i want to underscore Mandy's decision not to cook for family. This is SO important. I don't know why anyone would do this in the first place. I came from a family of 10 and at a certain age, I was given cooking tasks, but never the entire meal. The kitchen was crowded with siblings peeling, monitoring the oven, stirring, seasoning, tracking time... but no one had to do it all. I think that created a mindset in me that I'd never be the galley slave others may have wanted me to be.
In WW much later on, I heard a woman tell her story. She said she always cooked for the family AND cleaned up after. This gave her the opportunity to "taste" the food dozens of times while cooking, and pick leftovers off plates while she was cleaning up. Nothing went into the garbage can--she became the garbage can. They were all thin and she was obese. Her image of herself as a garbage can stunned and sickened me, and I was never able to clean up after dinner without thinking of myself that way.
A good first step is to do what Mandy did. Stop cooking for others. Another good step is to create a permanent shopping list you can attach to the fridge or bulletin board in the kitchen. If you make sure you always have food, not "their" food, you'll be on your way to being the valuable member of the family you should be.
