Why You Need to Stop Following Meal Plans

You don’t need to look very far for meal plans that promise to help you drop 30 pounds in 30 days. There are hundreds of diets out there all claiming to have the answer to weight loss. Some may promote low carbs, others low fat or high protein. Still others are recommending a dangerously low caloric intake or losing weight through ketosis. Regardless of which diet you have followed in the past, or may be following right now, they more than likely have a meal plan.

Meal plans are one of my pet peeves. I am asked constantly if my program includes a meal plan and have even had clients say, “If you just tell me what to eat, I’ll do it”.   I’m sure it would be a lot easier if I just wrote out a meal plan. After all, I know if I told everyone what to eat and they stuck to it, they’d more than likely lose weight. I say more than likely because we are all different and it can take some time to figure out an individualized plan.

Why I don’t write out Meal Plans​

So why don’t I write out meal plans? They do make it easy for you. You don’t have to think about what to eat or not to eat, just follow the plan. All the guesswork is taken out of the equation and you can get right down to losing weight.

Until it stops working; and trust me it will stop working.
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How many times have you been on a diet that worked great in the beginning but then you hit a plateau and nothing worked anymore? Or maybe you were losing weight just fine, but you couldn’t follow that same old meal plan any longer. It was boring, restrictive, kept you from going out to restaurants, or you had to buy their pre-packaged foods. So you got fed up, went off the diet, gained your weight back, and ultimately blamed yourself for failing; again.
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Let me tell you a secret, it’s not your fault.

Diets Are Designed for Short Time Periods

After being on a diet for a certain amount of time, your body adapts to the program, and hence no more weight loss. This is the dreaded plateau. Also, as you lose weight, and hopefully gain muscle if you are working out too, your body’s needs are continually changing.

Meal plans also don’t allow for all the events that pop up in your life: a wedding, a birthday, an anniversary, an office party, and a vacation. How are you supposed to follow the plan now? You probably can’t, so while you’re away you gain weight, or you over eat at the office party, or simple go back to how you were eating before. You see, you have the mentality of either being “on” or “off” the plan.

And each time you go “off” the plan, the weight comes right back on. Why? You didn’t learn anything. You didn’t learn about your body and your unique nutritional needs.   You didn’t learn basic nutritional habits that will keep your weight off. In other words, you have nothing to fall back on, no foundation to carry you through the ups and downs and twists and turns of daily life.

I’m sure this is not what you want to do be doing for the rest of your life. You want to be healthy, you want to lose the weight and keep it off and you want to do it in a safe sustainable way. You don’t want to have to weigh and measure your food everyday. I’m sure you don’t want to eat the same thing over and over again and I know you aren’t looking forward to another crazy diets that promises miracles & doesn’t deliver. Hint: if is sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
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There is a way out of this vicious cycle, there is a way to eat to avoid all of this and I’m going to spell that out for you now

What You Should do Instead of Meal Plans

1. Start by logging your food every day for about a week. You may be surprised by what you learn about your eating habits. But the main reason you need to log your food is to start being aware of what you are eating, when you’re eating and how you’re feeling.
2. Next, based on what you’ve learned, choose one, maybe two habits to change. It could be that you need to start eating protein at each meal, or maybe you need to start eating meals! Whatever habit you decide to work on first, make sure it is something you feel very confident in being able to follow through on at least 90% of the time.
3. After 2 weeks of tracking this new habits take a look at how well you did. Are you ready to move on to a new habit or did you really struggle with this one. If you did struggle, make the habit even easier, and try again. If you were successful 90% of the time, move on to the next habit.
4. Continue this process until you are eating well balanced meals 90% of the time and are losing about 1 -2 lbs. per week consistently.
5. Try to choose behaviors that will have the biggest impact. For instance, switching from white bread to whole grain may be a better choice but it went garner much results. Instead go for choosing only whole food carbohydrates, getting rid of processed foods. That’s a big step and one that will have an impact on your weight.

What is Habit Based Nutrition Coaching?

Habit Based Nutrition Coaching is a method rooted in change psychology and built on the latest science of what actually helps people develop new skills and make change in their lives. Rather than telling you what to eat & when to eat, I help you build the skills required to eat well, every day, no matter what life throws at you. 

This is what is going to help you create lasting change and lasting change means keeping your weight off. Because you are not focusing on a “diet” you are no longer thinking in the all or nothing mentality. If you truly want weight loss success you need to be ready to make changes, you need to be ready to do the work, and you need to be consistent.

Weight loss is not an easy road, but it is possible and can be easier with support and guidance. A health and fitness coach who is educated in habit based nutrition coaching will be able to give you the tools you need to be successful. As a Precision Nutrition health coach, this is exactly how I work with my clients. 

If you’re looking for a supportive community to help you on your weight loss journey, come check out my FREE private Facebook group Weight Loss After 50   In the group you’ll find live broadcasts teaching you how to do exercises correctly, or an open Q&A day to answer all your health & fitness questions, recipes and maybe a challenge or two.  All my information is geared towards the over 50 crowd. I hope to see you in the group!