I do not provide meal plans or shopping lists to my clients. My goal is to TEACH you how to eat for your unique body, lifestyle, activity level and most importantly, your goals. Every single nutrition plan I create is 100% custom. There are no generic templates and you will never have the same numbers as another client. So in my goal of teaching you how to eat, I provide you with good examples of protein/carbs/fats to hit the goals I have programmed for you. It is an extensive list of options for when you run out of ideas or need inspiration, but I also want you to incorporate your favourite foods that are not listed so that you never feel deprived. If you’re new to measuring and logging food, this is a great opportunity to LEARN what portions should look like and LEARN the nutritional value of different foods. The reason why we log food is so that we can get as precise as possible in the first few months and it gives me tons of data to analyze to determine where we can make changes for the optimal outcome.
If you’re not a competitive athlete or competing in a specific weight class, the point is not to weigh and track your food forever. It is instead to use the first few months as a learning opportunity, and then send you into the world to plate food without having to weigh or track anything ever again.
My method ensures that you use the tools you’ve learned by working with me for the rest of your life. My goal is NOT to coach you forever. My nutrition plans are long term lifestyle plans, not short term crash diets. I’ve experimented with many methods and find that providing clients with meal plans only ensures short term success - after following the meal plan for X amount of days, they will never use it again and revert back to old habits. Through the on-going coaching programs, I also have the ability to analyze your food log and give you feedback on your food choices to better hit your prescribed goals. This may be a learning curve for you but it ensures that, after our coaching package is complete, you have all the tools needed to succeed.
Hiring a nutrition coach doesn't mean that the work is over and your problems are solved. You need to put in the work to LEARN, or else you are just engaging in another crash diet. Sustainable doesn’t mean zero effort, it is the knowledge in understanding what and how much food you need, what types of food you need and the breakdown of the nutritional value of those foods and how it affects you (digestion, inflammation, sleep, weight fluctuations), how your sleep, stress management, exercise, all work together to keep you at your ideal body composition. And when goals change, you are now equipped with the arsenal of tools that you learned throughout the coaching process to pivot your strategy and achieve your goals!
So often we overvalue unimportant things and undervalue the systems and strategies that actually make a difference. We put more value on immediate results instead of long-term improvement. We overlook learning, growth, and improvement so that we can get results faster. Instead if you can focus on the process, the outcomes tend to follow shortly after.