3.6 million. That is how many Filipinos are estimated to have a mental, neurological, or substance use disorder as of the year 2020.
The exact number is likely to be even higher as there are many cases that are unaccounted for. The World Health Organization has described the Philippines as being the third highest rate of mental health conditions in the Western Pacific.
But even when you are face to face with a big number or a bold, definitive statement, they still don’t even scratch the surface of how many lives are really impacted by depression, anxiety, and other potentially debilitating conditions.
What is Executive Dysfunction?
Executive functioning refers to the brain’s management system, which involves a set of cognitive skills needed to make plans, manage tasks, and make decisions. Executive dysfunction, then, happens when those skills aren’t present.
In the case of those experiencing a mental health or neurodevelopmental condition, neurological injuries, or chronic stress, what’s often generalized as laziness is actually a disruption in the brain’s ability to start tasks, organize, maintain focus, and follow through on plans.
That is—task initiation, working memory, time management, flexible thinking, and sustained attention. And without being able to jump from any of these cognitive skills to the next, those with executive dysfunction will struggle with most, if not all, activities that involve multiple, consecutive, and simultaneous steps.
And cooking is no exception.
Cooking isn’t soothing to everyone
For a lot of people, the act of cooking, grocery shopping, and even chopping vegetables can be therapeutic. It’s a happy place they can go to whenever they need to rewind and relax after a long day. But for those with executive dysfunction, cooking and food as a whole can be a source of stress and anxiety in-and-of itself. Even in research studies, cooking is often used to test an individual’s level of executive function precisely because of how many cognitive skills it demands your brain to process simultaneously.
A meal isn’t just one or two tasks. There’s deciding what to make, there’s gathering the ingredients which could look like checking if you still have what you need, or if you’re missing anything, or needing to do to the grocery store. Then there’s prepping said ingredients, whether it be washing, chopping, or measuring. Then there’s cooking them, meaning you have to be attentive to timing and knowing something is done or about to burn. Then there’s cleaning up after eating. Cooking is a chain of back-to-back tasks and decisions, making it feel like an overwhelming Herculean task for a lot of Filipinos. And the last thing food should feel like is a burden.
I understand this because feeding myself once felt like hill I had climb. I was diagnosed with bipolar hypomania when I was 16. And what I’m also here to say is that from my experience, these shortcuts that you could try, mantras you could practice, and habits you can start that hopefully will help make eating and cooking food feel more approachable and possible for you too.
1. Separate eating and cooking
On some days, it’s really such a struggle to cook an entire meal for yourself, often resulting in ignoring hunger signals.
Perhaps a good place you could start doesn’t even involve reaching for an ingredient or spatula. It has something to do with how to think about food. It might be a good idea to try to isolate the idea of eating from the behavior in cooking.
Hear me out—while they are definitely related to one another, they are not one and the same. Thinking that they are completely separate can help lessen the decision fatigue that makes cooking seem so challenging in your head. While it is true that cooking can lead you to good meals, it’s also important to tell yourself that you don’t always have to cook to eat. Meals that follow that kind of thinking are just as valid as any homemade one.
2. Have designated places in your kitchen
Messiness at any level found in the physical space of the kitchen can already feel very daunting to even attempt to approach. So a good rule of thumb would be to have a designated place for your ingredients, for cooking utensils, for pots and pans, and for cleaning. It might seem like a very small thing for others, but this isn’t about them. This is about you.
Your goal is to make cooking visually appear as manageable and not as scary for you as possible. And one way to do just that is to organize your cooking and eating spaces in such a way that sets up your future self for the most success.
3. Meal prep when you feel okay
There will be days wherein you actually feel okay, so take full advantage of that while you still can.
The idea is to save cooking for when you have more energy and a better headspace. Because you are at a better capacity to do more tasks, you can try making several batches of food and save it for later. This can look like cooking big batches of ulam to store in your freezer and microwave for when you are back to a lower energy level. If you have a lot of jars or similar containers, you can try preparing jar meals like salads and noodle soup dishes, that way you’ll only need to shake it or pour in hot water before eating straight from the jar.
