Why cooking feels impossible when you’re tired
Cooking is a dozen small decisions and steps in a row: what, how much, where’s the pan, when is it done, and then the washing up. On a normal day you barely notice. On a day when your energy is gone, each of those steps costs something, and the whole thing starts to look like a wall. Skipping the meal feels easier, and often that’s what happens.
The way through isn’t more willpower. It’s a smaller meal with fewer steps, decided in advance.
Meals that take five minutes and almost nothing from you
- No cooking at all: cheese and crackers, hummus and pitta, a tin of tuna with some bread, yoghurt with fruit or cereal, a sandwich with whatever’s in, a bowl of cereal.
- One pan, under ten minutes: scrambled eggs on toast, beans on toast, instant noodles with frozen peas and an egg stirred in, pasta with pesto or a jar of sauce, a quesadilla in a dry pan.
- Microwave only: a jacket potato with butter and cheese, porridge, a frozen meal, leftover rice with an egg cracked in and stirred through.
None of these are impressive. All of them are dinner. Keep three or four of them in stock and the tired days have an answer before they arrive.
Make the next tired day easier now
Energy comes and goes. On a day when you have some, do one thing for the version of you who won’t: buy the bread, the eggs and the frozen peas. Cook double and freeze half. Put a note on the fridge that says “noodles, eggs, toast” so you don’t have to think. Small set-ups like this are what make low-energy days survivable, and they take ten minutes when you’re feeling okay.
If the tiredness has been there a while
Everyone has flat days. If most days feel like this, or you’ve stopped eating regularly because of it, it’s worth telling someone. Low energy that doesn’t lift can have a lot of causes, and a GP can help you find out what’s going on. Eating something, even something small, usually helps in the meantime.