Get Motivated to Cook When You'd Rather Get A Takeaway!

How do you find the motivation to cook when takeaway is so tempting? It's challenging, but I'll share how we switched from ordering pizza and Indian to eating healthier, without too much of an issue.

How many of us have a list of takeawys places readily available at home and work? It often seems much easier to just pick up the phone or open an app and order pizza, Chinese, Indian, or whatever may take your fancy. So, how can you get motivated to cook when all you want is the easy option of 'reorder' at the tap of a button!?

First, you need to make healthy choices easy, and second, you need to make it enjoyable.

Here are three basic ways I make cooking at home more appealing than ordering out

Get Motivated to Cook by Planning Ahead

I know, I know...it sounds tedious and demanding, and “how can you possibly plan a whole week of dinners?” but trust me, meal planning is your ally! Your waistline and your wallet will thank you for this small act of organisation, and it can be quite simple.

Select seven meals. If they require recipes, find them online for free. I also have an A4 metallic 'meal planner' on the fridge that I got as a free gift once. One of those things that probably cost less than a £1 to mass produce by a company, but has actually been of amazing benefit and I've used for the last few years!

Need some ideas? Try typing “healthy recipes” into a search engine...ta-da, you’ve got recipes galore! Or, if you enjoy receiving something in your mailbox other than bill reminders and adverts, then subscribe to magazines or email lists like BBC Good Food, Deliciously Ella, etc. Also, if you have a UK local library App (e.g. Borrow Box), you can join your local library, enter your membership code and download all the books and magazines they hold e.g. 'Delicious' and 'Good Food' (a couple of my favourites). Also, as Airfryers seem to be all the rage these days, you could download something like 'AirFryer CookBook' etc.

Having recipes is one thing, but being able to find them quickly is another. After years of not knowing where my favourite recipes were stored as they were in various cook books, I finally started using technology to help me. You can get planning apps like 'Cook Book', but these come with a cost attached. Some of my favourite meals I entered in to my 'My Fitness Pal' App (free version), but mostly I save them in to a documents folder on my phone/laptop (often scanning them in on a free version of CamScanner), plus I have a dedicated lever-arch folder in the kitchen with my previous meal box recipe cards (recipe boxes can be great), and some of my most 'go-to' recipes printed out for ease. It can take a while to get your collection together, but long term it makes such a difference. I treated it like a bit of a craft project, ha ha!

Get Motivated to Cook by Prepping Ahead

Before heading off to work, defrost anything that needs thawing. Nothing motivates you to cook more than having a fully defrosted chicken in the fridge when you get home. Get it out when ou get home, rub it with olive oil and herbs, and pop it into the oven for an hour and a half (see cooking instructons), giving you plenty of time to do other things. You get the idea! I also batch cook and have some easy cook meals frozen like a beef chilli, or veggie curry etc. I also make a vat of green pesto and freeze it in giant ice cube trays...if I have nothing else and am short on time I can pop one out, defrost it quickly, cook some pasta and some frozen veg, then chuck it all together.

Another prep tip is to start gathering your dinner ingredients while making breakfast. When you come home, the quinoa will be on the counter, ready to go. You’ll have zero stress over what to make, and half the work will already be done.

Do whatever you can ahead of time. I am a HUGE fan of Sunday batch cooking so my week-nights are more about assembly than cooking. I slice, dice, and chop anything that will keep. I pre-cook anything that can be stored in food containers (I prefer glass containers for this). That way, I just have to portion out existing ingredients and add spices to create a week’s worth of meals. I also do this for my work breakfasts and lunches as much as possible, so that I have decent food throughout the day, all week! I find great batch cook options are chilli, lasagne, curry, soupd and much more.

Get Motivated to Cook by Getting Inspired

One thing that keeps me out of the kitchen is feeling stuck in a rut, so once a week, I try something new. Think of cooking as a creative outlet rather than a chore, and you’ll be much more motivated to cook at home. One word of caution: don’t overestimate yourself. Getting too ambitious can actually kill your motivation to cook!

I like to spend a few minutes browsing cooking sites for new ideas, or every now and again, my husband sends me something he may like to try...whether he gets it or not is another thing, ha ha! I only look at recipes with a 4 or 5-star rating, and I’m picky about ingredients. The fewer, the better, and it needs to be made with ingredients I usually have or that I can pick up easily in the local shop! The pictures and descriptions usually motivate me to print out one or two, and then I incorporate them into my usual routine. I then add these to my folder if they make the cut!

You can even try a new cooking gadget. How about a spiraliser? If you don’t own one, these little tools turn courgette/zucchini into a pasta substitute that is tasty and low-carb and low calorie. Top it with almost anything, and you’ve got a homemade meal heavy on the veggies. New knives, a snazzy new utensil (I recently got a multi-coloured silicone spatula) or a novelty can opener can also make cooking more fun...and fun is always motivating!

Speaking of fun, music is universally inspiring. Create an uplifting playlist for cooking and move to the beat or sing along while you cook (just not when wielding a knife or you have a pan of boiling water)! Put on some tunes that make you happy and turn cooking dinner into a party. Most of us use music to inspire our workouts, so why not let your favourite songs motivate you to cook to?

Here are 5 reasons cooking at home beats a takeaway:

1) You’ll have more energy!

By managing your diet, you can ensure the inclusion of energising foods like broccoli, cabbage, and kale. Foods such as blueberries, dark chocolate, eggs, and fatty fish rich in Omega 3s are excellent for brain health.

2) You’ll eat less salt!

Chefs in restaurants often rely on fat and salt to enhance flavour. Additionally, many chain restaurants use canned or frozen ingredients, which can be high in salt and preservatives. Fast food is infamous for its sodium content as it offers a quick, cheap way to enhance flavour. Cooking at home allows you to control the amount and type of sodium you consume. A light sprinkle of sea salt at the table is far better for you than a teaspoon of table salt used in restaurant kitchens.

3) You’ll eat healthy fats!

Instead of consuming trans fats and inexpensive, low-nutrition, high-calorie fats that harm your health and contribute to weight gain, you can cook with beneficial fats like olive oil, avocados, and coconut oil. Healthy fats contribute to forming cell membranes and building bone. They can enhance calcium absorption and support bone health. Plus you're much less likely to use huge amounts of these like they may in a restaurant or take-away. Moderation is key!

4) You’ll be less stressed!

Consider cooking not as a chore, but as a way to take control of your life. Eating well is fundamental to good health. It’s also a creative daily activity that can help you focus, gain perspective, alleviate worries, and achieve a near-meditative state. Cooking is an excellent way to practice mindfulness. Give yourself time to get in to it and see the benefits

5) You’ll save money!

The salmon and brown rice you make at home in thirty minutes may cost about £5 per person. If the same dish costs £20-25 at your favorite restaurant and you serve four people, you can save £60-£80 in one evening! Savings like that can add up to a great pair of shoes, a weekend getaway, or many other “extras.”

Not everyone enjoys cooking, it’s a fact, but everyone can find the motivation to cook. Your health, your relationships, and your finances all benefit significantly from a home-cooked meal. So when seeking motivation to cook instead of ordering in, remember to keep it simple and enjoyable. The advantages you gain just by setting aside your phone and picking up your spatula should encourage you to stay in the kitchen rather than heading out.

Please note: This article is intended to be for educational purposes only, and does not constitute medical advice or replace professional assessment or personalised advice.

I do not hold responsibility for the information on any links to external websites within this article and information within these links/websites may change at any time or no longer be accessible. Any website pages/links added are also for education purposes only.