When you hear the words “Meal Plan” – what comes to mind?

A 21-day clean eating challenge?

A rigid, restrictive menu with a 1,200 calorie limit?

These concepts are often synonymous with the term “meal plan” – and it’s one of the reasons why I stayed away from creating them for my clients – because it doesn’t focus on changing habits and making it a lifestyle. But I’ve since changed my mind a bit…

For all of my VIP one-on-one coaching clients, I work with them individually to create a customized plan that works best for their body, their situation, and their goals. It’s never a quick fix or crash diet, and is always meant to be a lifestyle plan for you to follow long term.

I take a whole foods approach to nutrition, with an IIFYM approach woven into each plan, however, no two clients’ nutrition plans end up the same. 

Now I have to say, when I first started offering nutrition coaching as part of my VIP one-on-one coaching, I was pretty anti-meal plans.

For the first couple years, I didn’t offer them. I’d held back from doing this for quite a while, because I didn’t want to simply give my client a meal plan to follow without coaching her how to eat for her goals long term.

There are plenty of meal plans out there where you simply eat whatever is listed out, that aren’t customized, but rather templated at 1,200 calories each day. This not only takes out the customization (which is a HUGE part) out of the equation, but also…what happens after those 4, 6, 8 weeks? Then what?

Oftentimes, these meal plans are unrealistic, difficult to follow, and don’t allow the client who actually learn how to make substantial nutrition habit changes for the long term.

Why I Started Writing Healthy Meal Plans for My Clients

However, I wanted a way to give my clients an example of what the guidelines and plan I provided look like in regards to a day’s worth of eats. This way can really help clients – especially in the beginning when the guidelines and parameters might seem a little overwhelming.

That said, I wanted to make sure that when I did offer sample meal plans, they did the following:

• Provide you a guide or example of what the plan looks like in menu-form; it’s not written in stone, but rather meal ideas
• Give you some ideas of meals and snacks and pre-/post-workout meals that fit the plan
• Give you plenty of substitutions for each macronutrient and educate you on how to mix and match those substitutions and build your own meals

Instead of giving my clients a 7-day plan, what I do is give them a sample day’s worth for each different day on the plan, and then provide updates samples every other week. This is helpful to not only provide new meal ideas and inspiration, but also provide a visual guide for how the plan looks on paper (or on MFP ;))

So, in sum, I’ve started offering sample meal plans as part of the packaging for my VIP one-on-one coaching, and the feedback has been really great.

Have you ever followed or used a meal plan? What was your experience?

If you’re interested in my VIP one-on-one online coaching, you can shoot me an email at info@trainerpaige.com or fill out the form HERE. My client roster is currently full, but I have a couple openings starting in mid-July.