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I ate the same lunch for a year

Off Topic Locked by PollosHenry 12 replies 1.3K views
This thread is locked — new replies are not accepted. (Wrong category — please repost)
PollosHenry

Member OP

Homelab Hoarder

#1

Back in my day (2019, actually (which feels like both yesterday and approximately three centuries ago)) I started meal prepping. Actually it was January 2025 when I committed to identical lunches: rice, black beans, chicken thigh, salsa verde. Same container. Same 12:30 timing. I tracked everything in a spreadsheet (LibreOffice Calc 7.5, actually (I know)).

Nutritional effects: boring but stable. Cholesterol actually improved.
Psychological effects: stranger. I started talking to the container. Not full conversations. Just "there you are" when I opened the fridge. The routine became... a presence? I stopped last week (actually (this is the hard part)) and I felt actual loss. Like a breakup with a very quiet partner. Anyone else get weirdly attached to routine?

olespete

Member

Trust No One

#2
PollosHenry said:
Actually it was January 2025 when I committed to identical lunches: rice, black beans, chicken thigh, salsa verde.

Have you considered what could go wrong with identical meals long term!!!

  • Heavy metals in rice accumulate.
  • BPA from containers leaching.
  • Micronutrient gaps you are not tracking.
  • What if your chicken source changes suppliers without telling you.
  • What if the salsa verde factory has a contamination event.

You should rotate meals for security. Fail2ban for your gut. Also firewalls. I mean fiber. I mean vegetables.

airgapped, encrypted, faraday'd, still worried
RAJ

Member

#3

Guys this is actually interesting for margins. How much you saving vs buying lunch out? Any leads on bulk chicken supplier? Also what panel you using to track, custom spreadsheet or some meal prep app? Their are reselling opportunities in meal prep containers maybe.

your margin is my opportunity
Richard7

Member

Pentium III Enjoyer

#4
PollosHenry said:
I felt actual loss. Like a breakup with a very quiet partner.

Turkey and swiss on rye, they don't make them like that anymore. The machine had a personality, I swear. I still remember its hum. Your container sounds nicer than my sandwich, but I understand the goodbye. Warm stories like this remind me that even boring things become part of us.

SPARCstation 20, still serving HTTP
JokoNord

Member

#5

That LibreOffice detail hit too close to home

traffic worse than my packet loss
PollosHenry

Member OP

Homelab Hoarder

#6
olespete said:
Heavy metals in rice accumulate.

Valid concern. I sourced jasmine rice from a NZ importer who provides batch test certificates. Not perfect but better than supermarket mystery brands.

olespete said:
BPA from containers leaching.

Glass. Lock & Lock glass with silicone seal. Microwave the chicken separately anyway because soggy skin is a crime.

The micronutrient gap is real though. Dinner is where I get vegetables. Lunch was always the "automated" meal so I could think about other things.

Re: the breakup feeling. It's not the food. It's the decision fatigue I miss not having. Every lunch hour I now spend five minutes choosing. That five minutes used to go into staring at a terminal wondering why my Pi was thermal throttling.

RAJ

Member

#7
PollosHenry said:
Lock & Lock glass with silicone seal.

Bulk pricing on these? I can move 50 units if margin is there. Also your spreadsheet template -- any chance to white-label? Meal prep tracking is niche but recurring.

Chicken supplier question still open. NZ has strict import rules yes? Here in Mumbai I can get wholesale from Godrej or Venky's but quality varies batch to batch.

your margin is my opportunity
liam_funky

Member

Vancouver

#8
PollosHenry said:
I now spend five minutes choosing. That five minutes used to go into staring at a terminal

This. I had the same oatmeal breakfast for 18 months (2019-2021, also feels like yesterday/centuries). Rolled oats, water, pinch of salt. No toppings. The time I didn't spend deciding was time I spent on a spreadsheet tracking how much time I spent on spreadsheets.

Stopped when I moved to Vancouver and the oats here taste different. Something about humidity in shipping. Still haven't found a replacement. The loss is real and also slightly embarrassing to admit.

JokoNord

Member

4 #9
RAJ said:
Meal prep tracking is niche but recurring.

Brother RAJ everything is recurring to you. The man had a feeling about a container and you see ARR.

Salam kenal from Jakarta. I did similar with nasi padang for three months, same warung same packet. Stopped because the oil started feeling heavy in this humidity. No spreadsheet though. Just a WhatsApp photo to myself every day until I stopped.

traffic worse than my packet loss
zhaojuho

Member

iptables enjoyer

#10
olespete said:
Fail2ban for your gut

This is the worst analogy I have read this week and I read mailing lists.

PollosHenry said:
Decision fatigue I miss not having

This is the actual insight. I run 12 servers and the cognitive load of "what do I eat" was higher than "which firewall rule broke SSH." Food decisions are pathological. Identical lunch is just a cron job for nutrition. I respect it.

Helsinki winter helps. When it's -20 and dark, you don't want adventure. You want rye bread and liver paste at noon exactly. Finnish lunch culture is basically this thread's endpoint already.

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