Stop eating out and get back to cooking? Help!

[MinimalWildflower]

A little backstory: I have been diagnosed with extreme depression, general and social anxiety, bipolar type 2, OCD and PTSD.

For awhile now I've not been eating great. I moved in with my boyfriend in the city and suddenly all of these delivery places were within an arms reach of me (with the help of uber eats, deliveroo...I can't drive) and if I had a bad day or couldn't be motivated to cook I'd just order in. Not long after I had gotten myself 2,000$ in debt because I just couldn't stop buying takeout.

I had some trouble with my boyfriend being mentally abusive, negative and I quickly moved out and so I am now away from the service area of Uber Eats and Deliveroo. But now I'm left with a dilemma. What do I eat?

I find the whole process of cooking daunting. Before I moved out I was cooking semi-regularly, bulk cooking when I did so I had to cook less. The problem is even when I was doing that I'd find myself uninterested in what I'd cooked and I'd find myself not eating until really late at night when the hunger couldn't be ignored any more.

I hate meal planning. I can spend a four hours or five hours surfing the internet for recipes that don't look too hard (I'm not good at cooking at the best of times) and that looked good and that used the least ingredients (I have a 100$ a week budget and 24$ of that goes to cat food, cat litter and delivery of my groceries)...I have enough money to cover only one meal a day with bulk cooking.

When it came time to cook it I'd turn my nose up at whatever I'd picked and I'd end up either cooking it and not eating it or not cooking it and convincing my mum to drive me to the local McDonald's, getting myself further into debt or spending any savings that I have.

I am desperate for help. I want to eat healthier. I want to cook. I want to plan better. There is nobody in my life who could offer to cook for me. My mum has her own mental health issues, so she usually eats frozen foods (and I can't bring myself to do that, processed food makes me feel physically unwell and has no fiber) and I don't have any friends that live less than 40 minutes away.

Please help, I'm losing hope and I don't know what to do.

[PamelaR]

Hi Minimal Wildflower and welcome to Beyond Blue

Living with mental illness is not easy is it? It would seem that your mental illness impacts on your eating and cooking. Eating healthy is one of the good things to help manage mental health.

Have you thought about getting food that requires little preparation (and that isn't processed)? Do you like salad items, veggies? You could get a blender and blend veggies and fruit, e.g. broccoli, lettuce, spinach, carrots. Add to this nuts that you like (almonds, brazil nuts, walnuts), milk/yoghurt, fruit that you like. This is quick and easy.

Making a change to your eating likes and dislikes takes time. So if you are used to foods that are full of salt, sugars and fats the above will take time to get used to. Maybe try it for one day a week, then increase it.

Try to make it fun. Play with trying out different flavours. I love berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries) and will put this with every veggie and fruit drink I make.

There is absolutely no cooking involved, however, you are getting all the benefits of a very healthy diet.

Hope some of this helps. You're not alone MinimalWildflower

Kind regards

PamelaR

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi MinimalWildflower,

Welcome to the forums and thanks for being open and sharing your story with us. For what it's worth, I'm glad you're in a safe place, even if it's really cost you food-wise.

Part of me thinks the best option is going to be to see a dietician. Although typically people associate them for weight-loss, they are kind of food-experts, so can really help you out with finding meals and making it feel so much less overwhelming. They also have lots of resources on hand like recipes, meal ideas and things that are quick and easy too.

I agree that it's so important to find food that you're interested in - and maybe that might take a while.

What if, you started to have a bit of a pantry with staples and then you had options throughout the week depending on what you felt like? So depending on your preferences (and maybe what's on sale) your pantry could have things like pasta, rice, canned or baked beans, soup, canned tomatoes or vegetables.. etc Then when you do your grocery shop you can buy fresher things like meat, dairy or fresh vegetables/fruit. That way your options are a bit more open and flexible.

I also think that if you were to build up a library of meals it will become so much easier over time. Just like a library though, it's going to start with one book/meal at a time, so I understand it's going to be overwhelming and daunting. But it will get easier.

Perhaps when thinking of meals you might want to think about what you ordered from Uber or Deliveroo? So if you liked burgers you could do those, or nachos with corn chips, pizzas with wraps as a base...

Hope this is helpful!