homecooked only in the city?

January 15, 2004

>I just started on a totally home cooked diet 2 weeks ago

Abbey,

Can I ask where you live? I commute between the city & the (relatively

speaking) countryside & , in the country it is much easier for me to cook at home

& buy just raw ingredients. In the city, I can go weeks w/my pots & pans

gathering dust as there is no incentive to cook w/take-out & stores so readily

available, 24-7, & cooking facilities in a city apartment unappealingly small &

minimal.

Lunch is especially hard. Preparing something at home & bringing it to work is

much less appealing than buying something each day. (And, as an

environmentalist, I am as concerned about the use of disposable containers as

what's in them. But that still doesn't motivate me to bring a packed lunch.)

Rowena

January 16, 2004

I live in a city and you're right about it being more difficult but it's

gotten to the point that for me I look at made food and it turns my stomach

because I've felt SO HEALTHY lately and I don't want to give that up even

for one piece of food. I did cave today and bought a BK veggie burger for

lunch (yes I know they're cooked on the same grill as the meat burgers but

that's another topic lol) and it's weird, I feel lethargic right now and am

having a hard time getting myself to get up and study and eat supper. I'm

not saying it is the burger's fault necessarily, it's just that the fats and

unhealthy shit that is in the burger filled my tummy up and now I don't feel

like eating healthy food, I want snacks again. I guess this must be what

happens to people who do the yo-yo dieting thing.

I fixed the problem of bringing food to work/school by eating a big

breakfast (500 calorie shake and some juice) and then just taking tons of

snacks with me. Then when I get home I eat supper and then snack again later

in the night. It's better for your metabolism to eat more than 3 times a day

anyway plus your biggest meal of the day really should be your first meal so

that you have lots of energy for the day. I find that having lots of snacks

along with me (granola bar, carrots and a small thing of home made dip,

applesauce cup, yogurt, and a piece of fruit every day) keeps me energized

all day. When I have longer days I also pack a big thick sandwich.

Sometimes eating a big meal can slow you down while your body works to

digest it and in the mornings or nights it's okay because you're home or

travelling but when you are trying to work, or in my case going from class

to class, you don't want to be tired. Not to mention it is easier to pack

small things than a big tupperware container.

The daily lunches I don't find a problem, for me it is the night time food

which I am cooking all on Mondays for the whole week. Right now it means I

am having the similiar suppers each night (I make a couple things on Mondays

and then can change it up a bit each night). Because I make different things

each week I'm not getting bored. When I can buy a freezer I will start

having more variety too.

I think it is just a state of mind. If you make the decision to not eat

commercially made foods you just won't have an apetite for it anymore. It is

like those people who can quit smoking cold turkey and never touch another

one again...they just made the decision not to smoke anymore and that was

that. They stuck with it because they've lost the desire to experience the

affects of cigarettes even if they still crave the actual smoke. (I know of

course smoking involves really intense addiction but looking at it on a

lower level, it really isn't that different of a situation because these

kinds of foods are addictive for your body as well, that's why people crave

potatoe chips).

If you have a freezer and a couple hours every couple of days just pick a

new dish to make and freeze it and it will be easier for other nights. For

lunches you could try my approach but it doesn't fit everyone as some people

want 3 meals instead of eating all day.