Because executive dysfunction can manifest differently for each person, sometimes even meal prepping can feel impossible to even start. So if ever you find yourself still feeling a bit overwhelmed, you can also consider preparing components instead of full meals. You can chop staple ingredients you know you often cook with like onion, garlic, and other vegetables or aromatics and also store them portioned out in your freezer. You are essentially doing mise-en-place for future cooking sessions.
4. Know what your safe meals are
Deciding what kinds of food you should prepare in advance is just as important as the act of meal prepping itself.
A safe, no-think meal should be a dish you can make on autopilot. You know the steps by heart and you enjoy eating it every single time. For the sake of your future hungry self, it might be good to have at least one to three safe meals, that way you can also have the ingredients you need to make them readily available in your pantry. For choosing and preparing your safe meals, repetition is the main point. A repeatable, reliable meal you eat is better than a varied one you aren’t able to eat or even make for yourself.
You can also consider having safe foods that are low-effort or even no-cook options like instant and pre-made food that you can have ready for the days you feel particularly low and just need to whip up something quick and easy for yourself.
The common denominator for the majority of these more practical tips involves eliminating the number of overwhelming decisions you have to make whenever you are running on little-to-no energy.
5. Use visual reminders
Those who struggle with executive dysfunction may benefit from creating visual reminders for themselves. This can be as simple as making a handwritten grocery list of the ingredients you need for your safe meals to placing a strip of masking tape with a written expiration date on containers of food you leave in your cooler or freezer.
And if you need it, you can even utilize sticky notes to place around your kitchen with either important reminders or positive messages directed to yourself for when you’re cooking or eating.
6. Use tools that are actually convenient for you
Over the years, there has been a growing criticism of single-use kitchen tools amongst chefs and home cooks for being a waste of storage space, opting to stick with their trusty knife and non-stick pan. But if you’ve found a certain kitchen gadget that works for you because it actually relieves you of a cooking task you were dreading, then by all means keep using it.
I’ve been following Kylie Sakaida since I started college, and there are two gadgets that immediately come to my mind that I learned about because of her: the vegetable chopper and the microwave steamer. Purists may judge, but these two genuinely offer an uncomplicated way to add vegetables to your diet.
A personal example I have of this would be using disposable tableware and cutlery. This can be especially helpful if you find cleaning up after cooking particularly stressful.
7. Use cookware you can directly eat from
Yet another way to make cleaning up after yourself easier is to make the pot or pan you used to cook with double as your plate you can eat from.
It might work for you even better if you ever have a rice cooker, instant pot, or a slow cooker. Making one-pot meals from them would lessen your load even more since the majority of the cooking is already being done for you.
8. Act according to your actual energy level
When making any choice regarding eating or cooking, it’s better if you acknowledge and take into account your actual energy level at that moment rather than making decisions based on what level you wished you were at. Even when making food-related plans, avoid creating rigid systems that require precise steps you have to execute perfectly. Give yourself room to make mistakes and commit to meal plans that you don’t have to do perfectly to get good results.
On good days wherein you feel okay and have high energy, cook something from scratch. Double the portion to store in the freezer. You can even attempt a new recipe you’ve been wanting to try.
With medium energy, take advantage of the fact that you are still somewhat functional, but acknowledge you are starting to become more sensitive and fragile. You can try to just opt for pre-cooked or instant food options. You don’t have to force yourself to accomplish a multistep recipe.
On low days with even lower energy, heat up something frozen or finish up any leftovers. Make use of that vegetable chopper or microwave steamer. The goal is to get food in, not to create something out of what feels like nothing.
On your lowest days with absolutely zero energy, it’s okay if you can’t start anything. Reach for something that doesn’t require any cooking. All that matters is that you eat, and eating counts as something.
