Hi

If you follow my instagram, you may have heard some of my thoughts on this over the weekend, but I want to expand a little....

One of the reasons I am very hesitant to adopt a “meal plan” approach with clients is the fact that you need to actually learn how to eat WITHOUT ME. A meal plan, for a lot of people, is essentially a crutch. It makes it easier for both client and coach in the short term, but in the long term, it fails to actually empower the person through education and gradual behaviour change.

You see, I used to like having a meal plan myself. When I think back to my time as a beginner to health & fitness, I use to surf bodybuilding.com (I know the bros out there did too) searching for the "optimal" meal plan to build muscle AND lose fat. It's safe to say that I ate some funky things as a result. I was that guy who brought his meals everywhere because obviously 400 calories of MY meal on MY meal plan was somehow different to 400 calories of a meal someone else cooked for me (not...).

I learned from my own mistakes, though. I think back to how being the typical meal-plan-following-bro limited my own ability to LIVE and I don't want you to make those mistakes.
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As a coach, I don’t want my clients to do what I do or what I think is "optimal". I want my clients to be able to dictate their meal times, food choices etc. within the parameters of the guidance I provide. To me, coaching should not be about “do as I say”, it should be more like “try to understand what I say, let me know if you don’t, implement as you are able and then let me know what the barriers are”.
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Realistically, YOU need to learn how, what and when to eat. The emphasis is on YOU because it’s your life. You should be able to go for breakfast, lunch or dinner and be dynamic with your nutrition. It shouldn’t be a stressor. You should be able to go for a weekend away and not lose the run of yourself, without the need for specific foods and/or Tupperware meals.
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I am far happier to hear when a client makes an adjustment to “the plan” themselves, based on their life, as opposed to hearing that someone skipped their breakfast meeting because they couldn’t get anything on the menu. If your approach to nutrition makes your life worse, you need to reevaluate.
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Are you going to make every food choice based on what and when someone else thinks you should eat?⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
If you are currently amidst trying to develop better skills with respect to your nutrition, then you need to be willing to get uncomfortable in the short term to gain nutritional mastery in the long term. You won't learn how to deal with the barriers that real life presents if you shelter yourself amidst the perfect meal plan and the perfect environment.

You don't want to be that person who can't go away for a weekend without losing control, so how do you get to the point where that doesn't happen?

You EXPOSE YOURSELF. You go away, you track your nutrition, you make smart choices, you buy "convenience foods" (not always a bad thing) and learn how best to set yourself up for success. That's okay. That's just life. Life is not about Tupperware meals....

Any questions? Just respond to this email :)