Demanding Life Foods

A new adventure in my life is starting out very soon.  Back from an amazing wedding to the love of my life, the next exciting chapter begins!

Over the past few years this idea has been developing in my head.  Training for triathlons while working a full time job was rough.  Obsessively working on getting a hold of my life, weighing 250 pounds, the stark realities of how hard it was set in.  Learning how to balance the training, work and developing a healthy diet/lifestyle was a huge part in my weight loss and improved health.  I had always loved cooking, but didn't really have an outlet aside from the small meals I was preparing for myself and my future wife.

The project started by a chance conversation with a friend at +M2 Revolution.  In August of last year a friend gave me the opportunity to develop a meal plan for him, as he was a vegetarian and didn't eat a balanced diet.  His job as an attorney, and training schedule took up a great deal of his free time which limited his food options when in a hurry.  Enter me!  Putting together a balance daily set of meals, that both supported his diet requirements, and training regimen, was complicated at first, but brought out some great meal options I had really never explored with my own personal cooking.  In the end, Demanding Life Foods was born!

People in San Francisco, and everywhere, have incredible ambition and drive for their professional and personal development.  Our mission is to fuel their lives with balanced, healthy, and tasty meals to help remove a stumbling block to maintaining a healthy lifestyle to match their fruitful careers.

To that end, Demanding Life Foods will open for business this August in San Francisco, especially for Ironman Lake Tahoe athletes in their final phases of training!

The end menu is not vegetarian, but incorporated some of the dishes.  Hopefully in the near future I can offer a fully vegetarian menu, but for now it will be a mixture of healthy meats, fruits, vegetables, cheeses, and nuts.

Some of the best aspects of our cooking is the concentration on Organic and Non-GMO ingredients.  Its not feasible to source 100% Organic, but nearly all ingredients are certified organic.  Another great benefit to our menu is the Gluten Free and Non-Cow's Milk aspects.  Gluten sensitivities affect more people than realized, and most can benefit from a reduced amount from wheats and flours.  Gluten causes inflammation in general among all people, so the benefits to any athlete is strong.  The removal of Cow's Milk products has multiple benefits, and really no drawbacks.  Using Sheep and Goat based products, as well as Almond and Coconut Milk, our clients can satisfy their taste and nutritional needs, with less risk of hormones and irritation from Cow's milk.  Demanding Life Foods goal is the fuel our clients lives, to help them meet their goals.

You can view a sample menu and pricing for a week here.

Calorie needs for each client is based on their specific needs.  After filling our a survey, each client will have an email consultation with our Registered Dietitian to make sure the menu plan is a good fit for them. We know you will love the tastes of the foods we deliver, but sometimes, people have conditions where they should seek other dietary avenues for their health needs.  Once the survey and consult is complete, our recommended calorie levels are set for the client's daily needs, be it 1,500 to 3,500 calories a day.  Serving sizes are based off this amount, and your meal plan is set for deliveries.

Food Delivery

The big benefit to our program is delivery.  For anyone with a busy life there are obstacles to overcome that mostly include time.  There is no ordering to take care of, no pickup, no box of food on your door-step in the middle of the night to worry about, or even a time to coordinate for a hand-off.  Demanding Life Foods acts as a personal concierge and delivers your food to your refrigerator while you are out, taking care of all these worries.  We are a fully bonded and insured company, and each delivery will be made by a trusted employee (me for the beginning), who has gone through extensive screening and background checks.

In the end, I'm leaving the corporate world and exploring a brand new adventure that I will happily share with everyone.  Target date for first food deliveries is August 18th.

To contact me about options and start our consultation process please email me at info@demandinglifefoods.com.  Website still being developed.

Like us on Facebook too!   Still working on logos and filling out the page.

Late New Year's Resolution

I'm two weeks into my a late New Year's Resolution of bringing my lunch to work and its has been going well so far.  In looking at my finances, and the "extravagance" of the triathlete lifestyle (expensive equipment purchases), there were some cuts to the rest of my life that had to be made.

Most everyone could see from my Mayorships at multiple Subways around town, it was my lunch of choice.  They had some great food for a $5.00 footlong.  Two things happened in the New Year.

#1 - They discontinued their loyalty program.  Getting a free lunch for every 10-12 stops was a great motivator, but no more.
#2 - The $5.00 footlong is becoming less and less of an attractive option as they reduced the number of sandwiches they offer.

I decided to adjust my lunch from the $7.00 meal at Subway of a Sandwich, pack of apples, and drink, to making my own and try to save money and remove a little processed food.  This $35.00 a week could turn into a new wetsuit and a few pounds!

My goal was to still have the right amount of food to keep me going, but alter it to be a little healthier as I'm sure Subway hits their food with some preservatives, as well as highly processed flour and wheat in their bread.

Lunch would now consist of:
- Sandwich - Salami, turkey slices, sliced cheese, BBQ sauce - 450 calories
- Mini carrots - 70 calories
- Banana - 60 Calories
- Nuts - 80 Calories
Total - 660 Calories

This has seemed to fill me up as much as the larger portion of around 900 calories the Subway meal had, and I've been feeling better in the afternoon as well, probably from the reduced sugar intake in my Hi-C/Sprite combo out of the soda fountain.

My two week purchases for groceries is as follows.
- Bread - $4.00
- Lunch Meats - $11.00
- Carrots - $7.00
- Mango - $6.00
- Bananas - $5.00
- Nuts - $5.00
Total - $38.00
Two weeks at Subway - $70.00

I've nearly cut my food budget in half and all for about 10 minutes of prep time a day.  Not only that, I hang out in a park near my office now and don't have to drive to get food, saving gas, and I can say my life is a fraction more "Green" than it was last year.

Next step is trying to figure out how to do dinner.  My biggest obstacle with that is when I get home, there is no way I'm waiting to cook something as I'm usually about the go all Hulk from hunger anger. 

Motivation

Endurance training can take a toll on you physically and mentally. From the daunting hours put in running, swimming and biking, your body takes a beating, but also your mental state. It is important to always keep the reason you are doing this in perspective and what you must accomplish to meet your goal.

These goals can range from just completing a race or a specific time on that day. My goal is to qualify for Kona to race with my Dad. Many times I wonder if this is a realistic goal. This just adds to the mental fatigue of the long process of Ironman training. When I'm feeling exhausted and at a loss to get to my next training session I have two things that get me there, my teammates and my coach. These two groups are the reason I can pull through the tired, agonizing days because they are in it with me. We all don't have the same down days, so pulling each other through is an all too important aspect of our training.

Having a coach was one of the best decisions for my adventure into Ironman. Michael McCormack (M2 as he calls himself) has been instrumental in our groups progression through intermediate triathletes, to full blown Ironman athletes. Coaching is a very tricky thing to be good at. Its not just about laying out workouts, or strategies. To get to your best performance, many times you need someone to pull it out of you. You see this in regular life with parents and mentors and with a monumental event in Ironman, it is almost necessary if you want to be at your peak. M2 has a way to read people and figure out the best way to get them going. For me it is competition and some positive reinforcement. I'm sure he could sense my exhaustion this week and he was there to instill some faith that what I was improving from what he has seen over the past month. In his group spin classes he has a great "duel" workout to passively give a goal to everyone who wants it by giving the "easy" workout for beginners, and the hard workout for his Ironman/veteran athletes. Subconsciously people will want to get to the hard workout, and probably try it without the risk of opening themselves up to failure. These types of motivational pieces are insurmountable in the coaching world and to have someone in your corner who knows how and when to apply them is invaluable.

Thanks M2