Excuses don't just get us out of exercise on a rainy Saturday morning; more importantly, excuses hinder us from achieving and compromise our goals. Excuses make us weak. You can't stop excuses, but you can stop heeding and giving in to them.
One excuse I often hear is I don't know how to cook. Don't know how to cook what, exactly? Vegetables? Soup? Rice? Pasta? By owning up to this "deficiency," you're essentially limiting yourself to restaurants, take-out and microwave meals. In other words, you're eating expensive, fatty meals on a daily basis, meals that aren't necessarily healthy (did you know a loaded Chipotle burrito has over 1200 calories?). Better yet, you don't know what's in restaurant food, so you can't take responsibility for what is going into your body. It's a vicious cycle--vicious because you come to depend on it.
Look, I didn't go to culinary school. I didn't train with Jean Georges in New York. I wouldn't call myself a chef, or even a cook for that matter. But I proud to say that I know how to cook. In the kitchen, I am independent. And most of what I know I taught myself through trial and error. I made a Thanksgiving dinner for myself and a few friends my freshman year of college; the turkey was undercooked, the mashed potatoes runny, and the rest practically inedible.
Nine years later, I cook nearly every night. I've got several go-to recipes that I can make on the spot, and more importantly, I'm more willing than ever to try out new dishes from the various vegan cookbooks that we've collected and been gifted in the past year. To demonstrate, my wife and I have made the first of a series of videos, proving once and for all how easy and affordable it is to cook at home and make delicious meals.
[recipe from Julie Hasson's "Vegan Diner" cookbook]
This week, pick out a recipe -- something healthy, something simple or complicated, whatever you're up for -- make a list, go to the grocery store, and handpick your ingredients. Then spend some time in the kitchen, either listening to some music or talking with your loved ones, and make some food.
And should this wonderful self-made, home-cooked food taste like utter garbage, don't take that as a sign of defeat. Instead, take notes. Check the recipe. See what went wrong. Do-over.
If you happen to make anything you'd like to share, please send it to me at theveganmale@gmail.com [don't forget to include a picture and a name for your dish!].
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