Often when people come to visit me, they are asking for or expecting a 7 or 14 day “meal plan”.
“Oh don’t tell me what to do. I just need a meal plan” is what I hear, quite often.
This is a sentence Dietitians dread.
In fact, Dietitians are very unlikely to give you these kinds of meal plans for 3 main reasons:
1.They are restrictive – really who wants to eat from a set plan? What if you just don’t feel like what’s on the plan one night? We are all human with very different lives and family set-ups. Things get in the way. Life gets in the way. Following a set meal plan can be really inflexible. What we are about is trying to fit solutions with your life, not about “telling you what to eat”.
2.They are short term fixes – these plans don’t teach you to incorporate healthy eating principles and to make changes to your every day diet. For people to make long term changes, they have to have knowledge , drive and changes in behaviour. In fact, small changes over time are the best. Just following a plan for 7-14 days just won’t do it. Dietitians try to teach you ways to make changes for the long term.
3.They can be impractical for your life – “off the rack” meal plans may have foods you don’t like, involve recipes that are unrealistic or expensive and can include the need for a big old shopping trip. They don’t take into account that you are an individual with complex needs.
What your Dietitian will prefer to do is to chat to you about nutrition, teaching you about how you can make your own diet better whilst giving you practical tips to try to incorporate healthy changes into your diet and lifestyle. It has to fit you, like a glove. Short term meal plans is ripping you off. So next time your Dietitian says they don’t do set meal plans, don’t be cross -they are looking out for you xx
Image from Pixabay.
