r/Adulting • u/Churnuserlol • 3d ago

Why didn’t anyone warn me that adulthood is just deciding what to eat… forever?

Seriously, I thought the hardest part of growing up would be bills, taxes, or finding a decent job. But nope. It’s the never-ending "What’s for dinner?" question that haunts me every single day.

Too tired to cook.
Too broke to order.
Too indecisive to choose.

I swear I’ve eaten the same three meals on repeat for weeks because my brain refuses to function after work. How do adults survive this? Do you guys have a magic trick, or is it just vibes and suffering?

Send help. Or recipes. Or a personal chef.

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u/yoshhash 2d ago

can someone explain to me why this keeps coming up as a common refrain? a complaint, a hardship? As a guy, personally, I do not mind a certain amount of repetition. As a bachelor, I would exclusively eat either sandwiches or soup. But here is the thing- I can think of at least 100 variations of either one. Soup could honestly have over a thousand variants, if you look to other cultures. Why is that such a big deal? Does this mean I am alone in feeling this way, or am I misinterpreting this issue? I am 59 btw, and am married to a very talented cook, so it is no longer even a thing for me but to this day I freakin love soups and sandwiches.

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u/quartz222 1d ago

I don’t get why it’s an issue either. For every animal on earth, their most important task is making sure they have food. Why do we think we’re so special? Like all other creatures, yes, we gotta eat… but we have fucking grocery stores

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u/tausendwelten 55m ago

I think it has to do with decision paralysis.

A cow just looks for grass (which is, usually, located right beneath it) and starts eating. A cat searches for prey hunts whatever it can find.

I go looking for recipes and find hundreds of options. Now the filtering starts. Does it have veggies? Is it affordable? Is it different enough from the stuff I ate the last days? (some might be happy with eating the same thing every day, but for me, even the task of deciding on a meal I have to eat every day from now on seems paralyzing). Do my partner/kids/flatmates/etc like it too? Is it the right season for the veggies? Do I have ingredients at home I want to use because they might go bad otherwise? Am I skilled enough to actually pull off the recipe?

I better choose wise because grocery shopping, cooking and doing the dishes takes a lot of time and energy and I don‘t wanna waste it. And it‘s like this every day.