Cooking at AFR | An Instructional Life Skills Class
Cooking at AFR | An Instructional Life Skills Class
A Life Skills class teaches how to handle daily stress, even as simple as cooking. It is one of the most important aspects of overcoming addiction.
Life is stressful. Each day brings different problems to face and obstacles to overcome. Learning how to handle that stress in an effective and healthy manner is an important part of individual growth. “Life skills” are what we learn that gets us through our daily responsibilities. They are learned at different stages throughout life and build upon each other progressively.
However, many people decide on a different method of coping with stress. Yet, they often choose one that causes more stress than what they are looking to escape. When life’s stress becomes overwhelming, or when someone doesn’t have the right skills to handle stress appropriately, choosing drugs or alcohol might seem like a better option. As addiction begins to take hold, the stress is multiplied, which only leads to more substance abuse.
Learning Essential Life Skills Enhances Recovery
We offer a Life Skills class in Cooking. These group sessions introduce our patients to the basics of planning and preparing healthy meals. Many of our patients are learning these skills for the first time, while others are using this class as a refresher course. Having confidence in one’s ability to handle daily responsibilities, even those that seem as simplistic as cooking dinner, is a tremendous step towards avoiding the unnecessary stress that would lead to using drugs or alcohol.
Meet Our Life Skills Class Kitchen Director
Trent Mead is the Kitchen Director at A Forever Recovery and the Cooking Class facilitator. As Kitchen Director, his daily role includes planning menus for every meal throughout the day. He also ensures that the Kitchen Staff has the necessary ingredients and equipment to execute those meal plans. Planning daily menus also include taking any special needs, such as gluten sensitivity, food allergies, diabetic dietary restrictions, or vegan/vegetarian preferences, into consideration. His knowledge and ability are extremely useful as the instructor for our Cooking Class.
New Habits, Improved Skills, Better Life
The Cooking Class at A Forever Recovery is mainly focused on helping our patients find a healthier lifestyle through a balanced and nutritious diet and proper eating habits. It also has another benefit that might not be so obvious to some. Developing the skills to create nutritional and enjoyable meals is a big step towards being handling the daily responsibilities that life places before us. Matt, a patient at AFR chose to participate in the Cooking Class. He points out how this program has helped him prepare for a substance-free lifestyle outside the halls of our treatment center. “I’ve learned a lot of things to try and get ready for outside life,” Matt explains. “It definitely is beneficial trying to keep that balance in time management.”
A Forever Recovery isn’t just a place where people go to get clean and sober. It is a place of total lifestyle transformation. It is a place where patients can find the tools and life skills they need to remain clean and sober after graduation. They find the ability and strength within to build a healthier and happier today and to look forward to a brighter and more promising tomorrow. Here, our patients discover a sense of confidence, and a path to overcoming an addiction through a Life Skills class at A Forever Recovery.
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What a great idea. I used to not cook for myself as I thought it was easier just to eat out all the time but then my financial situation changed and I had to start eating at home. I did know how to cook some basic things but as time went on, I learned how to be more and more creative in the kitchen and it became something fun to do rather than something I had to do. I’m sure that once you’ve gone through what these addicts have gone through, doing something creative has go to be very rewarding.
This is really a great idea. What better to learn than the basic aspects of life such as cooking. I think when one is addicted for a long time, they do not cate about cooking, and specially not what food they gonna eat. It is so important to eat healthy, specially if they have gone through such a hard time in detox and all those horrible drugs, that eating right is just must be their focus in the future. So i find it just really a great help and motivation for the clients for the future to take better care of themselves!
I like the fact that there is this class for the people who are there for recovery. I was watching the show chopped with my wife and there was a story on there of a man who was a drug addict and learning how to cook is one of the things that got him off of drugs in the first place. He was able to make something more important than the drugs and also learned a skill through a class like this that eventually led to him finding a career that he loved that would keep him clean. Stories like this I have heard all over the place and that is there for many more people to pull them out of the pits that they are in when they are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol or other substances. It is tools like this that make recovery programs like this so important. I also think that there are a lot of people that take these skills for granted, but something as simple as having a well balanced diet is often times not on the radar for people especially those that have a problem with being addicted to drugs or alcohol. It is an area that many people do not confront in the rehabilitation process. Here you have someone that may have been on drugs for years and the fact that they see it as important enough to teach them this basic life skill just really goes to show you that there is a need for this in places like this. I know that for me I love food, and especially if it is something that the person ends up loving to do, it coud be the x factor that gets them to stay off of the drugs and give them a new opportunity that they would not have had otherwise. This is something that is important, and also the fact that this is not a mandatory class that they have to take. I like that even better as it is never god to force someone to do something as factually that will not work. It is more important to get their willingness to do something and then from that you can bring them up to understanding. Programs that teach these valuable life skills are absolutely irreplaceable as they really get you to a point where the patients can reintegrate back into the society and can gain their self respect back, which is something that some other programs do not do. I think that these really give them the tools that are needed to get out and attack the world and change their operating basis.
This is truly amazing! It’s great to know that at a forever recovery has such an important life skill programs such as this one the cooking class. They have so much to offer there at a forever recovery. Speaking from experience this cooking program is one of my favorites. After I finished the program this life skill came in handy. It taught me how to cook a great healthy meal and eat clean.
This is why I am so grateful I went to a forever recovery.It has an amazing programs like this one and great life skill. I am happy that I went to this cooking class it has helped me out a lot. I am not a cook at all. But ever since I went to this program it has helped me out so much. For instants cook for myself even on a budget lots of nutritious values. I love how a forever recovery came up with such a great program like this and is very useful for everyone even after they are done with their treatment. It helps them develop skills to be able to create nutritional and enjoyable meals and in my opinion that is a huge step. I know it is for myself and it brought me great confidences to be able to care for myself and others around me.