Meal plans 🙄

Naturally, when people join The Furnace, a lot of them want a meal plan.

I get it.

It’s easy.

But I see it as pointless, in the long run.

You see, a meal plan is usually generic. This means that the amount of calories in this meal plan is usually not specific to you.

If you do have a nutritionist (personal trainers are not qualified to give out meal plans, FYI) or dietician that creates a meal plan that is based on your individual needs, it is more than likely going to cost you a lot of money for the time that would be needed to do that.

Even then, I still think this is a short term solution for removing some body fat.

Meal plans are great when you are feeling enthusiastic about your new “challenge” or “transformation” or whatever plan you’ve joined that gives you all these perfect meals to have you in a calorie deficit.

But what about when you are stuck at work and you can’t get your hands on cauliflower rice?

Do you feel like a failure when you get a sausage roll because it’s not on your plan?

You’ve probably messed up the plan for lunch, so what’s the point in having the perfect dinner from the meal plan?! (I’m being facetious, in case that didn’t come across in text)

What happens when you get to the end of the 6/8/12 week meal plan and you want to resume your normal life that might include plenty of eating on the go and drinks?

Meal plans do not teach you how to live your life in a way that is sustainable and in line with your goals.

We need to drill down to the lifestyle and behaviours of the individual that got them to a place of feeling like they need a meal plan.

This is why I don’t even like giving clients calories in their first week, just some rough guidelines on how to ‘eat like an adult’.

That way they are choosing their own foods straight away, which we then adapt over the weeks to make sure that their nutrition is in line with their goals.

It might take a little bit longer to see results (which is why I made it a 12 week program), but then you have gotten your results, without overhauling your nutrition - which means you can keep going on well beyond 12 weeks, and you don’t need our help.

It’s not great for business though. People selling meal plans will have clients returning to them again and again when they can’t keep up the results themselves.

But I genuinely believe that working in a moral way, with the clients' long term health and happiness has kept The Furnace going. We want you to sign up once and then not need our help anymore. 

But of course, then I need to send these sales emails, as I say goodbye to another group of ladies who are leaving me with the mental freedom and physical changes to go enjoy their life, without our help.

If you would like to feel like that in 12 weeks, you can join The Furnace now for 25% off the full price.

I’m looking forward to getting you started!

Thanks for reading,

Siobhan “Terrible business woman” O’Hagan