Why Meal Plans Don't Work!

Why Meal Plans Don't Work!
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It’s a cold, cloudy day here on Long Island, and with the first snow of the season on the horizon in these parts, it’s looking more and more like a lazy weekend that may or may not involve cleaning. If you hadn’t heard, my girlfriend and I locked down a new, much more affordable place that we’ll be moving into come early February. It’s right on the water, has hardwood floors (having a tiny dog in a fully-carpeted apartment is nearly impossible to maintain!), and it doesn’t have neighbors on either side of us and down below, which puts time limits on vacuuming and other fun things like that. Very excited to get in there!

Now then, a couple of nights ago, I had a Strategy Session with a prospective client, and she had shown interest in my Personalized Nutrition Program. To learn more about that particular program, as well as my others, please go to www.weightlossbypete.com/services. Anyway, at the beginning of the call, she asked how that particular program worked, and whether I provided a specific meal plan after prepping her initial Dietary Analysis Report. I told her that while I’ll give her specific recommendations based on her current eating habits, that I do NOT do meal plans.

Why? Because meal plans do NOT work!

If you go on sites like bodybuilding.com, or if you just perform a simple Google Search, you can easily find a comprehensive meal plan from various ‘free’ weight loss programs. These meal plans tend to show an example of what a typical week’s meals and snacks look like. Heck, they may even provide a half dozen or so substitutions for each meal and snack. That being said, all in all, these meal plans LIMIT your food options by an insane amount! After a few weeks, you’ll have tried all the possible food combinations, you’ll have gotten bored, you’ll have given into your cravings, and before you know it, you’ll be back at square one!!

Don’t even get me started on why these meals plans are free in the first place — Hint: It’s to get you just enough result to purchase one of their more expensive, underwhelming programs…

If you really want to make a PERMANENT change, eating whatever a plan tells you to without having to think about your food choices isn’t the ticket. Making changes takes a great deal of critical thinking and personal commitment — Something a generic, preset meal plan does NOT provide! While I give my clients and my group members nutritional guidelines, it’s ultimately up to them what they do with that information, and how they design their eating patterns going forward.

To sum up my nutritional guidelines in two sentences: “Eat meats, non-starchy vegetables, raw nuts and seeds, low-glycemic fruits, little starch and no (added) sugar. Eat ONLY when hungry, and just to satisfy — NOT to stuff your face.”

It’s that simple, folks! If you want more information and examples of each of the foods outlined above, check out both my Food Guide and Healthy Recipe Book at www.weightlossbypete.com/foodguiderecipes.

Now do me a favor? Have a damn good weekend, will ya?!

Sincerely,Pete Weintraubpete@weightlossbypete.com

P.S. The Holidays are a tough time of year to stay on track with your health and weight loss goals. Sometimes, you need a clear plan to get you on-track towards reaching your goals when temptation for bad foods and sloth-like behavior is running amuck…

Fortunately, with my business becoming more and more virtually-based, I have a little more time during the week to have Strategy Calls than I used to! There’s no cost and no pitch on these calls — Just a helpful discussion where we’ll review your specific goals and issues regarding improving your health and losing your weight, and some immediate strategies you can implement to keep things moving in the right direction.

To set your’s up, please go to www.weightlossbypete.com/strategy. I look forward to speaking with you soon :-)

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