Cooking for One

A few years ago, I read an article describing a series of experiments where researchers put a line of duct tape down the center of a supermarket shopping carts with signs suggesting that shoppers place fruits and vegetables on one side of the tape, and other foods on the opposite side.  Shoppers with the duct tape carts bought 102% more fruits and vegetables than shoppers with non-marked carts.  I often think about this study when I'm about to leave the produce section of the supermarket, and when I do, I inevitably find myself circling back for another round of picking up fruits and veggies. 

I still find supermarket shopping incredibly hard, in that unless I'm grabbing fresh or frozen pre-made meals, I struggle to buy ingredients for more than one cooked meal at a time.  I was lucky to grow up with fresh cooked meals complete with a protein, starch, cooked veggies, and salad each night.  Having a frozen or boxed dinner was very rare as were take-out dinners.  I so appreciate the time my mom took to make whole foods for us and create a healthy, family dinner environment sans-television.  Why, then, do I still find it so difficult to incorporate that into my current schedule?  There are plenty of excuses to go around: that I work all day so I don't have time to cook, that no one wants to cook a whole meal for one, that being a vegetarian means I can't use many of my mom's family recipes.  But in the end, I know these are all excuses.

My usual cooking is what I like to call half pre-made, meaning that half the meal is some kind of pre-packed or frozen item, and the rest is fresh.  Some dinners might be: a veggie patty in a pita with fresh tomatoes and avocado, boxed mac and cheese with peas, boxed risotto with fresh mushrooms and green beans, frozen indian food with fresh naan and veggies.  For lunches, I still eat fresh, but it's almost all pre-made: pre-made lentil wrap, pre-made caprese salad w/arugula, pre-made mushroom tortellini with asparagus, pre-made California roll.  Basically, Trader Joe's has been feeding me now for some time and I'm starting to get tired of their selection.  I'm good at adding fresh fruits and veggies to most meals, because they are easy to buy and delicious to eat.  It's the main course of my meals that I'm struggling to create in a healthy, interesting, inexpensive way.  I guess the only way to start cooking whole is to simply start.  Maybe next week?

A Bag of Skittles

I still remember the first time I experienced eating mindfully.  I was about 7 years old, eating a bag of skittles in my bedroom.  As I was working my way through that bag of sugary goodness I poured a handful of skittles into my hand and paused, looking at the different colors.  Each skittle has a distinct taste, to the trained tongue, but I was simply piling them into my mouth without thought to what flavor was coming next.  On this day, I decided to pause and, looking at the bright colors, choose what flavor I was craving at that moment.  Did I want Red (my go-to favorite candy color) or Green or Orange (usually my least favorite)?  I realized that I had a choice and I could choose the colors and flavors in the order that I wanted, that I craved, to fully enjoy my snack.

In years since, I have often used that moment as a metaphor for how I go about my life.  It's easy to get caught up in daily motions and begin activities without desire or direction or mindfulness.  My skittles moment reminds me that I have a choice in everything I do and that pausing to take note of what I am experiencing and allow myself the time to choose how to proceed brings pleasure to the everyday.

In this blog I'm setting out to do just that.  To think about what I'm putting into my body and how it affects the way I feel, both mentally and physically.  Sometimes we eat when we're bored, or sad, or happy, or just to be social.  Sometimes we eat foods that we know weren't farmed ethically, have pesticides, came from a factory farm, have high mercury levels, or consume animals that are somewhat endangered.  Sometimes we eat something that is not healthy, but we feel great and fulfilled afterwards whereas other times we completely regret that meal choice.  What's important to me is not counting calories or going on an extreme diet that would feel restrictive and be unsustainable.  What's important to me is bringing awareness to the food I choose to eat, and when I'm ready, taking action to make better choices for my body and the world around me.  I'm not sure what those actions will be yet, but I am ready to begin this journey toward eating mindfully.