Step-by-Step
1. before you access The Personalized Meal Planner...
First, please read through all these steps prior to starting the meal planner. They will make more sense after you've started to work with the application. But it is important to read these first, nonetheless.
- For healthcare professionals, please see "Regarding Nutrition Target Calculations" below for helpful information.
2. After you have logged into the 'chat' program, Press "Click here to build your 28-day Meal Plan"
Next, answer the questions that come up.
- Here are some things to think about as you answer:
1. Regarding alcohol: I know many people are in the habit of drinking alcohol but it adds a lot of calories to your diet and makes weight loss difficult. If you wish to drink alcohol, I strongly recommend you don't drink more than 3 standard sized drinks per week (a standard drink is 5 oz of wine, 325 mL of 5% beer or 1.5 oz of 40% liquour).
2. Regarding activity level: Be honest. If you are sedentary, say so. The program is going to apply an activity factor to your calories - if you say you are more active than you are, the program will recommend more calories than you need, making weight loss more difficult.
3. Regarding meals per day: Are you doing intermittent fasting? Just say so - tell the program you only want to eat between the hours of X and Y. Or, want 3 meals per day? Just say so.
4. Regarding chronic kidney disease: If you are not sure if you have this, ask your doctor. If yes is indicated, a lower protein target will be factored in to your meal plan.
5. Regarding percentage of protein from plant sources: Plant based proteins are encouraged. If you are not used to plant-based proteins, start low at 10 to 25% or so. Try to work up over the weeks as you try new foods and flavours. Aim for at least 50% in the long run.
6. Regarding net carb limit: Aiming for less than 120 g of net carb per day helps the body recover from the diseases of insulin resistance like obesity and diabetes.
- 40 g of net carb per day is a good target for plant-protein based keto.
- 20 g of net carb per day is a good target for more animal-protein based keto.
7. Regarding calorie deficit: A calorie deficit of 500 calories per day is a typical recommendation for weight loss. Lower or higher targets within a range of 250 to 1000 calories per day may be reasonable based on your goals and other health conditions.
8. Regarding number of people eating per meal: Healthy weight is a family effort. Therefore, the program will allow you to scale the recipes to the number of eaters at the table. It is likely not everyone has the same nutritional needs. But it is also likely that all will benefit from your healthy eating efforts! Others at the table may eat slightly more or less but overall, I suspect everyone will get what they need from these nutritious meals.
9. A few words about sodium: As the program builds your meal plans, if you've selected a net carb load of less than 120 g per day, you'll notice that 5000 mg of sodium is recommended per day (instead of the usual 2300 mg per day). This is because as your body recovers from high insulin levels, your body needs more sodium. Without this, you will feel weak, light-headed and have muscle aches. Even those who struggle with fluid retention do well with higher sodium when they reduce carbohydrates. But if you find you are retaining fluid, reduce the amount of sodium in your meals - perhaps by 25%, to see if that helps.
10. Doctor's recommendations for inputs: I think the following answers to the meal planner intake questions create the best meal plan for optimal weight loss and blood sugar control:
a. Eat 2 to 3 meals per day
b. Ask for greater than 50% of protein to come from plant sources
c. Set net carb to 40 g/day for recovery from obesity and diabetes; otherwise, set net carb to 120 g/day.
d. No more than 2-3 alcoholic drinks/week
e. Set calorie deficit to 500/day to promote gradual weight loss
3. your nutrition targets
Next, the program is going to present your nutrition targets.
- Look them over and review them with your doctor, nurse practitioner or dietician.
- The program does make mistakes from time-to-time.
- If the targets do not look correct, ask the program to double-check its assumptions and/or calculations.
4. Generate your first day of meals
The program works best if only 1 day of meals are generated at a time.
- Ask the program to make "Day 1"
- It will present the meals and a detailed analysis of the nutritional targets
- Here are some important daily adult nutrition targets to watch for:
- Your individualized protein target, as above, is being met
- Your individualized sodium target is being met (~5000 mg/day if net carb intake <=120 g/day; ~2300 mg/day if net carb intake is > 120 mg/day)
- Magnesium: 350-450 mg/day
- Zinc: 10 mg/day
- If you see targets are missed, ask the program to adjust the meal plan to correct the problem.
5. Geneate Additional days, 1 or 2 at a time.
Once the program gets going, additional days are often more on target.
- But it is still important to look them over and be sure targets are being met
6. Want to see what the meals look like?
The program can efficiently generate 1 picture at a time. Each picture takes a few minutes, so pick and chose. But make as many pictures as you want! Pictures make cooking the recipes more fun because you can see what you are making.
- Tell the program to "Create a high fidelity picture of a single serving of ... meal"
7. Have you Made 7 days of meals? Time to make your shopping list for the week.
Ask the program to generate a shopping list for you.
8. And so on...
Now, you can continue the above pattern for weeks to come.
- If you leave the session, you may have to start again, entering all your personal information.
- But that is well worth the high quality healthy meal planning you get for the effort!
9. Finally, print your meal plan
It time to print your Personalized Meal Plan:
1. You can simply copy all your generated content and paste it into a word file.
- You can reformat it a bit if you'd like. Then print, shop, cook and enjoy!
2. If you want a more tidy final copy, paste the following:
- "I wish to export to Microsoft Word: all calculations, final full day meal preparation instructions, gap analysis, adjustments for compliance and supplementation instructions, by day, for the last 7 days, and full grocery list. Pls provide instruction on how to batch this so that all can be exported, while respecting token limits."
- The nice thing about the second option is it cleans up your menu. If you've gone back and foward with the program a few times to get the menu right, this will just export the final decisions for you.
- What is a token limit? This program will only generate about 3000 words at a time. So you have to export in batches as these 1 week meal plans seem to run about 9000 words.
10. Its time to start the personalized meal planner!
Transforming Lives Through Health
Bone Broth
Bone broth is rich in essential electrolytes like sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium, which support hydration, nerve function, and muscle contraction. Its natural collagen and amino acids also aid gut health and recovery.
Ingredient and Preparation
Ingredients:
- 2.5–3 lbs (1.1–1.4 kg) beef or chicken bones (include joints, marrow bones, or neck/spine cuts)
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (helps extract minerals)
- 1 large onion, quartered
- 2 large carrots, chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 1 teaspoons salt per litre of water → 4 teaspoons total
- 4 litres cold water
Optional: 2 garlic cloves, 1 bay leaf, 5–6 peppercorns, fresh thyme or parsley stems
Instructions:
- Optional roasting (for richer flavour): Roast bones at 400°F for 30 minutes.
- Place bones and vegetables in a large stockpot or slow cooker.
- Add 4 litres cold water, vinegar, and salt. Let sit 30 minutes before heating.
- Bring to a boil, skim off foam, then reduce to low simmer.
- Simmer 12–24 hours uncovered (or partially covered). Add water if it reduces below 3.5 L.
- Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Cool and store in jars.