Remove Stress From Mealtime
March 10, 2021
Written By: Eva Papadogiorgaki
Let’s remove stress away from mealtime!
Is one of the reasons you don’t like to cook or perhaps even dread to cook because the whole ordeal itself is stressful? Tiring?
That is naturally one sure way to resort to fast, effortless and often from-a-package meals. Let’s just call it what it is, I mean takeout too!
Nobody has the perfect meal time routine and nobody loves to cook dinner every night. So it is quite nice to have those faster options, as long as they’re used as the exception and not the rule.
And to help with this we can at least start to remove some of that stress and pressure around meal time.
First off, you have to set a few hours each week aside for basic meal prep. No way around it. Sorry, I tried.
Sunday usually works best for most families and individuals, but you may find that Monday evening or Saturday morning for example is the best time according to your lifestyle schedule.
It doesn’t need to be a daunting 7 hours or fully wasting a perfectly good day when you could be doing literally anything else.
Set aside 2 hours to start. Correction, set aside 1 hour to start!
Things you can do in one hour (or less for most of these):
Wash all your leafy greens for a few days’ worth of salads and chop or grate some veggies.
Boil a pot of beans to use in various recipes throughout the week (think chocolate brownies, soups or veggie burgers!). This takes no effort; you just throw the beans in a pot of water and walk away. So there is really no excuse.
Chop fresh fruit and separate into baggies. Freeze them for smoothies. This tip works well when you get a big haul of seasonal fruit at a good price.
Make cookie dough and freeze it (or part of it) for next weekend.
Make hummus or any other dip.
Meal prep not only reduces the time it takes to actually cook dinner, but it also eliminates some of that god forsaken “what to coooook……” seemingly rhetorical question. People, it’s not a rhetorical question, honestly.
Other ways to remove stress from mealtime is to just… not stress. Think about it. Why do we stress about things? Because we feel we’re unprepared (solved above), or not doing enough, or don’t have time. Well what if we didn’t need to follow the rules of dinner anymore? Do you have to serve a carbohydrate, a protein and a healthy fat? Actually no. Bravo if you can manage that, but it’s not necessary for every meal. In fact, keeping things simple may be a nice break for our all-too bogged down digestive system.
So why not serve a one-dish meal or a massive charcuterie board for dinner with lots of fruit and veggies? Or even “healthy” grilled cheese sandwiches with carrot and celery sticks?
Let’s gently push out from our memories what the “typical” plate of dinner is supposed to look like and let’s go more with what we are feeling, what we are in the mood to prepare and what will really nourish our bodies. Even if that means pizza because there are healthy versions for pizza, trust me on this one.
If you can manage these simple shifts, the emotional connection will start to kick in. Meal time is a special time. You are taking the time to prepare nourishment for your bodies. Meal time is also a time to connect, check in, sit down and relax. So put away the screens and let’s bring conversation back to dinner tables. Nothing fun to talk about? Here’s a suggestion, why not talk about what each person ate that day and how that made them feel? Perhaps it’s corny but it will create a memorable and healthy connection with food for adults and children alike.
Remember, humans are a creature of habit and highly trainable, so eventually your mind will create the connection that meal preparation is actually a preparation of sustenance, of happiness and overall wellbeing.