Harry Hodges eats the same lunch every day
GETTY According to a survey, one in six people have eaten the same lunch for at least two years
Or maybe you’ve been doing it for even longer. According to a survey one in six has eaten the same lunch for at least two years and one respondent – this is genuinely impressive – has had a ham sandwich and a piece of fruit every day for 20 years. I have a confession to make: I too am a Repeat Eater. Every day I sit down to enjoy (yes, I really do enjoy it) a lunch of chicken and sweet potato. And my reasons are much the same as those given by my fellow REs (I’m thinking of starting a support group). My lunch is healthy, filling and cheap. It’s also easy. At the weekend I simply chop and cook a bagful of sweet potatoes and a farmyard’s worth of liberally seasoned chicken breasts. Some goes straight into lunchboxes and the rest into the freezer to be defrosted on demand. That’s me done without worrying about lunch for a whole week.
Some people take it even further. The craze for “meal prepping” sees fitness fanatics cook and bag up enough food to last them for – in some cases – weeks on end. It’s only natural to be a creature of habit. It’s why biologists are able to sort animals by elements of their daily routine such as what time they get up (nocturnal, diurnal or crepuscular), what they eat (herbivore, carnivore or omnivore) or what they do all day (hunted versus hunter). Why would we expect humans to have evolved any differently? Everybody has some sort of daily schedule. Even the famously dissolute writer Hunter S Thompson had a set time when he got up, a breakfast he had every day and a time to start working (though given that these were, respectively, 3pm, whisky and cigarettes and midnight, he hardly presents an example to follow).
GETTY One of the respondents has had a ham sandwich and a piece of fruit every day for 20 years
For more sensible characters the benefits of a routine are plentiful. Our habits give us a sense of order. There is comfort to be found in knowing what we have to do to get through the day. It also saves a great deal of mental energy. Knowing when to set the alarm clock for, that there’s something to have for breakfast in the cupboard and which train to catch in order to – if you’re lucky – get to work on time means you don’t have to think about any of them. At the other end of the day a bedtime routine lets our bodies know that it’s time to switch off and relax. This is especially important for children. One study for the Prince’s Trust found that 40 per cent of pupils who fail to achieve at least five C-grades in their GCSEs do not have a set bedtime. There is no good reason why such cognitive impairment should not apply to adults who don’t manage a reasonable amount of slumber for at least some of the week. It’s not just food or timings that become ingrained. Wearing a suit or uniform to work means never having to waste time assembling an outfit.
GETTY Bedtime routine is especially important for children
Building in some time to spend on a project, doing chores or getting yourself organised means that making some sort of progress becomes part of your daily life. Trust me, I was only recently a student, doing cleaning little and often is better than leaving things to fester until the day before your landlord’s due to visit. Even entertainment latches on to our longing for order. How many people won’t go out on a Saturday night when Strictly’s on? Or still feel a strange sense of loss when Top Gear (the proper one with Clarkson, not the rubbish new one) isn’t waiting for them on a Sunday? How many sports fans are annoyed when an England Test match doesn’t start on a traditional Thursday or a Premiership football game is scheduled for a Monday night? When things aren’t on at the right time or the right day the whole world feels out of kilter. There is a fine line between controlling your routine and being controlled by it. It’s easy to get too attached to the daily rituals and this is a dangerous path to go down.
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GETTY Harry Hodges says his lunch is healthy, filling and cheap