Meal Plan Comparison: Real Plans vs. That Clean Life

A woman in a Facebook group I belong to posted a question about how while ​she feels much better when she eliminates gluten from her diet, she has trouble sticking with it past six weeks.

Initially, she said it's because she craves the density of foods like breads, and get really hungry, but ​with more investigations, it seems like she's just getting bored with what she perceives as a limited selection of foods that she can eat.

This really make me think of how when you change the way you eat, or eliminate certain foods from your diet, you really do feel like there's nothing to eat.

Read on.  It doesn't have to be that way!

We spent extra time together trying to figure it all out. I don't regret that!

When I first made big sweeping changes in my son's diet five years ago, I was really stumped about what he (we) could eat.  It's hard enough to cook for yourself, or your family night after night, but when you put limitations on it, it can seem ten times as hard.

​If you haven't heard my story about how changing my son's diet following his hospitalization due to a bone infection and subsequent sudden behavior shift (for the worse), you can view a video about it here.  It was a rough period, involving a change of schools, and six months of trying everything from Play Therapy to Bach Flower remedies and everything in between!

The changes in his diet that I finally made, shifted his behavior quickly.  And, we ate pretty well to begin with.

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I don't even remember how I found out about online meal plans back then, but they were a lifesaver!  At the time, I subscribed to two of them because they were each different styles of cooking and between the two of them I was sure to find plenty of inspiration.  

They both came as an email sent once a week with a week worth of dinners and an accompanying shopping list.  It was exciting to get the email on Thursdays with the meal plan for the following week.  I have to admit that, even though I have background as a chef, my creativity by the end of the day can be lacking!

I continued subscribing to both until over time, one of them was merged into the other and the one I've stayed with has become completely customizable and user-friendly.  I took a break from the plan while our family was traveling for ten months and started back up again as soon as we got back!

As my health coaching practice grew, I would often include a year-long subscription with my package.  Lately though, I've found another subscription service that works a little better to provide my clients with week-by-week menus as we sort out what foods they feel best eating.

I've discovered that they each have their strengths and weaknesses, so I'm comparing Real Plans and That Clean Life here.

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Real Plans

Each week, Real Plans generates a completely personalized meal plan that’s based on your family size, dietary restrictions, and preferred schedule.

They also make it easy to shuffle things around, swap recipes in and about, and generally dial-in your plan to keep up with the chaos of everyday life.

Pros:

• Real Plans draws from over 1600 recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
• The recipes are delicious, and are made from "real food."  
• Your plan is completely customizable in two ways.  First off, you set up your account according to what you or your family does and doesn't eat (and the number of people you're feeding). The weekly plan that's generated takes these preferences into account.  Second, the weekly plan can be customized further by taking meals out that you don't want, and adding in meals you do want from the "recipe box."
• Not only does the app generate a shopping list, but it allows you to access it from an app on your phone or by printing it out. You can also to check ingredients off of the list before you print it out, if you go that route.  And best of all, you can add items to the list that you buy each week, so you'll never run out of toilet paper or dishwashing soap again!
• Real Plans has a powerful recipe search.  While it can pick recipes for your weekly meal plan automatically, if you're looking for something specific, the search engine lets you search recipes by diet type, ingredient, course, season, cuisine, prep time, total time, meal size, and even cost.
• ​You can also add favorite family recipes or recipes from the web, so that the ingredients get tallied on your shopping list.

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Cons:

• While the meals are delicious and enjoyed by kids and foodies, sometimes they take longer than I'd like on a weeknight.  There is a setting for recipes that are quicker.  I usually don't think of it, though!
• Recipes can either be printed out or viewed on your phone or iPad.  If they're being printed out, you have to do it one at a time and it takes several steps to get to the printable version.

Pricing:  

• $6 to $14 a month, depending on your chosen billing interval.  Click here for a two week free trial.

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That Clean Life

That Clean Life has two different tiers:  one for individuals (and families) and one for wellness professionals.  You can use their program to plan meals, discover new recipes and automate your grocery list...all in one place.

Pros:  

• Every recipe I've tried so far has been delicious.
• That Clean Life allows you to filter your recipes according to dietary preferences so that you can build your own meal plan from their recipes or those you've uploaded into your plan.
• You can also use their pre-made programs or diets.  There are 29 available to individual subscribers as of the time I wrote this, including Gut Healing, Kid Friendly, and Meal Prep Mania.
• Each recipe is customizable for number of people and ingredients can be added or taken out.
• My favorite thing about this service is that you can set a recipe for leftovers, so that it not only adjusts the recipe portions, but designates it as a leftovers on the weekly plan.  The pre-made programs also utilize leftovers, so that you aren't making 21 meals each week!

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Cons:  

• I find it more difficult to use this planner if I have multiple, specific dietary preferences.  For example, I cook gluten-free at home, even though my whole family isn't gluten-free at this point.  But my son also decided that he wanted to be vegetarian several years ago, so I also cook vegetarian at home most of the time.  I can't automatically generate a meal plan with both of these "restrictions." I have to make it myself.
• The nutritional information is only available on the business plan, not the individual plan.

Pricing:  

1. $7.50 to $9 per month depending on your billing interval.  Click here for a two week free trial.

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My Favorite!

I'll confess, I do tend to be loyal and I've been using Real Plans for over five years.  For personal use, Real Plans is easily my favorite.  It's easier to use on a weekly basis.  I've set my dietary preferences in the settings and now it's easy to go to my weekly menu and customize!

For professional use, however, I prefer That Clean Life.  I can make weekly meal plans for my clients based on dietary restrictions we've come to agreement on and I can send them a nice booklet with the plan, all of the recipes, and instructions.  There are even more features available in the business plan, because that is their main audience.   Real Plans is working on a professional version...we'll see how I feel then!

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General Benefits of Meal Planning

In case you missed my blog posts over the past month, here are a few of the major benefits of meal planning:

• Saves time:  Plan for the week and shop once. (Okay, I rarely shop only once, but it definitely cuts down on shopping trips substantially).
• Saves money:  Fewer shopping trips usually means fewer impulse buys.  Planning also means less food gets thrown away when it's not used.
• Makes eating healthy easier:  When you plan, you're more likely to eat healthy meals.

If you haven't, download the Complete Guide to Meal Planning by clicking the button below.

I Want The Complete Guide To Meal Planning!

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Have you tried a meal planning subscription?  What did you like or not like about the experience?  Please share in the comments below!