Back to Blog Posts
Good nutrition can make a huge impact on the recovery process. There are a number of benefits that each person can gain from maintaining both a balanced meal, as well as maintaining a steady meal schedule in order to avoid snacking. However, there are even more benefits that someone can gain from making their own healthy meals in recovery. Working to balance one’s nutrition in recovery can be reflective of the progress that someone has made in their recovery journey as a whole. Learning the benefits of simply eating a healthy meal as well as what other impacts it can have on recovery can help each person maintain a positive and healthy outlook on recovery while also helping their bodies and minds be more receptive to the positive effects of a strong recovery program.
The Relationship Between Nutrition and Addiction or Mental Health Disorders
Those suffering from either a behavioral or substance addiction or suffering from a mental health disorder often begin to forego their nutrition. Drugs and alcohol can have adverse effects on the body, causing damage to one’s skin, lungs, and liver. However, this is also coupled with the notion that those suffering from these kinds of issues often are also not providing the body with the proper nutrients it needs to begin effectively healing these parts of the body. This malnutrition can have its own effects on one’s mental health, as they begin to feel the increased weakness and exhaustion that comes from not ingesting the required and proper nutrition needed for the body to maintain a healthy homeostasis. Those suffering from mental health disorders may also begin to skip meals or eat at highly varying amounts at irregular times. Depression, anxiety, and a number of other mental health issues can convince the brain that someone isn’t hungry, even for days at a time, leading to its own physical weakness and increasing the effects of anxiety as the brain struggles to maintain its strength and focus.
The Benefits of Eating a Healthy Diet
Simply eating healthy can provide a number of key benefits in recovery. As someone begins to eat a balanced diet on a regular schedule, the body can begin to adapt to having a consistent source of nutrients in order to begin the healing process. It also adds a level of consistency and stability as the body becomes used to having useful resources to work with on a regular basis, and thus begins to establish a healthy homeostasis. Eating healthy allows the body not just to ensure that it has the proper amount of energy through the day to combat exhaustion, but also allows for better focus, allowing each person in recovery to better internalize the necessary coping and life skills necessary through each stage of recovery. As the body begins to feel better and more balanced it can transform the mindset as it begins to maintain a positive and balanced outlook on life and the recovery process.
Benefits of Cooking
Cooking itself can be an incredibly impactful therapeutic practice in addition to helping someone measure their own progress through recovery. Cooking is an essential life skill on its own, giving someone not just the agency to fundamentally take care of themselves autonomously in a healthy way, but also help provide for others and be a bridge that can help someone begin to build new relationships and deepen existing ones. It is also a skill that can continuously be built upon, opening the gates for a hobby with a continued progression, as well as the potential for developing into a professional career. However, the idea of cooking for one’s self also holds another profound meaning, as it shows the essential components that are needed not just for a balanced meal, but a balanced life.
Thinking about creating a dish as a metaphor for one’s own health and progression through recovery can help someone frame their own success in more comprehensible terms as well as continue to help support a developing potential hobby or career. Just as someone measures out the essential nutrients in their lives, balances flavors, and tries new cultural approaches to dishes, it is possible to think of one’s recovery journey in much the same way. By comparing one’s level of self-care to the proportions between the main course and sides on a plate, cooking can create a metaphor for one’s own aptitude for the autonomous, continued success in recovery. Balance is an essential part of every day in one’s life, regardless of one’s stage of recovery or history with mental illness, and learning to cook and balance one’s own nutrition is a skill that can transcend the plate and help each person begin to better understand their own mental and physical needs in recovery.
Learning to cook for one’s self is just one way in which someone can begin to transform themselves into leading a healthy, balanced lifestyle, and is just one more way in which someone can begin to understand their own needs and outlook on the world. If you or a loved one are struggling with an addiction or mental health disorder and are ready to take the first step to a balanced, sober life, START UP RECOVERY can help you today. By personalizing each person’s stay, your time with us will be specifically catered to your needs and interests, from cooking, to fishing, and beyond. Not only will you work alongside mentors that can help you establish a balanced and therapeutic approach for you, but our team of professionals can also help begin to turn your unique interests into tools that you can use to transform your future. For more information on the various ways that START UP RECOVERY can help you, call us at (310) 773-3809.