“I Have Cooking Fatigue”: What Midlife Women Really Told Me

I recently started asking women in midlife a simple question: What do you need when it comes to food, cooking, and taking care of yourself? Is cooking fatigue a real thing?

I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I might hear. But I wasn’t prepared for how many women told me they were simply tired of cooking and had real cooking fatigue. Some were bored with it, some felt overwhelmed, and others had decided they were done cooking altogether.

As someone who loves to cook and has spent years helping women feel more confident in the kitchen, I had to sit with that for a while.

In this episode, I’m sharing what I learned from these conversations, from the mental load of figuring out dinner every night to changing households, food waste, and the challenge of wanting to eat well without spending so much time thinking about food.

I’m also talking about what the topic of cooking fatigue means for my own work and how I’m rethinking the ways I can support women in midlife. Because maybe the answer isn’t convincing everyone to love cooking. Maybe it’s listening more closely to what women actually need.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Has your relationship with cooking changed as you’ve gotten older? What would make feeding yourself feel easier, more enjoyable, or simply less complicated?

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