21/10/2021
When we find a meal plan on the internet, we all have the best of intentions. After all, we all believe that if we just KNEW what to eat for each meal, we'd lose weight.
And they work well for certain people! They can refer to this list and follow the plan daily:
-Stolen, cut oats and an egg-white omelet for breakfast.
-Lunch: grilled chicken and salad with homemade dressing
-Salmon, asparagus, and brown rice for dinner!
BAM!
We believe that if we stick to the plan, we will lose weight and get healthier!
As a result, we stick to the food plan, and it starts to work! We keep going...sometimes for a few days or even a week.
However, it is significant divergence from how we NORM.
Then, for the MOST of us, reality sets in:
Our child becomes ill. Work was a complete disaster. Our significant other neglected to shop for groceries. We can become depressed or nervous.
And we reach for the same items we've always gone for comfort foods.
Foods that aren't likely to be on our menu.
Then we feel guilty, ashamed, and that we've let ourselves down. "The meal plan, unfortunately, did not work out. I'm a knucklehead."
The truth is that meal plans only deal with the WHAT of nutrition.
They don't address the HOW or the WHY of the problem.
Our lives are chaotic, our emotions are unpredictably unpredictable, and our deeply ingrained habits and coping strategies have been fine-tuned over decades.
This is why we don't offer meal plans to our coaching customers; we've found that they don't work and don't result in long-term change.
Instead, we meet our customers where they are!
We learn about their present eating habits (without passing judgment). Then we work on minor behavioral changes (with responsibility) over several weeks and months until the client's default behavior is on track!
So, instead of downloading a rosy healthy food plan...
Let's concentrate on today's decisions and evaluate what tiny adjustments we can make that will allow us to survive in our current environment.
