When I announced that I would be publishing a meal planner this month I got great responses. But when asking in more detail how the perfect meal planner would look like to you – so that I could take your feedback into consideration while creating it – you totally surprised me: A lot of you wanted me to create a pre-written meal plan for them. This is not what I had in mind and even with my new found knowledge, it is not what I will create. Keep reading and find out why buying a pre-filled meal plan is a bad idea and why only YOU can create the perfect meal plan!

Only you can create the perfect meal plan

Over the years I have tried out multiple meal plans to improve my health and eating habits. Most of the time they work wonderfully for the first week or two. But then one or more of the followings things happen and I fell back into my old eating habits.

#1 Meal Plan Ingredients to expensive

I don’t know if you have tried a meal plan before but the healthier (=the more versatile the foods are) – which is what we want, isn’t it? – the more you need to purchase. It easily gets expensive since most of the time you only need a small amount of something you can only buy in a certain (higher) amount. This seldom gets taken into consideration and you have tons of leftovers you can’t use up if you follow your meal plan. Instead, you buy more and more and throw lots of food away.

#2 Meal Plan Dishes do not taste good

If you try to stick to a specific meal plan chances are high that you do not like all recipes. But since most meal plans don’t explain to you how you could substitute this recipe for one of your own you are stuck. You can either feel bad for not sticking to the plan or eat something you don’t enjoy.

#3 Meal Plan Recipes can be very time-consuming

Especially when the generic meal plan you use does not only cover your dinner but also breakfast, lunch and snacks it is hard to make it fit your schedule all the time. While spending an extra couple hours on the weekend cooking is fine. It is nearly impossible for busy moms or employees to do so every day of the week.

#4 No space for leftovers

As we already talked about you most certainly have leftover ingredients. But if you try to cook the smart way and cook bigger amounts of the recommended dishes to use them all up you end up with cooked leftovers. So the problem only shifts.

#5 Allergies, intolerances and health issues

While more and more meal plans like to consider vegetarians and vegans in their diet plans, they simply can’t cover all allergies, intolerances and health issues. So without customization, they are not usable. Being highly lactose intolerant myself I often only can choose to eat ‘vegan’ – and I do love me some meat and fish so ? – when trying to stick to a meal plan or I need to adjust the recommended dishes myself.

Without customization most meal plans are unusable. Start #mealplanning the smart way! Click To Tweet

You can create the perfect meal plan

I’m sure there are a few of you who are like: Are you really that uncreative? I can fix these issues easily! And yes, with a good knowledge of what’s healthy and what can be substituted how you most certainly can. But having said that I think you can just as easily create your very own meal plan which is just PERFECT for YOU. Why waste time making someone else’s system work when you can use all the dishes you love and enjoy and arrange them in a way that’s healthy and makes you fall in love with cooking.

When you take the time to create the basis for your own meal plan ONCE you can:

• use the recipes you love

• make dishes that fit your timetable

• move dishes around in your meal plan without losing the health benefits

• adjust new recipes to your specific needs taking allergies, intolerances and other health issues into consideration from the start

• save money by making sure you use all the ingredients you bought this week

• search the web for new recipes that feed your specific needs and implement them into your meal plan

• choose dishes that fit your budget

• create your own recipe database and be ready for every event and time constraint

And the most amazing thing is after having done the groundwork once you can easily plan your dishes for the next week or month. Shop all the groceries needed for it in one go. And cook the way you like! ♡

Learn how to create your own meal plan

If this sounds as wonderful to you as it does to me, sign up below so you get notified as soon as I have written and published my meal planner + guide. All my bundles come with detailed instructions on how to get the most use out of my templates. So you not only get the printables needed to create your own system. You also get guidance on how to create your own meal plan with it!

You’ll get access to FREE printables & weekly e-mails where I provide step-by-step guides to improve your planning habits as well as occasional offers. You can unsubscribe at any time. By clicking ‘I want to join!’, you agree to our Privacy Policy.

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If you loved what you have seen so far, feel free to pin the image below to one of your Pinterest boards so you can revisit this blog post later on. ♡

A little disclaimer. I’m talking mainly about generic meal plans here. If you have a personal coach you work together with closely it should be possible for him/her to create a wonderful meal plan for you. Since you always can talk to your coach about what works and doesn’t work for you making adjustments along the road. What I’m talking about here are generic meal plans that get sold to the masses and don’t take your personal needs into consideration.