Planning a meal is an underrated form of health program. You are a fitness entrepreneur who wants your clients to achieve their health goals successfully and sell them the excellent benefits of a meal plan. It helps them to push through with fitness objectiveness during festivities and whenever they run into emergencies.
Tracking their progress is practical, but it helps if you can design an online meal plan. It saves both of you time and cushions the client from external distractions. You realize our environment is bursting with naysayers whose opinions can easily interfere with your plans. And you want to use a robust tool to bridge that gap and help your client to stay on course.
Remember that hopeless clients could be your greatest setback. And you can fix the shortcoming by giving your clients actionable ideas. They can execute your advice on their own and achieve their goals in your absence. Please don’t give them a food list; leverage WPS office templates to create a great meal plan that converts.
How to Design A Comprehensive Meal Plan That Empowers Clients to Execute It on Their Own
A good meal plan teaches clients how to take food in the right proportions and supports the proper functioning of their bodies. It requires in-depth research and critical thinking to equip the client with practical, fun-to-follow steps.
1. Take Stock of The Client’s Preferences
The first step to a successful meal plan is to assess your client’s needs. As such, your survey should provide parameters to follow when planning meals for a diverse group of clients. To cater to their needs adequately, use the age, occupation, and lifestyle metrics to curate a relevant meal plan.
Your clients’ histories and other lifestyle behavior could render your plan useless. Take time to understand their preferences. What food category excites them, and which food spells trouble to them? Some clients have strong allergies, and you’ll also want to learn about them.
Assess the client’s cultural or religious background to understand their traditional preference. It could be taboo to use certain classes of food. Or their cooking styles work against the nutritional value of food.
Some clients need help distinguishing between quality and quantity. Strive to understand their line of thought. It is a critical concept that plays a huge role in fitness progress.
Don’t forget to dig into the client’s budget. It helps you to work on a simple meal plan that aligns with the client’s source of income.
2. Design A Plan That Is Executable within A Respectable Period
Meal plans embrace varying time frames. Often, you’ll see regular periods such as daily, weekly, and monthly. The idea behind a time frame is to create consistency. A client should condition the body to respond to hunger cues and push through with the plan without trouble.
A daily plan can be overwhelming to follow. Most professionals recommend a seven-day plan. The argument is that it is practical, and the instructor can easily track the client’s progress.
But you can work with different time frames to establish one that serves your client better. Once you’re set, begin to add relevant meals for each day. It should capture a day’s meals starting with breakfast and progressing to dinner.
Now the fun part begins. Create a planner template to mirror the days of the week or month. To make life easier, use the easy-to-download template formats. WPS office has plenty of designs for your reference. You will remove the irrelevant stuff and replace them with exciting meals.
Have your client’s history handy when handling this section. Give the client a meal that resonates with their lifestyle. Don’t go overboard with the ingredients. Please give them a recipe with elements within their reach and take a short time to prepare. It is even glamorous if they can pack and bring them to work.
Your biggest selling point should be simplicity. Make the client’s life easier by giving them a programmable plan. Complicated nutrition hurts their energy and leaves them frustrated. And it becomes difficult for them to hit the goals behind each plan.
Make the experience fun and memorable by attaching micro goals. Don’t bombard them with a month's list of nutrition to achieve. Smaller milestones are easier to achieve, and the client finds it exciting.
3. Incorporate A Preparation Guide
Now you want the client to hit the running way. Help them with the initial steps, and they will always satisfy you. Design a shopping list to save them time and money. And remember to organize the list to allow them to buy the right quantities of each food category. You can format the shopping guide hierarchically starting with items you want them to consume in abundance.
Once the ingredients are ready, show them how to proceed with the preparation. A client with a busy day can prepare packed food in the morning. The preparation guide tells them to cook meals for the entire day. And when dinner time unfolds, show them what to cook and remind them to preserve the leftovers.
4. Create A Follow-Up Plan
Just like any other undertaking, a meal plan encounters roadblocks. For this reason, use the
notes box or something similar to develop an efficient follow-up strategy. The idea is to watch how the client’s body responds to a plan after a considerable time.
Over time, you’ll notice subtle changes in their eating behavior. Clients will report how they feel about a combination of foods, and you’ll be able to capture their likes and dislikes. Don’t hesitate to offer an alternative meal plan with poor progress.
Top Five Elements to Consider and Enrich Your Meal Plan
A simple meal plan caters to the nutritional needs of all family members. But factors such as age-related preferences and health concerns influence preparing a robust meal plan. Therefore, when preparing a meal plan for clients’ don’t ignore the following aspects;
1. A Meal’s Nutritional Requirements or Adequacy
Healthy meals package all the nutrients in the right proportions. It should contain proteins, fiber, carbohydrates, water, and vitamins. Gender, age, and a person’s occupation determine how much of these foods make up a balanced meal. For instance, older adults require more carbohydrate intake than young people. It helps them to boost their mental health.
