Meal Prep VS. Meal Plan: There's a Difference

On this blog, we get right to it. I want to help you to know the difference between these two very similar sounding things.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? One saves you money and one is full of many many hungry money sharks trying to get their hands on your cash!

Meal planning is something everyone can and should do. It simply involves the necessary and helpful process of deciding what to eat beforehand and going out to get the ingredients to make those things. It can also involve putting together a list of restaurants or safe foods to eat for the week and rolling with those. Meal planning is not what I am criticizing here.

MEAL PREP VS. MEAL PLAN

THE PROBLEM WITH MEAL PLANS

Now about the meal plan sharks. Due to the growing popularity of online fitness coaches, cooks, gurus, guides, and genies….it seems as if everyone feels they should make a meal plan of what they eat to lose/maintain/build and then sell it to you.

The problem with this?

1. You don’t know my life!

   I have seen it too many times! The expert hands you something based off of a 7-10 questionnaire that seeks to find out your habits. If your life is anything like mine, your habits may be ever changing. I don’t take the same way to work everyday…my schedule varies…sometimes I have people to cook for me and sometimes no…maybe I like trying new restaurants…maybe this week I work out and next week I don’t.

   You get the idea. So often the meal plan includes making a snack of yogurt and berries and 3 almonds at 3:30pm…but my job doesn’t have a fridge and I am not a fan of hot yogurt in NYC summer. what do?

2. What happens when the “30 day fix” is over? What have I learned?

   The meal plans from sites or people are fit to THEIR tastes, not yours. Sure you can deselect asparagus…but do you really want peas erryday instead?

   Also, meal plans include a number of days 7 or 21 or 30…but when the days end, did you learn to feed yourself, or did you learn how to follow a guide? It’s the difference between learning how to PREVENT an infection from happening ever VERSUS taking antibiotics every other month because you don’t REALLY know how to stay well.

3. Redundancy

   The person planning your meals is often going to have super similar ingredients week to week OR super random stuff. I often find the former more often so that is what I will speak on. The repetitiveness in these plans is ridiculous. NO I DON’T HAVE THE TIME OR DESIRE to make an acai bowl every morning at 7am. Also…don’t tell me what time to eat.

   Repetitiveness in meals is helpful for regulating systems in your body, and easier at times on fridge space or grocery budget. However, if you don’t intend to eat the same thing weekly for the rest of your life…can we honestly call something like this sustainable? I would argue no, and provide a solution for otherwise

Look at this lil boy. So sad. What do?

THE ADVANTAGES OF MEAL PREP

It’s not like you didn’t know already my opinion…but here is why meal prep truly does have an extra edge over meal plans (corporate).

1. Meals chosen by YOU

   You decide what you are eating week to week. Or you choose from a group of choices on a WEEKLY basis what to eat. None of this… “well if you don’t follow the 21 day steps exactly then I cannot guarantee your 30 pound a month weight loss on 1200 daily kcals” stuff. You drive the car to where you want to go!

2. Ongoing education about what is going into your body

   Since you are choosing, you learn about your body weekly. You can and should and will learn to read nutrition labels, understand ingredient lists and truly know how your body responds to foods along the spectrum of whole to super processed. Reading labels isn’t hard and seeing what color or consistency your poop is based off of what you eat isn’t either. The knowledge is in your hands.

3. Options galore

1. You run your life, don’t let it run you. Whether you are eating on the go, eating out, going to a party, or having a quiet night at home, you have options. Meal prepping can be just lunch, just dinner, just breakfast, just snacks…you get the idea. Perhaps you don’t want to plan your whole day and have that guilty wasteful feeling when it’s sushi day at work. This way you don’t have to! Meal prep is your way to freedom.

Cereal meal prepping!