Boris Lukin – Beyond Fitness Oteopath & Personal Trainer

Cooking at home: Fresh, cheap, healthy.

I miss a great home cooked roast or some tasty lasagne.

Being overseas and stuck in a desert for just over a month has helped me realise how great a nice home cooked meal can be, especially when shared with family or friends.

Having someone else cook your meals and eating out for every meal makes it hard to really know exactly what you are eating.

The only way that you can be sure that you are eating the best is to cook your meals at home.

Here are 5 reasons why home cooked meals are the best.

1. You know what you’re eating

Ingredient supply in the desert is not ideal, especially when everything needs to be flown in. This raises the question about its origins and freshness.

The fresher the produce the more nutritious it is, that goes without saying, but its origins are also very important.

Different farming methods also affect how nutritious produce can be. The more organic the better and, if sourced from local farmers markets, not only is the produce grown locally, it is also tastier.

You can control how much artificial stuff you put into your cooking. Cooking from home has many advantages over eating or eating packaged convenience foods, especially when using whole food ingredients:

• fewer calories
• less fat
• reduced or no sodium (salt)
• no preservatives
• no other additives.

2. Cheaper

You can buy in bulk and cook up a storm for a large amount of people for a few dollars. It’s much cheaper to cook quality food at home than it is to dine out.

With the exception of going to drive through, it is also quicker to cook a delicious meal at home rather than wait for one.

If you make too much, that’s ok because lunch is sorted for tomorrow – no need to visit the local café for lunch and spend more money. Some dishes are generally tastier the next day anyway.

3. Fewer calories

Cooking at home means you can control how much fat and oils are used in your dishes – something that can’t be easily monitored when dining out. Another benefit (we know you’ll love this one) – cooking at home can also burn calories.

Yes you read right. Cooking at home can burn calories!

For the average 65Kg person:

• Cooking burns approximately 139 calories per hour
• Washing dishes burns approximately 151 calories per hour
• 30 minutes of cooking and washing will burn about 145 calories.

When preparing meals at home it’s also much easier to portion control and not feel like you need to eat everything on the plate as you may do when dining out.

By portion controlling your meals, you can consume much fewer calories and not over eat when you are full.

Eating slower helps your body to register sooner that you have eaten enough before you feel like bursting.

4. Brings the family together

A family dinner is a great way to bring everyone together and share stories, ideas and find out what’s been happening during the day.

Eating together also promotes good eating habits for young children which will hold them in good stead for the rest of their lives.

5. Millions of easy recipes at your fingertips

With the internet there are thousands of great tasty, easy, low calorie and nutritious recipes out there that would be better than eating out especially when you’re not keen on fast food.

Just let your fingers do the walking…

That’s all there is to it!

Start getting creative in the kitchen and experiment, a great way to relax after a stressful day, (provided you don’t burn your fingers!).

A great place to start with your newfound hobby is to check out our recipes – resident chief Emma Duff has already given us several healthy, tasty and easy recipes. Check them out and stay tuned for heaps more.

Boris Lukin – Beyond Fitness Oteopath & Personal Trainer

P.S. Please contact us if you’d like to share your favourite healthy recipes (don’t forget the photo!).