Cooking to De-stress?

Some people turn to cooking to de-stress, while others turn to exercise. How I wish either appeals to me when I am stressed.

But no. Instead, I tend to turn to comfort food, like chocolate, which is neither nutritious nor healthy. Oops.

I must say though, in recent years, I have on several occasions headed out to the park for a slow jog or the pool to swim (pre-Covid-19 days) when I was stressed and it has helped.

Cooking is Not Therapeutic

But, I have yet to take out my wok or baking pan when stressed. In fact, just thinking about cooking adds to my stress.

I envy people who find cooking and/or baking therapeutic and therefore have on hand, not only a great tool to de-stress, but a gift that blesses family and friends.

Instead, I merely tolerate cooking and the family gets to eat run-of-the-mill dishes. Occasionally when I am inspired, they may get something out of the ordinary. But more often than not, it is the same old, same old.

Sorry guys.

How do you de-stress? Exercise? Cook? Bake? Read?

I know I have grown much both as a cook and a baker – I am actually brave enough to invite people over to eat and no longer freak out if the children invite people over for a meal – provided I get enough time to prep for the meal. But unfortunately, I still do not enjoy it.

Heat and Humidity in the Kitchen

The heat and high humidity of Singapore does not help me at all. The lack of proper ventilation in the kitchen also makes the kitchen feel like a sauna during the hot seasons which is like 9 months out of the 12?

And when you have sensitive skin, sweating it out in a humid kitchen for more than 30 minutes is torturous, indeed. While I am super grateful that the layout of the kitchen no longer annoys me after a major renovation 8 years ago, it was not able to address the structural layout of the kitchen. So here we are, still sweating it out every day.

Cooking, a Necessary Evil

Cooking is a necessary evil in my books. We have to eat, so I cook. After all, I can’t keep ordering in. It gets expensive and it isn’t healthy or sustainable.

So I cook. Daily. And sometimes three times a day because we don’t do cereals or toast and spread.

Yes, my older children can and do cook these days but their schedules are often more packed than mine and thus, aren’t always home to cook.