This week is nutrition and hydration week, making it the perfect time to talk about how I adapt cooking to make it more chronic pain friendly. Food can bring people together and it’s a source of creativity that many people enjoy, but chronic pain and fatigue can make tasks like cooking more challenging. Microwave meals and ordering out are both really valid ways of making sure you’re still eating well when you’re struggling with pain, but if you’re looking to get back to cooking again then here are just a few tips to help make that happen!
If chopping things up is something you find difficult then there are several options available now to help support you. Firstly, there are now a multitude of options when it comes to adapted kitchen utensils and tools. You can get knives with larger grips or handles that look more like a saw, changing the motion that you do when cutting things up. You can also get adapted chopping boards that can hold things down whilst you cut them up. Kitchen gadgets also exist that will chop up food in a matter of seconds for you, both manual and electric options. There really are so many different tools available now!
Alternatively, you can now buy just about any fruit or vegetable pre-chopped. I personally love getting frozen chopped onions, as not only does it save me cutting them up, but they also last longer. You can buy everything from garlic to melon pre-chopped!
Meal prepping has taken off in the past few years, and it’s a cooking method that can greatly benefit people living with chronic pain or illness. Batch cooking meals and freezing them when you’re having a good day can build you up a stockpile of meals that you can just defrost and warm up as and when needed. It’s essentially like buying a supermarket microwave meal, but a lot cheaper!
Food subscription boxes might also be a helpful option for you, a box including pre-measured ingredients can land on your doorstep every week, saving fatigue from physically shopping. If you’re a big foodie then this could be a really good option for you, as you’ll get to try a variety of meals that you perhaps wouldn’t ordinarily attempt to make yourself.
At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you’re eating, and it doesn’t massively matter whether your food comes from a takeaway, a microwave meal or something home cooked. But, if you do love cooking then there are so many different ways that you can adapt it so you can get back to doing what you love!
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