💪 Health
Feels Like...Recovery
"We finally got the Michelin star this year, but I don't know why I'm having this level of exhaustion..."
One of you folks messaged me 👆 this week.
Before I share my response (in case it helps someone else), I thought I'd give context...
I've shared numerous resources before on this, from Casey Neistat's video on "Burnout" (sometimes part and parcel of exhaustion, but they can be mutually exclusive), as well as Chris Williamson's pithy quote of:
"There is no such thing as overworked, only under rested"
And I get it, chefs face a pile-on of numerous factors that would individually exhaust even a typical person:
- Long hours of being "on"
- A physical, on-your-feet workload
- Intense focus and communication
- Limited (or poor sources of) calories and under-hydration
- Poor sleep (or at least a non-typical sleep schedule)
But I think there's a more optimistic way to look at this situation.
If you've subscribed to any of the recent "rebranding" of chefs to "Culinary Athletes", I think there's something that we might be missing that high-performers in sport already do: invest in recovery.
Now, I'm not suggesting that you adopt LeBron James's budget of $1.5m per year that he reportedly spends on his recovery.
I have an easier-on-the-wallet solution in mind.
But it requires the mindset shift that you're making an investment.
You must believe that what you put in will give you a return.
Because before we decide it's worth spending money/time/resources, we should probably start with the fact that we're starting from a place of not really naming our behavior very well.
Ask any sous chef what their plan is for their weekend and it's usually some combination of:
- Sleeping
- Hanging out with friends (co-workers or not), eating/cooking something casual/fun
- Sleeping
- Laundry
- Watching something on a screen (and falling asleep 1/3 of the way in)
Just because this list doesn't include cold plunges, massage guns or physio-tape doesn't mean it isn't recovery.
Take a second to cross check my list from above of exhaustion-causes and you'll quickly start to see that it makes complete sense why a weekend looks that way.
Each of those behaviors is a direct counter-action to what you've just spent your week doing.
We just suck at calling it "recovery".
And I'm making the case that we should.
This reframe definitely helped the chef messaging me - here's their response:
"Im not sure if it's the culmination of exhaustion but I think I'm actually needing to just rest"
In case you need permission to do the same, consider this email just that.
