One dish made cooking less of a chore

For most of this process, cooking was a chore. I picked recipes that fit the plan, made them because I was supposed to, and ate them because they were there. The food was fine. Fine food is hard to keep making when eating already takes effort.

Then one dish broke the pattern. It was simple, rich, and high in the ingredients that help me gain, and it tasted good. Good enough that I looked forward to it, which had not happened with food in a long time. Nothing about it was complicated, and I think that is part of why it worked.

When food is something to look forward to

That change sounds small. It did not feel small. Food I want is easier to cook and finish than food I only tolerate. I will reliably cook and eat something I like. Something I only approve of gets made when willpower allows, and willpower has never been reliable at dinnertime.

For a long time I treated taste as optional after the calories and macros. That was backwards. When I like dinner, I eat dinner. When I dread it, I find reasons not to.

So the dish stays in the rotation. I have stopped feeling unserious about choosing food partly because I like it. I keep eating week after week without arguing myself into it as often, and eating has been easier to keep up than it was on willpower alone.