Cooking at home is really freaking hard. Even with the modern-day miracles of boneless skinless chicken breasts and instapots, preparing your own meals requires an absurd amount of brainpower, logistics, and time. And after all of that work, what do you have to show for it?
From 2013 to 2016, an estimated 36.6% of American adults ate fast food on any given day
For adults between the ages of 20 and 39, the number jumps to 44.9%.
- 60% of calories consumed in the U.S. come from ultra-processed foods that are ready to drink, eat or heat up.
Declutter your fridge weekly
Set a timer for ten minutes, go through your fridge, get rid of anything that is going bad, tidy up what’s left, and remind yourself what you need to use up soon
- Declutter, not deep clean – just go through the fridge and make a list of what needs to go
You don’t have to go from getting takeaway for 90% of your meals to cooking 90% at home
It’s ok to start by committing to cooking just once a week
- The routine you’ll maintain beats the perfect routine every time
- When you feel overwhelmed, focus on just the first step
- Starting has a way of creating momentum
- Cooking is a form of self-care
The less time we spend cooking at home, the worse our diets become
Fast food and ready-to-eat dinners may have freed up a significant amount of our time, but they also started an epidemic of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and a slew of other chronic health issues
- Convenience is slowly killing us
- If we want to eat healthier we can’t escape the fact that we have to make time for cooking
- Make a plan
- Use Todoist to plan out meals for the week and make a grocery list
- Freeze any meat that doesn’t go bad by the end of the week
Keep it simple
Repeat often.
- Identify 3-5 recipes that are fast to make (30 min or less), relatively healthy, and reasonably edible. Fall back on these recipes as often as you need
- Schedule it so it happens
- When taking on new endeavors we often skip the critical first step: figuring out how we’ll make time for them. Make time for meal prep on your calendar and keep that appointment with yourself
- Motivate yourself with temptation bundling
- Invest in the right tools – sharp chef’s knife, spatulas, etc.
