GLP-1: New Kitchen Creativity!
...when your kitchen ceases to be about food, lol...
About the only “food service” happening in my kitchen these days is food service for the family pets. lol.
Anything to do with me and food is strictly utilitarian these days. There’s Ensure Max Protein, Ezekiel tortillas, flavored seltzer water, baked tofu, fresh fruit, fried chicken, canned sardines, etc. There’s no more massive spreads of delicious and complex home cooked meals and desserts almost every day.
And that’s not because I am white knuckling through some crazy diet.
It’s because my GLP-1, Tirzepatide Zepbound Mounjaro is like a straight jacket on my appetite most of the time. I cannot muster the mental energy to think about food enough to prepare these kinds of elaborate food spreads.
Do I miss what my kitchen used to be?
There’s a little tiny bit of sadness. The kitchen was the place where I used to get all of my emotional support. All of the delicious comforting smells and tastes are no longer there.
The first thing I did when my kitchen was no longer my emotional support animal was start cleaning and packing up kitchenware. All the fancy mixers and prep and service stuff —packed away.
This is my recommended first step for everyone starting on a GLP-1. Deep cleaning of the kitchen.
The way you do this and the things you pack away may look different from mine. Your obesity foods may look different from mine. My obesity foods involved home cooking almost exclusively because I have medical food allergies. Your obesity foods may be something completely different like fast foods and convenience processed foods. The accessories and service of these foods in your kitchen may be the things you pack. Maybe you have nothing to pack at all and you just need a good deep clean of your kitchen. Whatever it is, reformat your kitchen into a space that accommodates your new feelings about food and drink.
I have an online friend in the GLP-1 community who was seriously into fine wines and drank a lot of these along with her obesity foods. After she started GLP-1 she could no longer find the taste for wine. Now she craved flavored seltzer water! So it was very helpful for her to clear out space, wine service, wine glasses, and other accessories that took up a lot of room and also what I call “kitchen headspace” to make room for the things that were now of more interest and importance to her, like a countertop ice maker and supplies and glassware for flower arranging.
I think that our kitchens can still be the cozy place we find comfort in—but that is going to start looking a lot different on GLP-1.
It may be that the kitchen will now mostly accommodate other people who live in your home, with a small nook carved out just for yourself. That’s okay too. And that deep cleaning will help to put all of that in place, and make cleaning that kitchen more efficient going forward.
Before you start your deep clean, packing, and re-arranging, start with a checklist.
Go through all of your cabinets and drawers and begin to identify things that do not accommodate your new feelings or really serve anyone else in the household.
Check dates on all stored food and toss things that are seriously expired or opened and stale for a long period of time. Check for pantry moths. Check for rice and flour bugs. Even the cleanest of kitchens can host these critters.
Gather your tools for cleaning, you’ll want some good disinfectants for cleaning out cupboards and the refrigerator.
Ask other people in your home if an item is something they want or care about, or can do without. Because if they can do without it, and you have no desire to use it because you are taking GLP-1, pack it away or toss it.
Flavor and seasoning items and tools may be things you are interested in keeping around as you continue on the GLP-1 adventure. For many of us, flavorings, like for water or seltzer or seasonings for protein foods and vegetables become a focus for us as we are developing these new lifestyle food habits with the help of GLP-1.
Put new things in your kitchen, things like crafts such as flower arranging to take the place of the old obesity focus on food in the kitchen as emotional support.