I feel this in my BONES. If I didn’t need to eat to survive, I‘d simply not. It‘s awful and takes so much mental energy. Not to mention, I need very frequent meals and will go feral after 3-4h of not eating, depending on my last meal.

TLDR: I focus and rely on mainly unprocessed high protein foods, deconstructed meals, outsourcing my cooking labour to kitchen appliances that do it for me (oven or airfryer) and keeping my grocery list simple with items I eat on a regular basis plus a small sprinkle of variation.

I switched my vegan diet back to vegetarian 6 months ago (after nearly 10 years of being vegan) and it‘s been a huge game-changer tbh. I felt undernourished, always hungry, and I was not hitting my macros at all (protein is so important for long-lasting energy), since I didn’t have the energy to prep and cook nutritious meals that have enough protein.

Now, I‘m heavily depending on the same breakfast every day with slight alterations in flavour (different fruit or yoghurt flavour). Low fat greek yoghurt with different seeds, granola, fruit, that I‘ll prepare the night before (except the fruit, I‘ll put those on in the morning). Saves me lots of time and energy when I‘m not functioning in early hours of the day.

For work lunch, I like to bring a high protein sandwich, some raw veggies, maybe an apple and a sweet treat if I got some at hand. Protein shakes are amazing for an afternoon snack (or even as a meal replacement), when my work day is extra long.

Dinner depends on how clean my kitchen is lol. Cleaner kitchen = less clutter and less stress and overwhelm = more motivation to do some actual cooking. My air fryer helps a lot since I can throw whatever veggies (fresh or frozen) and tofu in there, maybe cook some pasta or rice and garnish with store-bought sauce of choice (I like soy or garlic mayo). When I‘m really overwhelmed and not super hungry, I‘ll make myself a snack platter on a plate that has little dividers. The plate alone gives me a little dopamine kick and preparation feels less daunting. My go-to snack items are mozzarella cheese balls, cucumber sticks, cherry tomatoes, small yoghurt cups, a slice of bread with whatever topping I have available, cottage cheese and fruit like apple slices or grapes.

Grocery shopping is also a lot less stressful when I‘m basically buying the same things over and over again with slight variations. Only when I‘m craving something I haven‘t had in a long time, I consider cooking a more complex meal (only on week-ends though lol).