Conversely, athletes and weight loss prospects require fewer carbohydrates. Preparing a universal meal plan in such a scenario becomes more challenging. It is also expensive to finance a 3-course meal with two to three snacks per day for all the members of the entire family.
It makes sense to study alternative foods in order to design a simple meal plan that supports the nutritional needs of one older person. After that, use the single person’s means to prepare meals for the other household members.
2. Nutrient Balance
The body functions well provided it gets a supply of nutrients from all the key sources, including nuts, carbohydrates, vitamins, vegetables, and proteins. Often, people miss out on this rule by stocking a favorite food in bulk.
Although the nutritionists’ prep guide helps to balance such skewness, you’ve more influence to reverse this practice. After all, you eat and are the only quilt of the offense.
Eating fruits in season is the other best way to have balanced nutrients on your plate.
Foods in season are cheap, fresh, and rich in nutrients.
3. Including A Variety of Foods
Budget constraints limit the number of food varieties on your table. On the contrary, it is much easier to incorporate various foods than you think. You can
Shop season foods in bulk. It perfectly achieves the proverbial phrase “killing two birds with a single stone.” This strategy allows you to buy in bulk and cheaply.
Once you have the supplies, don’t be frugal. The body needs a variety of nutrients for it to function at full capacity. Do snacks and eat anything you’ll lay your hands on. It will do you a world of good. Various foods kill harmful parasites and free your gut from worms.
4. Normalize The Eating in Moderation Mantra
Too much of a single nutrient is poisonous. Learn the concept that everything in moderation is healthy. And there is nothing wrong with the occasional splurge on candies. Strive to achieve your nutritional daily diet requirement, and sweeteners will be sweets. They won’t take the place of healthy nutrients.
5. Eat for Nourishment
Most people eat when they are hungry. While it effectively satisfies hunger needs, you run the risk of increasing nutrient intake. Instead, plan to eat smaller portions more frequently. It’s gentle on your digestive system and effective at achieving daily diet requirements.
Other key points to support the nutritional balance of your meal plan
When planning a meal for a group of people with different nutrient requirements, avoid giving suggestions for different meals. Use the diet of a single person to inspire the other person’s meals. It is cumbersome to prepare different meals, plus it makes everyone equal.
Make modifications based on the following parameters:
The Consistency of The Diet
Serve semi-liquid and solid food if you have a diarrhea patient. Your meal plan should feature food like milk, fruits, juices, and normal food. Keep modifying the diet as the patient’s condition keeps improving.
Make Your Meal Plan Modification on The Nutrient-Content Basis
An increase or decrease in a nutrient ratio is based on the sick person’s nutritional requirement. If you have a diabetic patient, it is wise to continue with a sugar-free or very little sugar until the patient gets a node from the doctor. You can increase the intake of fluids.
Make Modifications Based on The Frequency of Feeding
A sick body can’t handle the frequent 3-4 servings of meals per day. Introduce them to a more tolerable feeding regime, like 2-3 meals daily. Small amounts of food prevent vomits and aid faster recovery.
Making meal adjustments can be tricky. A busy day can stand in the way, preventing you from executing effective planning, and you’ll need a companion to follow your plan. An online digital meal plan is a great tool. It helps you make elaborate plans spanning from a week to a month.
You can check the list of the best meal planners to adopt below.
Template Examples of The Best Meal Plan Samples to Incorporate into Your Daily Routine
1. Weekly Meal Planner Sample Template
We are choosing this template because it allows you to plan meals for the entire week. It is available in a downloadable and editable form, giving enough room to customize it. It is your go-to template if you want to change your eating habits to mirror a healthy diet plan.
It has plenty of space to make your modifications. On the left side, you’ll find a section that lets you track your progress by listing your achievements. All you’ve to do is download and modify it to help you track the calories you consume weekly.
2. Weekly Diet Sample Template
Do weekly meal plans favor you? It is the template for you. It comes in the ideal size, so you can print it and keep it within reach. Even if you feel comfortable sticking it at an easy-to-access point, it serves that purpose too. The sleek design can create an illusion of decor.
A Detailed Meal Plan Helps You to Win and Maintain A Stream of Repeat Clients
Changing one's eating habits isn’t a simple feat. You can create a list of to-eat food items and relax assuming your clients can figure out a practical why. It is a vague plan that frustrates the client. On the contrary, a meal planner does a wonderful job of changing the client’s perception of voluntary diet change. It packs actionable steps that allow a person to implement the instructions without supervision. Furthermore, it features achievable timeframes to motivate a person to conquer micro milestones in a fun way.
The best part is that digital meal planners are available online. For example, you’ll find several templates to download and restructure at WPS academy. You don’t need advanced skills to operate them. WPS academy has tutorials to guide you through every template.
And if you love to create a portfolio of meal plans, the WPS office will help you. Visit their site to download their application and kiss goodbye to the struggle. You’ll get access to other versatile resources such as Microsoft Word, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations.
