Since I started working on my physique, one of the side effects has been my need to have better control over what I eat and preparing food myself. The result of this has been almost more valuable to my life than lifting has.

Used to enjoy cooking but didn't do it very often and was pretty lazy with what I ate.

Post bodybuilding I'm now 100% self sufficient in the kitchen and confident to cook all meals. Barely have takeaway, rarely feel the need to go out to eat. I actually enjoy cooking new dishes and experimenting with more exotic stuff to make my food tastier. This extends way beyond just eating for fitness too, fitness is just what gave me the drive to become good at it and more adventurous with it.

Feel its crazy how valuable a life skill it is

Anyone else found the same thing?

I hear that OP! I’ve been cooking since I started lifting and I love it.

Weird how satisfying it is. Can't understand people who rely entirely on another person (mother, wife, gf) etc for their eats.

reps on recharge

Oh absolutely, I've learned how to do some wild stuff to get flavor into ridiculously low calorie meals

Also it ended up bringing me to my current love for hot sauce, which also brought me to my current love of growing my own peppers and making my own hot sauce. I still haven't perfected not being wasteful about it, or how to retain extreme heat without using ridiculous amounts of peppers. I tend to only be able to make 2-3 jars with each harvest

I don't mind cooking, but hate the cleanup.

I will never know these feels.

Legit I sometimes get sucked into weird cooking 'projects' where I either make something from scratch I'd normally buy or overdo a certain style of cooking for a couple of weeks

Good thing about living with someone is if you do all the cooking, they generally have to do the clearup because justice

100% man, I used to be incredibly picky / fussy eating when growing up. I distinctly remember early phases of the lifting career being a pain in the ass cause of how much I limited myself with eating choices, used to avoid even mildly inconvenient foods such as chicken on the bone etc.

To actually gain weight and hit macro targets it forced me to try things I never would have and in the process learn to expand both my eating habits and cooking ability. Still to this day take huge pride in learning to cook even the simplest of foods as good as possible, things like chicken, steak, eggs can actually be brilliant on their own when properly seasoned / prepared. Even learning general cooking skills like balancing sweet / sour / spice / acidity when making salad dressings, sauces + more. Being able to tie all this together with the knowledge of macros and calories and learning how your digestive system handles different foods and sheit is probably the most invaluable thing a lot of people in bbing and strength sports don't talk about.

Fuark looking forward to food later now lol.

I very rarely eat out, due to my food allergies I have to cook my own chit anyways, but the skills you learn really improve the overall quality of your life, not to mention bishes luv it. I've made my own buckwheat pasta and all kinds of stuff, it's a good feeling just like lifting srs.

My gf is very fussy and has a very serious allergy so that's also spurred me to be even more creative as she rarely enjoys eating out. I do things like re-creating chinese takeaway from scratch etc (chinese food in general is really dangerous for her from a takeaway or restaurant).

And definitely feel that with regards to cooking simple things well. It's crazy how many people that do cook don't realize how much difference a good level of seasoning and a few subtle flavours can make. Most people end up with bland garbage when they cook