The Complications of Cooking When You Are Lazy — Broke & Bougie AF

Pre-Rona, I was doing so well with my physical wellness. I was working out almost 5 days a week, meal prepping, and even sticking to my meal plan but then Ms. Rona pulled up and ruined all of that. Since the Rona, I have gained the 10 lbs I lost right before plus 3 more, which is the heaviest I have ever been in my life. Despite my weight, I honestly only want to be healthy.

I started working out again at one point since the pandemic started, then stopped because I was frustrated and honestly, I knew my problem. I was eating terribly. My days are consumed with so many other things that being prepared to cook is the last thing on my mind. I will wait until I am hungry to eat but then, of course, I don’t have anything prepared to eat and I am either too lazy or too tired to cook. So what is my solution?

First I tried meal prepping on Sundays, which was okay but it did not last long. I became easily uninterested in the food I had prepared for the week and reverted right back to eating out. I cooked everything I needed for lunch and dinner so that all I had to do was warm it up and eat. If you have done this, you know it is so easy to become burnt out on eating the same food over and over. On top of that microwaving food just takes so much texture and flavor out of the food. So what was next?

Well, weeks had gone by of me eating out and I finally said I am going to try to cook 5 days a week. This was far too ambitious for me! I cooked 2 days the first week and fell off the next week. Let me be clear, I can cook, I just am usually too lazy to do it often, especially since I don’t like washing dishes. With trying to make cooking easier but also maintaining eating food that tastes good, I started to review meal prep options like Hello Fresh or Blue Apron and finally decided on Home Chef.

But, like most things I thought about whether or not I really wanted to sign up because I can cook, so why can’t I figure this out on my own. My friend, Arielle, who cooks at home all of the time finally had enough of my complaining and told me that I needed to make crockpot meals. She sent me about 10 good recipes from Pinterest. I wanted to test this out on dinner first, then add in lunch because the only meal I consistently cook is breakfast.

So, I picked two of the recipes bought enough groceries to make double the recipe and I put my plan in motion. Instead of cooking everything, I made my crockpot recipe to last about 4 days but I cook my vegetables every day and my carb about every two days. Today is Wednesday and this is week 3 after setting my goal and I have “cooked” 3 days so far including Sunday. This seems to be working for me but I will update you as time moves forward.

Now, I just need to add my workouts back in and I should have better results.

I say all of this to say that sometimes a new set of ears can help you find the solution you need to push through to your results. What part of your physical health have you been struggling with during the pandemic? Have you worked out any? What about eating?

Originally published at https://www.brokeandbougieaf.com on October 31, 2020.