I Thought I Had No Time to Cook. I Was Wrong.

Most of the resistance was just inertia. There's a day job, and my flatmates and I had already hired a decent cook, after an absurdly long vetting process, as if we have some elevated taste (spoiler: we don’t). And then there’s the actual act of cooking, which seemed dreadful.

But as I started paying more attention to nutrition, I realised that something has to change. Sure, the cook was better than ordering off Zomato or Swiggy every day, but the meals still left me feeling off.

Eventually, I bit the bullet and started cooking for myself. And I haven’t felt this good in a long time. The brain fog lifted, my energy levels improved, and even my skin and hair got noticeably better.

So, if anyone is in a similar situation(staying away from home for work), I would recommend giving it a shot. I’m posting a few tips/learnings. Disclaimer: I’m not a very picky eater, so I can get by without eating anything fancy for a long time.

• Find replacements for things you can’t cook. eg: instead of roti, I use wheat bread or sourdough.

• Some meals don’t even require any cooking. For example, my breakfast for a long time was just overnight oats (rolled oats, skimmed milk, whey protein, seeds, cinnamon powder) with any seasonal fruit. Now I’ve switched to eggs (sunny side up or omelette), avocado toast, and any seasonal fruit.

• If you make each of your meals balanced, you’ll realize it’s just a simple assembly of different items. Carbs (rice, roti/wheat bread, fruits, lentils, and beans), protein (eggs, soya, chicken, low-fat paneer), and fats (nuts, seeds, cheese, olive oil, cooking oil). Now just do different permutations and combinations.

• Learn to make curries. Very high ROI. Rajma/chole + rice is such comfort food(it kills off any cheat meal temptations).

Pasting some meal pics. If I had known I’d be posting them, I would’ve worked a bit on the presentation :)