• Courtney (she/her/they) @lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    11 hours ago

    I have a couple friends who have issues with making their food. Idk how many times I’ve been talking to one, they mention feeling like shit, and I asks aht the last thing they ate was and it’s some shit like “I had a coffee yesterday around 2pm”

    So now, since I love cooking but hate all the prep and cleanup, I have them buy the ingredients the day before I plan on coming over, then I spend the day making meals for the next week and a half. It all has to be able to heat in one container, preferably the container it’s stored in to assist with ease of heating.

    It’s still a toss up, but now at least when they hit a wall they can grab a box out of the fridge instead of sitting paralyzed trying to figure out what to eat or deciding to just stay hungry

    I also have to label the meals with binary choices. Things like “LUNCH MONDAY OR DINNER WEDNESDAY” so they have variety and an option for if they don’t want a specific one right now. Otherwise it’s “too many options” and instead of just grabbing whatever, they close the freezer/fridge.

  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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    7 hours ago

    I feel this so hard! Lately I’ve been better but not by much. I just do shelf-stable stuff like oatmeal and frozen stuff that I can either microwave or airfry.

    It’s not the healthiest, but it’s better than not eating and it’s cheaper than takeout every day…

    • Delphia@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      The quality of a lot of the fitness frozen meals is actually pretty good. If you keep a decent number of them on hand so you get variety.

      I find thats the best method. Keep the freezer full of healthy shit and go out if I want junk. Im lazy… but I’m also lazy.

      • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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        56 minutes ago

        Some frozen meals can be gross, but I found a specific brand that does organic, vegetarian frozen meals and the quality is surprisingly good. And it’s still cheaper than takeout. Their frozen burritos are pretty good too, and even cheaper.

        In addition to that I keep various forms of frozen potatoes on hand, and some fish sticks and vegetarian chicken tenders (don’t judge me). It’s easy and adds variety.

        I probably haven’t been getting enough vegetables lately, so maybe I should start getting frozen peas and broccoli and stuff to microwave with that stuff.

        And then of course keeping a few frozen pizzas on hand, and I end up not really eating any one thing so frequently that I get bored of it.

        It’s not a glamorous life, but it’s peaceful and I don’t go hungry, and it makes monthly budgeting way easier

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    10 hours ago

    Genuinely not trying to be an asshole:

    Set a daily timer on your phone just labelled ‘PERISHABLE VEGETABLES IN FRIDGE’ … ?

    Like, have it go off every day?

    Or maybe label it ‘Meal Prep Time’?

    Set ‘appointments’ in your calendar for specific meals, a few times a week, with the actual instructions for making a meal?

    Or, like, once upon a time, it used to just be fairly normal to set aside a few hours on the weekend (or some off work day) to do a significant amount of meal prep, store it for the week, then that stuff is either good to go, or just needs minimal additional work (quick flash in a toaster oven or what not) to make it good to go, day of.

    I dunno, as best I can tell I don’t have ADHD, but I did have major depression for a while, and part of what helped me out of that was just strictly regimenting myself, untill I didn’t need the alarms anymore. I know ADHD ain’t the same, but… might be useful/relevant?

    • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemmy.zip
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      6 hours ago

      A huge part of what makes ADHD a disorder is the fact that it’s incredibly difficult to form and retain habits (aka executive dysfunction). Alarms, reminders, etc. might increase the likelihood that any given task gets done, but not by much, and it doesn’t guarantee that task will get done with any regularity whatsoever. The other part of executive dysfunction is difficulty with task initiation. I can’t speak for every ADHD’er but, if I manage to remember something needs done, there’s a solid chance I simply wont be able to get it started. I’ll sit on the couch for literal hours, knowing that I need to do the laundry, that if I don’t do the laundry I won’t have clothes to wear tomorrow, that it’ll take me 5 minutes to get the load started, that I would be so much better off if I just did them, that I would feel good having accomplished just one thing today, on and on. But my body physically won’t move. Ill be sat still, staring blankly at a wall for hours, screaming at myself to just do SOMETHING, and yet I can’t will myself to move.

      You saying “just set a reminder” is akin to telling a depressed person to just not be depressed. Like, gee thanks! I didn’t know you can just do things. Guess I don’t have “can’t just do things disorder” after all!

    • Maven (famous)@lemmy.zip
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      9 hours ago

      The problem with daily reminders is that eventually you just get so used to the reminder that you tune it out completely and it stops mattering entirely.

      They can work well for a lot of people but at least for me… after about a month theyre effectively not there anymore

    • okwhateverdude@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Moral equivalent of “just don’t do that”. It isn’t super helpful. The key part of the meme is the third line. The interest or motivation to do the original thing is gone. The reminders become shameful which just starts a spiral of avoidance and executive dysfunction.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        6 hours ago

        I mean, I was chronically depressed, with major depressive disorder, for years.

        I also had a dopamine problem, I also had 0, negative motivation, nearly all the time, and went through the shame -> avoidance -> executive dysfunction loop.