Food

The Importance of Food

It goes without saying that food is incredibly important. In modern day society the importance of food comes down to 4 reasons: 1. Keeping high energy levels. 2. Nutrients for general health. 3. Remaining slim/fit. 4. Social purposes.

The Difficulty With Food

Ask any fitness minded individual, they will tell you that cooking is a very important skill to have. Primarily, because healthy food generally consists of home-cooked foods and requires creativity. Your average professional, and/or industrious minded individual unless taught as a child, usually does not know how to cook at this level. This is the core framework that I've personally developed over the years for food, and is battled-tested. Guaranteed results to be high-energy, excellent nutrients, remaining slim/fit, and re-purposing for social events when needed.

Who This Chapter Is Intended For

• You are making $70,000(USD), or more per year.
• You are single, or married with both spouses working. If one spouse is able to cook, this is not ideal unless pay level is significant(let's say $300,000(USD) per year, or more).
• You have the time and space to read and pursue your career. The extra 1-3 hours this chapter will give you per week, will pay back immense dividends.

If the above three criteria do not fit for you, by all means do go ahead and skip to the chapter on cooking food.

Delegating Cooking Phase 1

This one usually receives quite a bit of initial criticism. Primarily due to the initial understanding that it's something that's too costly. There is some truth to that. I find this arrangement costs about $100/week. If that is within your budget, by all means, this is for you. Here is how I do it:

1. Find a local Facebook group. Write your message so it caters to someone looking for extra income. College students, or stay at home parents looking for extra money are great candidates.
2. Find all the recipes yourself. Initially usually I keep it simple. Chicken/Brocolli, Salmon/Sweet Potatoes, turkey/red peppers and quinoa.
3. Find an online store to have everything delivered to the person cooking.
4. Have exact recipes there for them to use, to make payment palatable.
5. Pick food up yourself.

These are the only steps needed, to accomplish the above.

Time Table

Fully recognize that anyone looking for extra income is by definition a go-getter. I have found that unless the individual employed ends up cooking full-time, this arrangment usually only lasts for 6 months minimum. It's the reason I usually reccomend that you understand and know of the recipes. So that until you get to part 2, or find a significant other, you can repeat the process.

Script for Finding

Looking for someone to help cook for $60 a week. I would drop off everything(aluminum pans, aluminum foil, scale for measuring food, spices, raw food etc.). Food would be delivered Thursday night, and I would pickup Sunday.

Recipes are extremely simple to start(no more than 2-3 ingredients), and no more than 3-4 variant recipes to start. Will increase pay if becomes more complicated.

Expected time to cook 2-3 hours, for someone with a single oven. I keep (diet goes here), so of course someone who adheres to (diet goes here) is necessary.

Looking for someone local to (location goes here) so can pick up and drop off.

Thank you, and looking forward. Keep being awesome

You Are Honorable

One item to keep in mind. The individual cooking for you isn't being paid a premium price in this situation. You have to prove to them that what you are doing in your day to day is respectable. Primarily, to keep them motivated. Also, this person cooking for you is more or less a paid consultant. Try and make their life as easy as possible so that this arrangement can be as seamless as possible.

Delegating Cooking Phase 2

If you are at the point where you are making $150,000(USD), or more per year, consider a personal nutrionist/chef. This would be for lunch/dinner only i.e. not breakfast.

For this one, ask on your local Facebook group for a great local personal nutrionist/chef that delivers. If someone you know has someone great to reccomend fantastic. If you don't use Facebook, asking around/using google is your next best option.

Two pieces of advice

There are two pieces of advice I would like to give with regards to a personal chef.

1. The personal chef/nutrionist will not be able to do everything. You will still need to let them know what level of protein you would like and what types of food you enjoy. Invest in it as a long-term relationship.
2. It get's expensive. Even someone operating at a high level, it get's expensive. Something like $500(USD) per week. Make sure that if you are doing this you are investing that time back into your personal life and personal career. That $10,000 - $12,000 extra you are paying per year, should give you a dividend of an extra $50,000 for yourself per year as a professional. Not to mention, you will feel the most energetic you ever have in your life and will be the most slim as well.

Once again, you are building a long-term relationship with the personal chef. So, keep your skin in the game and keep believing in the system. If you do so, you are well on your way of earning $300,000 per year while putting in 40/50hrs per week.

The Benefits of This Approach

1. It frees up about 3 hours of your time per week.
2. Conserves mental energy. You no longer have to worry about what you are eating on a day to day basis.
3. If you usually eat takeout, then this means you will be eating much healthier. Granted the minimal amount of exersize, your weight will be kept in check.

Learn How To Cook

I'll never forget one of the best pieces of fitness advice I've ever heard with regards to food. I forget who it was. However, this individual said:

"If you want to stay fit, learn how to cook".

They are absolutely right. Monotony, no matter how disciplined you are, is going to catch up with you sooner or later. So, unless you have a personal chef, you sort of run into the dilemma of delegating recipes to someone else and getting sick of the food. Here's how to solve that monotiny.

Phase 1 - Offer More Money

Offer more money to the person cooking for you. In addition, giving them administrative access to your online shopping account. In fact, I currently live in Israel, where online shopping is unreliable in some ways for my purposes. So I even have someone who drives personally to the supermarket to pick up food.

I have a book called the Shredded Chef that I sort of hand off.

Phase 2 - Learn How To Cook

Learn how to cook yourself. I'm currently struggling on this one myself and I'm not sure how practical it is. I am using the Shredded Chef, but I find I need more time than I currently have. So I'm currently trying something called the 4 recipe max approach. If it's something that takes more than 4 recipes to make then I do not work on it.

Tools

1. Google Sheet for calculating weekly ounces/grams
2. Rapid discussion via Whatsapp
3. Scale for measuring food
4. Kitchen cutlery

I fully recognize that there are more tools that we as authors need to hand off to make this easier to do. For instance, a fully hashed out Google Sheet, and what rapid discussion via WhatsApp would look like. Hopefully it will be available in an up and coming edition.

What to do on week's unavailable, or if quits.

This is more so a problem with Phase 1 of hiring other people to cook for you. Once you hire a nutriotonist/personal chef, you are usually in the clear at this point in time.

It happens sometimes. Honestly, is the most difficult part of this process. As mentioned previously, the turnover rate can be high(6-12 months). In addition, finding a backup for week's unavailable is a difficult sell, because you might be giving them $400 dollars tops over the course of 3 - 6 months. So, generally week's that the person is off, I will generally get takeout during these week's. Not ideal, as most takeout relatively speaking, is low in protein. However, I make sure to skip breakfast during these week's and eat below caloric intake.

Why I Love This Idea So Much!

I love this idea so much, because everyone is winning. Someone such as myself is winning, because I get to continue working on things that bring me more value. The person cooking, is making more money, with flexible hours, more so than they would have elsewhere. In addition, as a professional, you will inevitably offer them professional advice, and you are giving them a window into your day to day. I am proud to say, with all 4 people I have worked with so far, within 6-12 months, they move on to something more profitable.