# The Nutrition Plan Kit

A self-interviewing kit for building your own nutrition plan. Companion to
**Build Your Own Nutrition Plan**: https://shek.terrak.ai/health/build-your-own-nutrition-plan/

**How to use it.** Paste this whole file into whatever AI assistant you already use and say
*"run this with me."* It will interview you, then draft a plan in the format below. Or ignore the
assistant entirely and work through it yourself with a notebook. The structure is the point,
not the tool.

**Nothing here is sent anywhere.** This is a text file. There is no account, no server, no
tracking. What you write stays wherever you write it.

---

## ⚠ Read this before you start

This kit is for an ordinary healthy adult who wants to eat better. **It is not medical advice and
it does not replace a clinician.**

**Stop and talk to a doctor or dietitian instead of using this if you** are pregnant or
breastfeeding, are under 18, are underweight, have or have had an eating disorder, are managing
diabetes, kidney disease, or any condition where diet is part of treatment, or take medication
that interacts with food.

**The interview below asks about medication and health conditions for exactly one reason: so it
can tell you to take those to a professional.** A plan should never be built *around* a
condition by anyone unqualified, including an AI.

---

## INSTRUCTIONS TO THE ASSISTANT

You are helping someone build a nutrition plan they will actually follow. Work through the five
parts below **in order**, one at a time. Ask the questions conversationally, a few at a time;
do not dump the whole list at once. Follow up when an answer is vague.

**Rules you must not break:**
1. If the person reports any condition in the red-flag list above, say plainly that this kit is
   not appropriate and they should work with a professional. Do not proceed to build a plan.
2. Never give dosages, never diagnose, never interpret a lab result.
3. Never recommend a very low calorie intake. If the maths lands below roughly 1,500 kcal for a
   man or 1,200 for a woman, stop and say a professional should set it.
4. **Options, never prescriptions.** Every meal slot gets two or three choices.
5. Build around what they already eat. Do not import a cuisine they do not cook.
6. If they say they will not give something up, **put it in the plan** rather than removing it.

---

## PART 1: THE BASELINE

Ask them to log one honest week *before* building anything, including the unplanned eating:
the handful in passing, the second helping, the thing after dinner. Tell them explicitly not to
improve their eating during that week.

If they have not done this, offer to proceed anyway but say clearly what is being given up:
most plans fail on food the person is not counting, and without a baseline you are both guessing.

## PART 2: THE INTERVIEW

**Routine**
- Wake, meals, training, sleep: which are fixed, which drift?
- Who cooks? Do you shop? How often do you eat out, and is that choice or logistics?

**Body**
- When does hunger actually arrive: by clock or by event?
- Anything that reliably disagrees with you digestively?
- Any medication, condition or restriction? *(→ red-flag check)*

**The part that matters most**
- What does food mean in your life: hunger, comfort, stress, habit, company?
- Do you eat fast or slowly?
- Which foods will you not give up? Be specific.
- What is your stress like, and does it change how you eat?
- What was your favourite physical activity as a child?

**What you are listening for:** their patterns, their preferences, and their mental blocks.
The third one is where plans die and it never shows up in a food log. Note it explicitly.

## PART 3: THE TARGETS

Set four numbers and explain each in one sentence.

- **Protein: 1.4–2.0 g per kg of bodyweight per day** for an exercising adult (International
  Society of Sports Nutrition position stand), toward the top of that range if eating in a
  deficit. Split into roughly **20–40 g per meal**.
  - **Aged ~60+:** ageing muscle responds less to the same dose. Use **at least 1.0–1.2 g/kg/day**
    and deliberately **larger single servings**, because small doses may not trigger a response at all.
- **Rate of change: about 0.5 kg per week** if losing fat. Slower keeps muscle and survives longer.
- **Sodium: low, and cut at the source.** Pickle, papad, namkeen, packaged masala, sauces,
  restaurant food. Not the salt shaker.
- **Plate shape: half vegetables, a quarter protein, a quarter whole grains.** Proportions,
  not weighing.

## PART 4: THE PLAN FORMAT

Produce it in exactly this shape:

```
SLOT (approx. time)
  Option A: [meal] · protein anchor: [what and roughly how much]
  Option B: [meal] · protein anchor: [...]
  Option C: [meal] · protein anchor: [...]
```

Cover: on waking · breakfast · lunch · afternoon · dinner · (dessert, on named days).

**Non-negotiables of the format**
- **Two or three options per slot.** One option is a prescription and it breaks the first time
  an ingredient is missing.
- **Name the protein anchor in every slot.** Protein first, meal built around it.
- **Dessert is scheduled**, a few named days a week. Not removed, not negotiated in the moment.
- **A carry kit**: something in the bag permanently, so hunger while out is not a decision.
- **Portions in units they already use**: a chapatti is seven inches, two katoris make a bowl,
  four handfuls of vegetables a day plus a fruit.
- Tell them to **print it and put it on the fridge.**

## PART 5: THE WEEKLY REVIEW AND THE MESS-UP RULE

Give them this as a standing weekly ritual, same day each week:

1. What actually happened versus what was planned?
2. Where exactly did it come apart? Which day, which meal, what else was going on?
3. What is **one** thing to change next week? One, not five.
4. What worked that should be protected?

Most weeks the answer to (3) is *nothing* and that is a success, not a wasted review.

**The mess-up rule, to be written down in advance:** move on. Everybody does it. Do the next
scheduled thing rather than making up for it. **Missing once is statistically irrelevant.
Missing twice is how a habit ends**, so never let a bad day cost you the following one.

---

## If you are building this for someone else

A parent, a partner, someone you cook for. Two things change:

- **Interview them; do not assume.** The preferences and the blocks are theirs, not yours.
- **Do not make the household eat the plan.** The changes that survive are almost invisible on a
  shared table. Sodium swaps and a protein anchor do not need anyone else to participate.

---

Questions, corrections, arguments: abhishek@terrak.ai