I’m driving myself nuts eating like a little piggy every weekend even though I eat really healthy during the week. I even like my healthy food so it isn’t like I’m depriving myself. But I meal prep for M-F and don’t have it in me to cook on weekends so I eat tons of junk. So, does anyone else do this? Did anyone else get over this? Do you have some other food woes you want to get off your chest? Or some other random thing you would like to discuss?
To me this sounds like the preparation you do during the week maybe is a bit tiring or boring or both, so that even if you like the food you cook, the process is a chore. I’d include grocery shopping in “the process”.
If true, then you are amazing to keep on top of everything during the week, but it may provide some clues for arranging your weekend food into something you’re happier with.
Maybe you need simpler, faster recipes for the weekdays so you’re less fed up with cooking by the weekend? Maybe you need things which are more fun to cook, or which have more pleasurable sensory aspects, both in the preparation and in the eating? Maybe you could make some extra food during the week, that you can reheat or just turf onto a plate at the weekends?
Is it possible you are too strict during the week? Or that you’re not really getting enough calories over the week? What happens if you are more relaxed about how healthy your weekday meals are? What happens if you have small amounts of junky stuff during the week?
So actually I meal prep on Sunday morning and eat the same thing M-F which I’m ok with but 5 days is my limit and I don’t think the food would still be good by the next Saturday and Sunday anyway. But maybe you’re on to something and even though I think I’m ok with the same dinner every day, maybe I need to make like 4 days worth of food then do a quick and easy 3 day meal prep on Thursday to switch it up. Maybe it’s at least partially a psychological thing that I wasn’t even aware was happening.
Personally, this was the most exhausting part of cooking for me. My recipes are often complicated and call for a lot of somewhat obscure ingredients. Then the risk of forgetting something or buying the wrong thing is also there. Half the time, by the time I start actually cooking I’m already a little bit tired just because I could not find lime oil or whatever for the life of me.
I’ve started ordering all my ingredients for pickup now. I get a search bar so I’m not walking down isles hoping I’m in the right one, and I can check it against the recipe easily. I can pick it up on my bike ride and it just feels so much better.