9. The smallest step forward is a step forward nonetheless
Any effort, no matter how small it may seem, is a good effort. When in doubt or at a serious mental roadblock, just proceed with the smallest, simplest possible step you can make. So that can look like Skyflakes with some water, a hard-boiled egg from the fridge, or ordering a pre-made salad.
If we were to rate eating and cooking in terms of priority, eating will always beat cooking. What counts as eating, especially after streaks of under-eating, is anything you put in your mouth. It doesn’t have to involve chopping veggies, cooking, or cleanup for it to be any more valid of a meal. The goal isn’t nutritional perfection or to feel full.
The point is to eat something that will help you take your next small step.
10. Find joy in what you eat and cook
In the process of curating this list of tips, I found myself asking some people I know from my real life who, in some way, shape, or form, have experienced executive dysfunction—and who I also know has a tip or two about how to cook. At the moment, I feel like I was expecting to hear a lot more practical tips. But instead, I received more emotionally charged advice that I hadn’t even considered but ultimately welcomed.
One of which was making food that you know will bring you joy.
There’s no point in gunning to execute these intricate, complicated recipes if you don’t even like the dish you’ll end up with. Another way my friend shared how they try to find joy and motivation to eat is to cook not just for themselves but for someone else. The idea that they would be of service to someone they care about was a strong enough emotional trigger to have the energy to cook food that would just coincidentally also be for themselves.
Whatever that may look like for you, try to find ways to make the act of cooking or eating enjoyable, exciting, and something you want to keep doing.
11. Don’t be so hard on yourself
No matter your efforts, there is nothing more demotivating than criticizing yourself and what you’re trying to achieve at every step of the way. Not only does it occupy precious brain power you could have been using to help compensate for your already existing mental impairment, but you are also not allowing yourself to give a recipe, a hack, or a shortcut a fair shot.
Give yourself some grace and room to grow. You figuring out what kinds of food or cooking methods best fit your wants and needs is something worth being patient for.
12. It’s okay to fail
Cooking with executive dysfunction already hints at the idea that you will have a never-ending trial-by-error period of learning what foods, recipes, and other cooking habits suit you and which ones don’t.
You will fail to finish recipes. You will choose to eat “junk food” way more than you choose to cook something “better”. And you will have to throw away leftovers that have gone bad because you forgot about them.
All of those will be necessary steps to take, because you’ll learn way more from messing up than getting everything right in your first try. Normalize failing now, and failing often. If you don’t want to think of it as failing, think of it as learning. It will lead you to better understand yourself and how you work.
Living with executive dysfunction doesn’t make you a lost cause or an inferior person. You, and by proxy, your health, are worth working towards improving. Never give up on yourself or the hope that things can get better.
Just because sometimes you feel like you feel paralyzed or the thought of cooking is overstimulating you doesn’t make you any less deserving to eat. Food is something you need. It isn’t something you need to deserve first before having.
And let’s be completely honest. The reality is that not all of these tips will work for you.
What will work for you now may not work the next month where you’ll be even more busy, and what didn’t work then may work for you now. This is supposed to be a discovery of a bigger journey, and there’s no one way to do it. This is simply what I know has worked for me, and I’m hoping you find something here that will help you as well.
Frequently Asked Questions
In general, executive dysfunction refers to the disruption or impairment of the brain’s natural management system. Being a symptom to a greater condition or issue, it can negatively impact one’s ability to do or complete their daily tasks.
For those who live with executive dysfunction, cooking and meal planning can feel like insurmountable feats because they demand their brains to perform many cognitive skills including task initiation, flexible thinking, and working moemory, all at the same time.
A lot of the practical tips involve setting your future self up for success. This can look like meal prepping during days you feel more okay and actually have the energy to cook, organizing your kitchen in such a way that makes cooking appear more achievable, and eating straight out of the pot you used to cook to lessen the dishes you have to wash.
Some more mindset related tips including telling yourself you don’t always have to cook to eat, plan your meals based on your actual energy level rather then the level you wish you were at, and taking one small step at a time.
