How I learned to love food again…

I have recently come to love food again. It was never as if I didn’t like food it was just that food seemed to be somewhat cumbersome to my daily routine. I pretty much went four years through college not eating before noon. It was as if I was fasting everyday during a period of my life in which food was very necessary for my growth, health and wellbeing. I went to college and actually lost weight something many people might wish they could do, but to me it was frightening. I’m not a big guy so for me to loose weight was actually kind of depressing for me. This is especially true because I think there is a big stigma around men, food and how much they should be eating. It’s different for everybody so we must understand that first. For me, I got stuck in the routine of eating out or delivering food to my house all the time which became costly. Also due to living situations ie. living in a dirty frat house for a couple years it made it even more difficult to cook for myself. I found myself lying awake at night thinking about food and wondering if I would have enough money by the end of the month to order another meal from “insert delivery service”. It wasn’t as if I was too broke to get food either. I am very privileged to have supportive parents that helped pay for my food, it was just that food kind of was something I didn’t prioritize in my life and as such I struggled with it.

I’ve come to love food again due to one simple reason, learning to cook. Cooking was something that I was always ok at, but never felt comfortable with. I could cook simple things like eggs and pasta, and it’s not as if I’ve become a master chef at all. Most of the things I make these days are still over cooked, burnt, undercooked, or any other various ways one can “fuck up” a dish, but it is in the simple act of cooking that food became more enticing and has made me hungry again. I think spending time to learn how different ingredients cook and can be combined has become a sort of art form for myself. It is something that I feel good about when I reach an end result and thus am more proud and happy to eat it. Cooking is a skill and almost feels like magic to me now, it allows you to be creative and to play with flavors that you enjoy most. Learning how long it takes for certain ingredients to cook is probably one skill that is more difficult to learn when it comes to cooking. These times and pieces of knowledge can then be remembered for future dishes involving that ingredient. This allows for creativity as one already has a base understanding of how to cook a few ingredients and thus they can be added with other ingredients to create new things.

I think I have come to realize that food is a necessity. Everyday we eat, so why not invest time into learning how to cook what you love. I know not everybody has the time and resources, but I promise you that with practice you can chef up some pretty great meals in the same amount of time or less time than it takes for your food to be delivered to you. Also did I mention the cost. It is awesome to have the ability to cook more than what you need for a meal and then have leftovers that can then be cooked or mixed with other ingredients to make another meal. Its like recycling your food. I love it, Haha. Most of this is probably so obvious to many people, but I wanted to share how cooking has inspired me to love food again. I hope you can find the time and energy to give it a try as well.