Do You Give Meal Plans?
Do You Give Meal Plans?
Without doubt, the most common question I receive is "do you give meals plans?".
I know the look they'll give me when I answer, because I always give the same answer.
"No, at least not at the start".
It makes sense this is a common question though. Meal plans have been a part of the fitness industry for years. A fitness industry that has been heavily influenced by physique competition.
And the truth is for that type of fitness, it works.
If you are deep into competing, you might be reading this thinking "I'm going to shoot him down, because I know they work".
But, many people aren't into physique competitions. In fact, many people just want to train to feel and move better, add a little bit of muscle, lose some fat, and feel proud of themselves.
For a lot of people, overall health is important, and if that's for you, a meal plan could actually be the worst thing you could do.
Meal Plans Work (For a While)
Something that often gets forgotten about the story with physique competition, is that once the competition(s) are done, the athlete goes back to a relatively normal diet.
Sure there may still be a few restrictions, but the "tie is loosened" slightly. More variety of foods, and more calories overall are consumed.
Why? Well often the aim is to replenish lost nutrients, regain or add more muscle mass for the next competition season, but it's also so the athlete doesn't lose their mind with such a restrictive diet.
You see, when you're told what not to eat, those are usually the things you want to eat.
Meals plans are great for getting lean, but they're aren't exactly the most enjoyable things to follow.
So what is the difference when you want to get lean?
Maybe your meal plan will be a little less restrictive. Maybe you'll still be able to spend time with friends at parties and eat (some) of the food. Maybe you'll be allowed to drink now and then, or...maybe you won't.
Sometimes, our desires to look a certain way and the commitment required to look that way don't match. This doesn't mean "you don't want it bad enough", often it simply means looking like a cover model simply isn't high on your agenda.
Your meal plan (or nutrition habits) need to match yours goals (and not the goals of the coach to deliver more before and after photos).
Just Tell Me What to Do!
When it comes to our money, many people go to a financial adviser. Finances can be tough to understand, as there are so many systems, markets, forces and inputs which need to be considered when it comes to our money.
Based on those factors, a financial adviser tells us what they believe the best course of action would be; it's up to us though to make that commitment. We choose to take their advice or not.
This is similar to nutrition coaching. A nutrition coach advises people on what to do, taking into account the client's goals.
So while your goals might be "get lean", the coach may feel based on the information you've given them, that a meal plan isn't the best course of action.
Further, while the financial system is an ever changing system with growing or declining inputs, your body is rarely like that.
What I mean is, while you might never fully understand financial systems unless you study it at University, understanding what and how to eat to help you stay fit and healthy, is not something you should go to University for 4 years to do.
You should know what to eat for your body, enjoyment, goals and needs. This is your body after all.
So while a meal plan may get you lean, more often than not it doesn't actually help you to understand what to eat, and more importantly, how to eat.
What Are Your Goals?
This leads us onto another key difference between physique competitors and other people who just want to look and feel good. A physique competitor wants to look great for a day or short period of time, but afterwards, they are not too worried if they don't have a defined core. Of course, they don't want to blow out, but they understand time off is required. That is, they have a clearly defined goal for a short period of time.
When we follow 8 Week Challenges and 30 Day Summer Shred's, we believe we will achieve results. You might actually get great results.
But what we forget is that the goal is to get the results and keep the results. So when we follow short term plans aimed at losing body fat, that same plan can't be used to maintain the results in the long term; they are often too restrictive or too intense to maintain beyond that initial time period.
Simply, these short term challenges and meal plans, while created by well intentioned businesses and coaches, are setting you up to fail in the long term.
The other option could be a slower approach where you learn how to eat for your goals in the context of your life; something that takes longer, but can be maintained in the long term.
It's also important to understand while the "All In" approach (change everything in our life in one go, start at the most difficult thing) works for some people, other people need to start small and build habits over time.
How Meal Plans Can Fail
Too restrictive in types of foods and calories.
Can lack nutrients; they're often aimed at helping you lose fat, not feel healthy.
Too difficult in the context to your life.
Too difficult for your level of experience.
Work so well that it becomes difficult to actually eat anything outside that strict plan.
