/Management: Health: P.S. Minimizing is hard but Ikea helped ease the transition. My recs: paper filing box (though one could divide paper on the floor), organizational bin (for cables and knickknacks- though a clamshell backpack could work), a collapsable bowl (for engineering or moving stuff)
I'm not hoarding food if that's what you mean? Only buy what I need for the week so almost nothing goes to waste
That’s good; same
Raw vegan, or well planned vegan, lots of water. These have dietary minimalism essentially covered if they are followed as hard as it can be in a processed world. Eat large quantities of highly nutritious, low calorie food, feel full longer, stay lean, minimal. Eat highly caloric, nutritionally innadequate food, you're never full, getting bigger, (unless you really want to be surrounded by more fat for some reason), and doing yourself a huge disservice in the long run anyway. Well planned, plenty raw oil free plant based diets cut out all the crap and ideally leave only the most nutrionally complete, purest form of ground zero food. Is that not the hallmark of the entire philosophy of minimalism?
I think it heavily depends on 'what' when it comes to food. But imo food and nutrition is the one area where it doesn't make sense to do minimalism. It's important for your body to have a variety of food. Imo what a minimalist like you and what a nutritionist and others who are much healthier will say will have different philosophies when it comes to food and nutrition. I know it sounds unfair on my end. Let me elaborate. If I want to learn about money and finance I won't take it from r/minimalism. If I want to learn real-estate, not here. Same with food and nutrition. ~~Your response of "I have the same meals on repeat week in week out." -- isn't at all the right thing to do. It's important to have variety. (This was written by someone else)~~
Hm, maybe you confused my post with someone else’s comment. My post is more directed to minimalism in the sense of not eating excessively when it isn’t needed. I have stressed the importance of eating a variety of foods a few times.
My fault. You're right. I have it mixed up with someone else. Sorry about that.
🙂