I realized today that one of unexpectedly hard parts of changing my eating patterns has nothing to do with what I eat, it's communicating what I want.
Tim Ferriss writes about how important it is when eating out to modify your typical food order to make it healthier. Like substituting roast veggies for french fries, or steamed veggies for rice. I'm totally happy to eat those things, but I have a harder time asking for those those changes when I'm ordering.
In a restaurant, it's just so much easier saying, "I'll have the chicken burrito" than to explain that you want the burrito made without rice and with extra veggies. There are two reasons why I don't like doing this:
- The order taker is typically confused by this, so I often have to explain it a couple of times.
- It costs a little more.
It's that combination of slight social awkwardness and extra cost that often prevents me from making the healthiest choices when I'm eating. Now that I've identified it, I think it will be easier to deal with.