None of this is aimed to stop you from using a meal plan. If that's what you want, please use a meal plan. Further, a meal plan can help to give the initial results to keep you motivated or simply to get to a healthier weight range before you get into a focus on your habits and learning how to stay healthy in the long term. Regaining your confidence and pride is worth something, and solving that issue first might be a good place to start.
For clients, I prefer to work on a few habits before giving a meal plan, focusing on a number of things like the actual food, how much, how they eat, and other areas such as sleep, recovery and their environment.
Different Approaches
Focus on one meal at a time
Overwhelm can set in when we try to change everything at once. So a simple way to overcome this is to focus on simply changing one meal at a time. You could focus on the quality and quantity of your breakfast for one month, trying to improve it each week, before focusing on your other meals.
For example:
You might have a big bowl of high sugar cereal and a coffee with milk for breakfast. Each morning is a rush out the door, so you're eating as quick as you can.
You could change this in the following ways:
A lower calorie cereal
A smaller bowl of cereal
A different food altogether
Less (or no) milk in your coffee
Sitting and eating the meal slowly with no distractions
These are each only small changes to your breakfast, but over the long term they could have a significant effect. Once you feel confident* with maintaining your breakfast habit, you can move onto changing your lunch, dinner or snacks.
Learn how to eat
Of course you know how to eat. What I mean is, how to eat to achieve your goals.
I mentioned above eating slowly with no distractions. This has nothing to do with calories, but when we eat too fast, we can consume large quantities of food without becoming aware of our fullness cues. Before we know it, we're stuffed and we've consumed too many calories for our goals. By simply slowing down how quickly we eat, we can better recognise our cues. Slowing down our eating can be done in a number of ways:
Put your fork down between bites
Take 3 breathes between mouthfuls
Sip a glass of water between
Time how long it takes us to eat our meals now, and increase that time
We can also actively decide to make our meals smaller, especially when we make our meals. Eating to 80% of our usual meal size will most often reduce calories consumed, while helping us better understand our fullness cues.
Focus on the principles
There are a few key things we can focus on no matter what diet we're on:
Protein intake; consuming adequate protein to meet our needs. Protein will help our satiety.
Vegetable intake; consuming 5 serves of vegetables each day.
Limiting the intake of processed foods
Drinking 2 liters of water per day
Beyond these principles of eating, we can also focus on lifestyle habits such as the amount and quality of sleep, use of electronic devices, our environments such as work and home, and rest, recovery and reflection protocols for a better mindset and relationship with ourselves.
How to Move Forward With Your Nutrition
If you want to follow a meal plan, that's fine. Just make sure it works for you. (You'd be surprised how often coaches give people a standardised meal plan....8 week challenges anyone??).
Also make sure:
To use it for the short term
It fits into your lifestyle
You don’t do it if it brings you more stress and overwhelm than not folowing a meal plan
Otherwise you can follow the Different Approaches listed above, with a mindset of learning and growing over the long term to ensure a healthier life well into the future.
*One of the question I ask clients is "Out of 10, how confident are you that you can consistently do this habit?". If the answer isn't 8 or above, we make the habit smaller, or chose a simpler habit for them to do.
Are you interested in finding out more about how you can improve your nutrition through better eating habits, training principles and by helping your Mental Health?
Simply book in for an Intake Interview by filling out the form below.
HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL RECEIVE WHEN YOU JOIN PEAK
Access to the Fundamentals Program: Not just one session covering all you need to learn, but up to 8 sessions of programming to take you from beginner to knowledgable or to improve you current training methods.
Vision Casting Session: Beyond your normal goal setting session, this will be cover your goals AND provide you the blueprint and habits required to achieve your goals across multiple areas of life.
Free Custom Nutrition Plan: A nutrition plan not only based on your goals, but also on your current schedule and capacity, the nutrition will be designed for you.
Unlimited Access to Coaches: Access to coaches for help with training, nutrition or mindset
Access to In Depth Mobility Library: learn how to take care of your own body with a 50+ video exercise archive that will help you feel great from head to toe!
Free goodies such as shirts, books, sweat towels: look and feel the part not only with your training and nutrition, but with your accessories too!
And much more…
Simply fill out the form on the right and I’ll be in contact with you within 24 hours to discuss the best time for the interview. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have before the interview as well.
