Diet plans...To be or not to be?

I get asked so many times for a diet plan. And truthfully, I really hate them. I gave one out to a client when I first started, needless to say she didn't stick to it. I've lost so many potential clients over saying no but I don't care. Trust me when I say you really don't need one.

If I did, here's how it would go... Say I give you a 6 week diet plan and by some miracle you stick to it religiously, you lose weight, feel good that's great. But the 6 weeks is up now so what will you do, are you going to repeat it? Eating the same foods every 6 weeks losing more and more weight? No of course you're not. And will you have learnt anything about why I've given you those specific foods to eat in the first place? Nope.

Then there's the other person who sees chicken on the menu for dinner tonight, again. The last thing she wants to eat tonight, is chicken. So she either does as she's told eats the chicken feeling very sorry for herself or chooses something else, still a healthy enough dinner but she now feels like she's failed. Because she believes that this diet plan is a special formula, everything has to be done perfectly or the results won't come. More than likely she then tucks in to the chocolate in the kids treat cupboard, cos well why not? You've failed right?

Another problem I see is if you have a family and you're dieting, people will often cook multiple meals. This is time consuming, expensive and adds to the total hatred for dieting and healthy eating that we had in the first place.

Diet plans are one of the main causes of yo-yo dieting. It's the belief that one size fits all, one formula done perfectly and bam you've mastered weight loss. The person writing it for you has written one, possibly two - I promise you - and gives it out to everyone who asks for one. It isn't tailored to you. They don't know what foods you like, what foods your kids will like, whether you have a really busy weekend with the family so don't have 3 hours to batch cook.

Leading a healthy lifestyle looks like trial and error, educating yourself on what foods are the right ones, what clever swaps you can make and what works for you and your family. It doesn't have to be complicated. 

Include 20g of protein in every meal, add a portion of fruit and/or veg to every meal, drink more water and move your body a bit more. Job done.