Why recipes, meal plans and ideas from others DON'T help

I don't believe that anyone gets long term changes to their health and happiness from recipes, meal plans and helpful ideas from others.

These are the equivalent of a "Hello Kitty" plaster on a flesh wound.

They are short-term satisfaction that makes people FEEL like they are making progress but does little to make any actual, real lasting change.

You can read a parenting book and feel empowered but if you don't do anything, nothing actually changes.

The issue here is the "from others" part of the sentence. Solutions to problems, recipes and meal plans are great if it's you who has actually done the leg work into acquiring them or if you are willing to do so.

If you do the work required, you are learning skills and through repetition turning them into habits. Finding food that you actually like is a skill. Deciding what to eat, when and actually buying it is a skill. Granted these skills are simple. But they are very hard to turn into habits.

People fail to prioritise these. They don't adjust their routine. And so it's tempting to outsource this. Because it's easier, but therein lies the issue.

Fat loss is difficult and the skills and habits are hard to master. You can't outsource these things for long-term success unless you get a personal chef.

You have to take responsibility. You have to take ownership. And YOU have to do the work and engage in all the component parts of the process.

You want better habits, but habits aren't built by outsourcing and deferring responsibility to others.

If not, when the recipes, meal plans and ideas stop coming. Or if you don't like the ones you are given. Then you don't have the skills and habits you need to get yourself back on track. You have been too reliant on others, taking the easy route and it's the undoing of a lot of people's success.

As the old saying goes:

The kicker here is you have to really want the end result and be willing to do the work. If either of these is off then you will fall short.

So, why then, if it's SO important, do we offer these as resources to people?

2 reasons:

1 - For those willing to do the work it can act as fuel to the fire. Re-affirming ideas or lessons they have encountered, giving them easier access to ideas and acting as a general push in the right direction.

2 - It's what people want. If people want and find these things useful then we will provide them. We want to meet people where they are at. Giving people both what they want AND what they need.

That's why I've written this blog, because the mindset shift encapsulated within is what most people need. It's hard to get people to listen if you don't give them what they want. And the recipes and meal ideas are the jam that helps the medicine go down.

If you want to get to the place of being ready to change then looking at your goals and creating your own motivation is key (again NOT outsourcing but creating yourself). To help with this we created our Motivation Manual App, you can apply for a free copy here.