How To Feed Yourself When You Really Don’t Feel Like It (Part 2)

Life has been…lifeing lately. We are dealing with a close loved one’s late-stage cancer, and cooking has been a low priority. But we are still feeding ourselves in a more or less life-sustaining way because in order to be there for them, we need to stay nourished. So I wanted to share some of my strategies for cooking and eating in these kinds of circumstances, whether it’s medical drama, caregiving, depression, or long hours at work that’s keeping you from feeding yourself.

As a food writer, I am often put in the position of giving advice that I do not follow myself. The advice is sound and considered by experts to be “best-practice,” but for whatever reason I’ve decided it doesn’t fit the way I live and cook. I know I’m not adhering to proper guidance, I know what I’m missing out on, and I accept the tradeoff. For example, when it comes to storing herbs and spices, the best advice is to keep small quantities of them in airtight containers in a dark place. Heat and light cause these ingredients to degrade, compromising their color and flavor. But…

My kitchen is small and, like most kitchens, has nowhere near the cabinet or drawer space I’d need to keep my seasonings tucked away neatly in the dark. And so I do the opposite of what I tell others to do: I keep them on two large shelves next to a window in mason jars. I prefer glass storage because the containers are affordable, easy to clean, don’t hold onto odors, and are easy to see into. I know how much oregano I have left at a glance from across the room. All this is simply to say, experts can give you great advice, but you still have to make sure it works for you. A system that you can’t maintain (or set up in the first place) is no system at all.

Similarly, when I write about best practices for grocery shopping, I give the boring advice we’ve all seen a thousand times: Go in with a plan, organize your list by grocery department, check your list against your pantry and freezer, blah blah blah. This is all very good advice for efficient grocery shopping! You should definitely follow it. But…

I’ve found it to be pretty unhelpful advice when I don’t have the energy for meal planning. I don’t know what I want to eat tonight, much less three days from now, and yet the need for groceries persists. To further complicate matters, I don’t have the energy to grocery shop every day, so I need to buy with the future in mind. So that’s why I came up with an easier system.