Cooking with Tears: Step-by-Step Cooking Content For When You’re Struggling

My story begins as a sophomore in college, I lost both my stepfather and grandfather within six months of each other. I was lost, depressed, and lonely as I had ever been. Then there was ‘Cooking with Tears.’ I discovered a passion for cooking as a result of my grief. It was my love of cooking that inspired me to start documenting my cooking process and helping other people struggling with their mental health by curating step-by-step recipes geared toward making feeding your body less of a struggle during a difficult time.

Image Source: https://www.additudemag.com/what-is-depression/

How does depression impact our physical health?

We’ve all been there. It can be something as simple as a bad day, getting fired, receiving a bad grade, etc. but depression can impact our health beyond mental. Depression affects people by causing a persistent sense of sadness and loss of interest. Symptoms affect how you feel and behave, and can lead to emotional and physical problems on a daily basis. According to healthline.com, depression can cause insomnia, increase your risk of a heart attack, constrict your blood vessels, increase pain sensitivity, can lead to weight fluctuations, increase fatigue, lower our interest in sex, and weaken your immune system.

“People with depression may have trouble maintaining a normal work schedule or fulfilling social obligations. This could be due to symptoms such as an inability to concentrate, memory problems, and difficulty making decisions”, says Ann Pietrangelo, writer at thehealthline.com.

Does eating nutrient dense foods help when you are experiencing depression?

Eating healthier can help our brain fight against depression. According to an article published by the NPR, an independent, nonprofit media organization, changing your diet can help you tamp down depression and boost your mood.

“A randomized controlled trial published in the journal PLOS ONE finds that symptoms of depression dropped significantly among a group of young adults after they followed a Mediterranean-style pattern of eating for three weeks. Participants saw their depression “score” fall from the “moderate” range down to the “normal” range, and they reported lower levels of anxiety and stress too.Alternatively, the depression scores among the control group of participants — who didn’t change their diets — didn’t budge. These participants continued to eat a diet higher in refined carbohydrates, processed foods and sugary foods and beverages. Their depression scores remained in the “moderate severity” range” says Allison Aubrey and Rhitu Chatterjee, writers at the NPR.

How I turned ‘Cooking with Tears’ into a social media page on Instagram and TikTok.

Knowing what I knew about depression and its impact on our physical wellness and psychological development, I turned to Instagram and TikTok to post content guided towards those struggling with mental health issues. This would include recipes categorized by the amount of effort required (for example, when your depression has little to no impact, a moderate impact, and a severe impact on your daily life).

Through a series of post, with little engagement, I persisted and met individuals who were interested in the content I was posting. My targeted audience was individuals suffering from depression that fall under the following categories: 1) college students (any age), 2) parents (any age), 3) full-time employees (any age). I was hoping to reach at least 100 followers with an average age of 25 and have a even split between the percentage of male and female viewers.

My analytics, realistically, were different:

• Average Views/Plays per post → Instagram (53.3), TikTok (553.3)
• Average Likes per post → Instagram (8.6), TikTok (27.3)
• Average Comments per post → Instagram (1), TikTok (3.3)
• Average Saves/Reposts per post → Instagram (0), TikTok (1)
• Total Followers → Instagram (18), TikTok (8).

Despite the engagement being low, this made me feel accomplished. What I was doing was working, even if it was only ten likes on a post that took me an hour to curate, it was serving it’s purpose to help individuals and I am proud of my work.

My suggestion to others trying to grow their platform…

• The time you dedicate to your content creation is noticeable. Content that has been edited, cleaned, added music, and so on for a total of 1–2 hours is of higher quality than content that has simply been shot and uploaded without any other actions such as editing. Quality content is more likely to do better in terms of engagement performance.
• Quantity matters
• Post frequently
• Be engaged with your audience
• Like/Respond to comments
• Ask questions in the comment section, etc..