Raise your hand if this sounds familiar. It’s the end of a long day. You’ve worked hard and are mentally and physically drained, yet tonight’s to-dos already seem to be piling up. Maybe there are kids underfoot. In a perfect world, you’d land on the sofa with a bowl of cereal, but you’re the grown-up responsible for dinner, and it needs to be on the table fast before anyone gets hangry(er). Preferably it’s a healthy meal that helps you reach your protein goals and includes a lot of vegetables. And obviously it needs to be delicious and please absolutely everyone at the table.
No pressure, right?
Actually, it’s a lot of pressure, and cookbook author Nicki Sizemore can relate. Dinner was always her favorite meal to cook, but with a demanding job and two kids in the house, it became a source of real stress. “I’d rush into the cooking process carrying my worries and to-do lists with me, turning the kitchen into a place of constant urgency. It felt like a race I couldn’t win.” Over time, she developed chronic indigestion and couldn’t enjoy either the cooking or the eating.
To help improve her health—and shift the vibes—Sizemore developed what she calls the BESTT practice. She writes about this 30-second ritual in her new cookbook, Mind, Body, Spirit, Food. The quick practice involves five steps: breathe, engage your senses, set an intention, thank your food, and thank your body. At its core, BESTT is rooted in intentionality. “Intentional cooking can sound like something else you have to do, but really it’s about how you approach the act of cooking—not adding another task to your list,” she says. Here’s how BESTT works.
Nicki Sizemore, recipe developer, culinary educator, author of multiple cookbooks, including Mind, Body, Spirit, Food, and host of the Mind, Body, Spirit, FOOD podcast.
Breathe
If you’ve ever taken deep breaths to calm yourself down, the “B” in BESTT will feel familiar. Before you start cooking, Sizemore suggests taking two deep breaths. “When we enter the kitchen in a heightened fight-or-flight state, we carry that stress straight into the cooking process.” She says that taking just a few slow, intentional breaths can help calm the body almost instantly.
Deep breaths are also a pause, she says, between the day we’ve had and the cooking to come, and with that pause comes presence. “That presence changes everything: cooking becomes more enjoyable, more spacious—and, surprisingly, we become better cooks.” Speaking from experience, this idea really resonates. When I’m cooking from a distracted state, it’s all too easy to forget ingredients or lose track of where I am in a recipe.
Engage Your Senses
One of my favorite parts about cooking, and something that I realized during culinary school, is that preparing a meal takes me out of my brain and into my body, into my senses to be precise. Cooking makes use of all five senses (even hearing!), and the next part of Sizemore’s pre-dinner ritual is to engage at least one of them. That could mean taking a whiff of cilantro, appreciating the vibrant red of pomegranate seeds, or feeling the bumpy skin of an avocado.
Sizemore says that engaging your senses can be even simpler. “Feel the weight of your feet on the floor, or rub your fingers together and notice the texture. Let your eyes take in the space around you, and become aware of any scents lingering in the air.” Engaging your senses will take all of five seconds, but it’s another way to be truly in the moment.
Set an Intention
As Sizemore writes in Mind, Body, Spirit, Food, “An intention steers the mind away from the stresses of the past and future and towards how we want to be in this moment.” If this feels a little woo-woo to you, Sizemore says that an intention can be anything. “If you’re rushed, you might set an intention to slow down. If you’re feeling playful—or want to be—you can choose an intention to have fun.”
Two of her favorite intentions are to invite comfort and look for beauty. “With that simple shift, beauty begins to appear everywhere: in the curve of a bell pepper, in the steam rising from a pot, in the swirl of cream into the soup.” For me, setting an intention—whether it’s at the beginning of a yoga class or at the beginning of cooking dinner—is another way to take myself out of my head and into the moment.
Thank Your Food…and Your Body
By now, we know that showing gratitude is good for us, and for many families, saying grace before a meal is a time-honored tradition. But, in the BESTT ritual, showing gratitude isn’t just about being thankful for food. It’s also about being thankful for our bodies and everything they can do. “Our bodies are extraordinary,” says Sizemore. “They digest food and absorb nutrients without any conscious effort on our part. When we reconnect with that quiet intelligence and cultivate gratitude for our bodies, our relationship with food begins to shift.”
Other Easy Ways to Make Cooking Less Stressful
Really, any pre-cooking practice can work, says Sizemore. “Creating a small ritual in the kitchen can open the door to more ease and enjoyment. It might be tying on an apron, turning on a favorite playlist, or making a special drink before you begin.” The specifics don’t matter, she says. “What does matter is doing it with intention, using the ritual to signal to your mind and body that you’re transitioning from the day into the act of cooking.”
Dining and Cooking