I still feel kinda bad about it, but I honestly wasn’t trying to be a jerk.
See, I told my friend DJ Foodie, “I don’t really enjoy cooking. I cook to eat.”
I immediately regretted it. I could feel him going all sad and deflated, his heart breaking just a little, right there through the email.
I mean, I could have expected that reaction had I thought about it. He wants to inspire people to enjoy making delicious, healthy food! Like, that’s literally his jam.
I am pretty much an ideal representative of his target market. And here I am going, “Can we just get this cooking crap over with so I don’t starve, please?”
Ouch.
Sorry, DJ!
I truly am the world’s unlikeliest food blogger. Might as well own it, man.
I’ve asked myself since, “Is that really true? Or was I just too stressed out and strung out, it’s how I felt in the moment?” Because I was.
Maybe a little all-of-the-above. Definitely a little all-of-the-above.
I mean, I do think of myself as a lazy cook. I don’t want anything fussy, dirties too many dishes, requires too many ingredients I don’t have or (heaven-forbid) needs babysitting. Those are the dishes I’m most likely to ruin! In short, I like my food to be easy, low stress and most of all, difficult to mess up.
Hey…I could say that about the rest of my life, too. Har!
But then I remember how much joy I have gotten from preparing special meals, for holidays or when my kids were coming over for dinner.
I wasn’t doing it out of obligation. I was preparing food that I hoped would please both myself and people I loved. I thought about the upcoming event while preparing the food. I looked forward to the love, laughter and pleasure shared with the meal. And that felt very different. So, I guess I like cooking, sometimes.
The moral of today’s story is that it’s not the activities themselves we enjoy or don’t enjoy. It’s how we are thinking about the activities, which in turn fuels our feelings. Naturally, this covers everything, not just low carb cooking.
Exercise can be just one more thing you “have to do,” or it can be recreational, playful or even fun. Passing up the foods you’re craving can be depressing, or finding replacements can become a challenge, a game to “cheat the system” and get away with something. Even routine duties like housecleaning can be a terrible chore, or it can be a gift to yourself and the people who live with you, making things pretty and pleasant. Why you’re doing it counts.
I always used to say, “This journey is a lot like sex: the most important parts happen in your head.” I’m going to expand that today and say this is probably true about most things in life.
But maybe I shouldn’t go around saying everything is just like sex. People look at me weird enough already.
One thing to remember for today: It’s not an activity that determines your feelings about it. It’s how you think about it.
In short, none of this is about where your body is at or what it’s doing. It’s about where your MIND is at. What attitude adjustments could make things easier for you?
[Little hint: Gratitude is the best attitude adjustment I’ve ever found. I’d start there.]
Be well, friends.
