#25: Meal Plans Are Useless
Meal plans are a fucking joke. And I added the word ‘fucking’ because I believe in what I say without any reservation whatsoever.
I get numerous clients requesting a written ‘meal plan’, down to the last calorie. Not just their calories and macros, but their meal-timings, workout slots, and maybe even the colour underpants they have to wear on a particular day during the week.
They then go home, place their beautiful stack of papers on their kitchen tabletop, and utter the words: “I’ll start next Monday.”
But come Monday, they get hit with a surprise dinner, take-out or event that gums up the plan. And starting on Tuesday simply won’t do.
Even when one does get going with the meal plan, it doesn’t normally take more than a few weeks before it’s dumped in a drawer, where it will later be lost to the sands of time (that is, unless the ‘dieter’ is preparing for a wedding or something).
Let’s dive in on the ‘why’.
Meal Plans Don’t Address The Problem
Rigid plans don’t address the problem at its core. Through meal plans, you neither make peace with food nor battle emotional issues tied to overeating.
Quite simply, they are a bunch of numbers scrawled on a piece of paper giving you less-than-relevant details, like your Basal Metabolic Rate. Details which you can get a ball-park of through a simple Google Search.
The only difference is… nutritionists charge for a meal plan.
They Are Rigid AF
Having a meal plan implies that you’re officially on a ‘diet’. And a diet is a shitty thing to be on. What you want, in truth, is a health-promoting lifestyle. A willful, sustainable exchange of the unhealthy habits with the healthy.
It all starts with substitutions. Soft drinks for water, 20 cigarettes per day cut down to 15, and later, to 10. 2,000 steps per day increased to 4,000 steps per day. It starts with taking control of the pillars of health centered around your nutrition, physical activity, sleep, spirituality and social circles and maximising them to a point where you are living optimally for the foreseeable future.
That, my friends, does not include restriction. Because when the birthday cake comes, then trust me, you’re going to want to get on some of that. Hell, don’t forget to give me a piece too.
There Is No Education Involved
You wake up and its Thursday, and Thursday sucks because your nutritionist wrote you up for kelp pasta with liquidised marrows for lunch. This just doesn’t sit right with you because yesterday you were allowed Salmon and sweet potatoes. Alas, today is Thursday and meal plan says ‘kelp pasta’.
What sense is there in this? Wouldn’t it be better to know what the good foods are so you can whip something up yourself?
Meal plans don’t teach you anything apart from how to follow a meal plan. If you are paying to see a nutritionist, the ultimate goal should be independence.
You should be given the opportunity to identify the problems behind your eating patterns and address them head-on.
And What A Way To Make Healthy Eating Into One, Mundane Punishment
More often than not, the meals featuring on the meal plan’s roster are some of the most boring recipes on the planet. Moreover, you’re forced to weigh the boring foods day-in, day-out amid a busy 2022-based life schedule.
I’ve been in a situation where I had to follow a meal plan - several times - and I’ve always ended up calling it quits - and everyone knows what that means.
But hey, there’s always next Monday, the infamous day of second attempts. What better day to re-attempt to scale the mountain? I mean, it’s not like you need to evaluate your current relationship with food and work towards a a more enjoyable, lasting, peaceful place.
When faced with the question: ‘should I get a meal plan?’ don’t let yourself veer into what the meal plan promises. Rather, make lifestyle changes that are sound, reasonable and sustainable. Every person lives their life differently, because we should prioritise our likes and dislikes. By making a few common-sense changes in our daily way of life, we are already putting ourselves in pole for results.
