Many thanks to everyone who completed the Meal Time Transformation Survey that we shared in the last post. We also got responses from several classes and events over the last month. In summary, you all have enlightened me!
I learned that a food life transformation is not a foreign concept. I wondered whether you might think it was a weird idea, but almost everyone had thought about it, would like to experience it, and are very or somewhat ready to experience it.
Here was one write-in comment from a reader visiting Italy (can you tell?!)
“Absolutely I believe in transformation around food. It’s important to be in a good mood when you cook. You want to put love into the meal. It’s not only about good ingredients, it’s about the energy of the person working with the food. The meal then holds transformative power. xoxo from Italy!”
Equally interesting were the main kinds of transformation you hoped for:
- Less Stress
- More Excitement and Better Tasting Meals
- More Enjoyment and Fun
- More Affordability
- Healthier Meals
- Better Control and Less Overwhelm
On the other hand, these transformation categories didn’t stir up the interest I thought they would:
- Having more time to make decent meals (lack of time is usually cited as one of the biggest barriers!)
- Not feeling like I’m coming from behind the curve all the time
- Feeling that my meal making time is spent in a worthwhile way
- A food life that better reflects my values
When we asked about motivation, the answers weren’t quite so surprising. As usual, a health issue or crisis was the #1 motivator for people wishing to make a transformation, along with weight gain—particularly the insidious kind that creeps on over the years. In second place was saving money.
How about you? Do the survey results reflect your thoughts on meal time transformation? Vote Yes or No –and you can also include any comments to set us straight!
Or feel free to take the survey itself:
Answer the 5-Minute Mealtime Transformation Survey
Where to go from here?
We want to respond to your transformation aspirations with more articles offering insight and, hopefully, inspiration. Although I didn’t list them, the write-in comments were also very illuminating, so we’ll blog on those, too, from a request for more ideas about what to make and meal planning to working with special diets, how to eat healthy while keeping the family happy and, of course, eating right before a health crisis hits!
If you’re ready to get started now, we’ve got what you need: Cook Happy | Live Healthy, the first self-help program for meal making transformation:
- An online program with 3 classes spanning 3 to 6 weeks
- Listen and watch at your convenience: cooking videos, healthy cooking building blocks, equipment guidance, healthy eating know-how, supportive perspectives, time-saving tricks to make healthy cooking easy, and much more.
- Learn about the New Kitchen Way which is capable of solving every one of the disappointments and frustrations identified in the survey–almost too good to be true, right?!!
Happy transformations! And to get started, be sure to see the next post on making mealtimes more fun with miso.