Re: basic cooking skills and stocking a kitchen: Some cookbooks actually do help with this! One of the best resources for a very beginning cook is The Joy of Cooking, which contains pages of detailed illustrations about how to do very basic kitchen tasks. It also has substantial sections on how to select high-quality produce and meats, and various other forms of kitchen-related advice you’re looking for. I’d definitely recommend checking it out. (Full disclosure, I haven’t used it much in years because I’m a more advanced cook at this point, but I did look at it a fair bit when I got it as a gift upon graduating high school.)
How can I listen to my body to know intuitively which foods are making me healthier, or sicker, or when it is better to fast?
My belief is that most people who claim to be able to do this in full generality are lying. Our bodies evolved in an environment that is totally different from the current one, and processed foods are optimized for tricking them into believing that the food you’re eating is good. The biggest thing you can learn to do more “intuitively” is pay attention to whether you are hungry or not. To some extent, though, this is also manipulated by processed foods, which are designed to trick your sense of hunger—see e.g. https://www.stephanguyenet.com/ for more documentation/evidence on this (I’d also recommend his book The Hungry Brain for a general model of how this works, though not much specific advice). The reason “processed foods” are worse for you is generally because of this process of technical optimization for anti-your-goals, performed by many expert food scientists to try to get you to pay more for food. A rule of thumb that flows out of this is that non-processed foods are better for you because they are poorly optimized.
Am I getting enough salt and electrolytes?
This one you can answer via checking yourself regularly for dehydration symptoms, which include: dizziness, lightheadedness, blacking out when you stand up, headaches, or feeling thirsty. You’re more likely to have problems with this if you have low blood pressure in general. If you notice these symptoms, you probably need to drink more water as well as consume more electrolytes. Most people don’t drink as much as water as they should, so by default that’s more likely to be a problem than not getting enough electrolytes.
How can I have a positive attitude towards healthy choices, and avoid frustration?
I like the attitude promoted by Reinhard on his websites, including http://nosdiet.com/. His general attitude is that the most important thing for diet/exercise/lifestyle change in general is to make things as sustainable as possible. Focus on making better habits that work with your life, rather than an optimal diet that you’ll never stick to.
Hope this is helpful! I think Reinhard + Joy of Cooking gets a lot of what you’re looking for.
Re: basic cooking skills and stocking a kitchen: Some cookbooks actually do help with this! One of the best resources for a very beginning cook is The Joy of Cooking, which contains pages of detailed illustrations about how to do very basic kitchen tasks. It also has substantial sections on how to select high-quality produce and meats, and various other forms of kitchen-related advice you’re looking for. I’d definitely recommend checking it out. (Full disclosure, I haven’t used it much in years because I’m a more advanced cook at this point, but I did look at it a fair bit when I got it as a gift upon graduating high school.)
My belief is that most people who claim to be able to do this in full generality are lying. Our bodies evolved in an environment that is totally different from the current one, and processed foods are optimized for tricking them into believing that the food you’re eating is good. The biggest thing you can learn to do more “intuitively” is pay attention to whether you are hungry or not. To some extent, though, this is also manipulated by processed foods, which are designed to trick your sense of hunger—see e.g. https://www.stephanguyenet.com/ for more documentation/evidence on this (I’d also recommend his book The Hungry Brain for a general model of how this works, though not much specific advice). The reason “processed foods” are worse for you is generally because of this process of technical optimization for anti-your-goals, performed by many expert food scientists to try to get you to pay more for food. A rule of thumb that flows out of this is that non-processed foods are better for you because they are poorly optimized.
This one you can answer via checking yourself regularly for dehydration symptoms, which include: dizziness, lightheadedness, blacking out when you stand up, headaches, or feeling thirsty. You’re more likely to have problems with this if you have low blood pressure in general. If you notice these symptoms, you probably need to drink more water as well as consume more electrolytes. Most people don’t drink as much as water as they should, so by default that’s more likely to be a problem than not getting enough electrolytes.
I like the attitude promoted by Reinhard on his websites, including http://nosdiet.com/. His general attitude is that the most important thing for diet/exercise/lifestyle change in general is to make things as sustainable as possible. Focus on making better habits that work with your life, rather than an optimal diet that you’ll never stick to.
Hope this is helpful! I think Reinhard + Joy of Cooking gets a lot of what you’re looking for.