Given the difficulties the entire planet is going through, avoiding avoidable worries should be everyone’s ‘modus operandi’.
After a 2020 in which millions of people have seen their goals for the year truncated by the pandemic and a 2021 that has not started too well either, a lot of exhaustion has emerged from the narrative of “enjoy the day to day and cook to relax.” This has fueled a widespread new purpose: the promise of not cooking every day.
Although it is a very noble aspiration to cook all your meals and dinners, it is not always feasible or sustainable in the long term. For many people, cooking is exhausting because it’s not just about cooking, but also about the entire pre-planning and post-cleaning process. And there are many factors to consider: do I have all the ingredients I need? Do I have the time to cut the vegetables, cook them, clean the kitchen, and repeat the process every day? What do I do today to eat?
What if you decided not to cook every day? Would your validity as a person disintegrate? Would you destroy your purpose of living a healthy life if you ordered food at home or ate out once in a while? The answer is a resounding no .
It turns out that this way of thinking has a good nutritional and psychological justification, especially in the middle of a pandemic that has changed the world.
First of all, some data. In a survey conducted by Freshly over 2,000 Americans to learn the ways in which the pandemic has influenced their purposes 2021, it was discovered that many more people are inclined this year set goals “realistic” compared to surveys from previous years .
Specifically, 67% of the participants revealed that they were going to opt for “more feasible micro-objectives”, such as ordering less food at home (38%), not gaining weight, compared to the usual goal of losing weight (38%) and eating more nutritious meals ( not necessarily home) when they had to telecommute (35%).
The result of the study probably has a lot to do with the psychological implications of committing to cooking every day. “A study of families with children who eat 7 or more homemade meals a week at home showed that they have higher stress levels and less free time,” explains Dr. Nona Djavid, an expert in nutrition and weight loss. “Eating out helps reduce the work stress of preparing food for the family every day.”
Although homemade food tends to be healthier and more nutritious, that really depends on the dish itself. “You can prepare junk food at home and have a healthy meal for dinner in a restaurant,” explains Djavid. “It depends on the ingredients you use to cook and the dish you order at the restaurant.”
“It’s important to recognize that cooking can be stressful when viewed as a chore rather than an enjoyable activity,” explains Markesha Miller, Ph.D. in psychotherapy. “Cooking one day in and one day out instead of every day adds a certain margin of enjoyment that allows the activity to stop being an abhorrent routine.”
Psychotherapist April Brown proposes even more direct options: “If you think you can cook five days a week, set your expectation to get to three,” she recommends. “If you set realistic goals in the kitchen, you will have more control over your life, something that is now more necessary than ever.”
Obviously, the reality that the world has lived in 2020 has influenced the problem. In the years leading up to the pandemic, many people “justified” their need to go out to dinner with family or friends by saying it was a well-deserved treat after a hard week at the office. In 2021, that argument has lost steam: What office? What restaurant? What friends?
Given the hardships the entire planet has been going through since March, avoiding avoidable worries should be everyone’s modus operandi . So if you want to cook, cook, but if you want to order pizza on Monday and lie on the couch to do nothing, ask for it without regrets. You will have time and desire to make salads the other days of the week. After all, nowhere does it make it a crime not to cook every day.
