Cooking and Mental Health

Today’s episode is a really powerful one, all about cooking and mental health. I speak with writer and recipe developer Christina Chaey. She’s a former senior food editor at Bon Appétit and currently writes the newsletter Gentle Foods.Christina shares her journey with cooking, mental health and depression, and how cooking has become a barometer for her to better understand her emotional state. She describes how she’s had to let go of the performance of perfectionism when it comes to cooking and instead use cooking as a way to “practice the art” of meeting herself where she’s at. This means using cooking as a tool for self compassion instead of as a way to prove her worth. We also discuss cooking on low days, and how the act of preparing a meal—no matter how simple or non-Instagram worthy it is—can become a small win, helping to make life feel more possible even during hard times. Christina describes how she shifted from a mindset of “Why am I feeling this way?” to “What choices can I make in the kitchen that will support me right now?,” and how she uses her good days to prepare for low periods. Finally, Christina shares her recent journey of discovering she’s pre-diabetic and what that’s meant for her relationship to food and cooking. This is a really deep and beautiful episode, and I think you’re going to walk away with a better understanding of how you can begin to use cooking as a deeper tool for self compassion. LINKS:* Mind, Body, Spirit, FOOD newsletter: https://mindbodyspiritfood.substack.com/ *Find Nicki on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickisizemore/ * Christina’s Newsletter: https://gentlefoods.substack.com/* Find Christina on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seechaey/* Diabetes Digital: https://diabetesdigital.co/* Christina mentioned my podcast conversations with Virginia Sole-Smith and Andrea Nguyen, which you can listen to at the links below:https://mindbodyspiritfood.substack.com/p/andrea-nguyen?initial_medium=videohttps://mindbodyspiritfood.substack.com/p/podcast8 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindbodyspiritfood.substack.com/subscribe