Meal Planning/Prep; Weight Loss Services, Dietitian, Alberta

Meal Planning and Preparations

(Updated Jan. 10, 2025)

Examples of how I can help you:

Ask you questions about your food intake and/or look at your daily food intake record(s). Next, I could:
- List possible ways to improve your intake.
- Or make a copy of your record(s) and modify them.
Determine your calorie/nutrient needs or explain ways to measure some them.
Recommend a certain calorie deficit, rate of weight loss, and goal weight range.
Discuss:
- Ways to get, prepare, bake/cook, store, and serve food.
- Ways to adjust the amount, type, or other aspects of foods and drinks you consume.
- How to measure/estimate food portions, enhance flavor (e.g. with herbs/spices), reduce food waste, set up reminders (e.g. an inventory tracker), or cook multiple recipes at once.
- How to compare prices or food labels when choosing products.
  - E.g. Compare total price and size, $/lb, $/kg, or $/100g to determine the lowest unit price.
- How to meet the needs/wants of other people, such as your family.
Discuss:
- Plate portion or serving size guide(s).
- Various situations, like when at home or eating out (e.g. at restaurants or when travelling).
- Kitchen items, like an air fryer or a Crock/Instant Pot.
- Batch-cooking, such as to cook one to four time(s) per week or month.
- Pickup or delivery services for groceries, meal kits, or meals.
- Food safety.
List meal and snack ideas.
Help to plan:
- When to do meal planning; buy, prepare, cook, and eat food; or do other activities (e.g. exercise).
- How to use food you already have or food on sale.
Share:
- Basic menu template(s). You can write food/recipe names and other notes into them.
- Short meal plan(s) that I previously made/found (if appropriate).

Find:
- Healthier, free or lower-cost, or more convenient versions of foods that you like.
- Recipes and organize them into a list, spreadsheet, or app (e.g. put recipes in my Paprika account and transfer them to your account).
- More apps or meal plans.
Explain how to use certain apps, such as:
- Cronometer nutrition tracking app. The free version allows you to check if you're approximately meeting your needs or targets for calories and up to 84 nutrients/compounds.
- Mealime. It automatically creates basic meal plans and grocery lists.
- Paprika Recipe Manager 3. You can add recipes into it and then add them into meal plans. The app automatically creates grocery lists.
- Monash University FODMAP Diet app.
Determine/calculate information about a food portion (e.g. nutrient amounts), like by using values from databases or Cronometer.
Modify:
- Recipes, like by adjusting amounts/types of ingredients, converting units (e.g. grams to metric or US cups), or making the steps easier to follow.
- Meal plan(s) that I previously made/found.
Find/create a grocery list.
Create:
- A Nutrition Facts label (e.g. make an unofficial label in Cronometer and share it as a PDF/document).
- A budget that includes food costs.
Guide you while you try preparing food.
Audit or approve something, like the quality of a menu.

Note:

Cronometer is typically better than Practice Better app journals.
I do not have software that quickly makes meal plans (e.g. with recipes) that try to meet many of your needs and wants.
I can include full recipes (e.g. in a list) if you or I created them or the owner allows us to use them. I can include other recipes (name, link, ingredients, yield, and times), except their photos, instructions, and notes; it’s okay if I include other allowed photos and our re-worded instructions and notes.