In the age of coronavirus everything feels a bit different. Mundane tasks such as laundry, grocery shopping, and cooking may now come with a stressful twist. For some of us, especially in the eating disorder recovery community, cooking was stressful before the pandemic. Now that it has become more essential, it may feel even more daunting than ever! The constant washing of dishes, purchasing ingredients, looking up recipes, spending countless hours in the kitchen, meal after meal, day after day... it feels like it never ends! It takes courage to keep up the motions of everyday life in the face of such uncertainty. Especially when you may be recovering from a disordered relationship to food! With no end in sight, WE MUST KEEP GOING.

But how?!

Make it easier on yourself. Small changes can make big differences! Consider purchasing pre-chopped ingredients, such as minced garlic, or pre-chop your produce ahead of time. Try cleaning and chopping your produce right when you get home from the grocery store and see what a huge difference this makes throughout the week! Having clean, chopped veggies ready to go will cut your cooking time in half.

Give meal prepping a chance! I know, it may feel like a challenge but it can actually make your life much easier in the long run. Meal prepping doesn’t have to look like a multi-hour cooking marathon on a Sunday afternoon. In fact, I don’t recommend that! Instead, try cooking certain components ahead of time, such as a large batch of rice or baking some chicken breasts. In general, I recommend choosing 3-4 meals for the week, and plan to make at least 2 servings of each meal (per person). It’s maybe 10% more work to double a recipe, but you produce twice as much food. And be sure to have your tupperware ready to go!

Get excited. Cooking, and sometimes even eating, can feel... well, boring. With our favorite restaurants closed, we are limited to the creations coming out of our own kitchens. Most of us aren’t professional chefs and are limited to what we know, resulting in little variety and lots of repetition. It’s hard to find the motivation to prepare a meal if you aren’t looking forward to it! Many of us have never had to be creative in the kitchen and now it is hard to know where to start. If you want to try something new, experiment with new ingredients, or test out new methods of cooking I recommend checking out some of my personal favorite cooking blogs:

Shift your mindset. Yes, cooking all the time is a pain. But with this challenge we look to the silver lining such as saving money by not eating out as much. And, there is a bigger return on your cooking because you are also building a useful life skill. This can be an opportunity to have more intimacy with your food, discover new preferences, and to nurture yourself in a different way. Seeing others’ culinary conquests on social media may be intimidating, but your meals don’t have to be Instagram worthy to be works of art! When we think of cooking as an art practice or project rather than a chore, it becomes a much more enjoyable process. Cooking can help raise self-esteem and confidence. If you’re cooking mindfully, it can be extremely therapeutic. Don’t get too attached to the results and tap into your inner child. Put on some music, get in the kitchen, and play!