Clients Want to Cook More in January. Here’s How to Help Them make it stick…
As I recently wrote about in New Year, New Approach, more home-cooked meals are consistently linked with higher dietary quality and a more connected relationship with food. Still, even with the best intentions, cooking more can feel difficult for many clients.
If you want to genuinely support clients in cooking more this year, a one-size-fits-all approach won’t do it.
The key is understanding why cooking feels challenging for them in the first place. When we personalize our support based on the specific barriers a client is facing, cooking becomes so much more approachable and sustainable.
Here are some of the most common challenges I see and how to help clients move through them...
1. I Don’t Have Time
When clients say they don’t have time to cook, they’re often responding to a version of cooking that feels unrealistic and includes elaborate recipes, long ingredient lists, or the pressure to cook every meal from scratch.
What doesn’t help:
Suggesting more recipe ideas without reframing expectations.
What does help:
Work with clients to redefine what cooking actually means. That might look like:
Preparing one simple component (a pot of grains, roasted vegetables, a soup) that can be used across meals
Identifying a few low-effort meals that still feel nourishing
Letting go of the idea that every meal needs to be “complete” or perfectly balanced
Embracing time-saving resources like meal kits, grocery delivery, etc. if possible
When cooking feels flexible rather than being all-or-nothing, it becomes so much easier to fit into real life.
2. Skill or Knowledge Gaps
Many clients feel as if they don’t know where to start when it comes to cooking more for themselves. This may reflect either uncertainty around nutrition including what to cook and how to build a balanced meal or a lack of confidence in the kitchen itself and feeling unsure where to start, how to cook without a recipe, or what to do when something doesn’t turn out as expected.
What doesn’t help:
Meal plans that don’t build up an understanding of the why or how.
What does help:
Focus on building a small set of repeatable skills, such as:
Clarifying simple, flexible ways to think about balanced meals without rigid rules
Teaching a few foundational cooking methods they can rely on
Sharing how flavors work together so meals feel satisfying
Showing simple techniques that apply across many meals, not just one recipe
Once clients feel capable in the kitchen, cooking stops feeling intimidating and starts to feel so much more doable.
3. Logistics: Planning, Shopping, and Follow-Through
Even motivated clients can get stuck when cooking requires too many steps like deciding what to make, planning meals, shopping, and managing ingredients once they’re home.
What doesn’t help:
Highly detailed meal plans that don’t match someone’s schedule or energy.
What does help:
Help clients create lightweight systems or frameworks that reduce friction, like:
Keeping a short list of go-to meals and ingredients
Planning around how often they realistically want to cook and will have time for
Building routines that work with their week - some clients may find a Sunday meal prep session to be a great way to kick off the weeks, to others that may sound awful.
When logistics are simplified, cooking feels less like a project and more like a habit that can be maintained.
4. Overwhelm and Decision Fatigue
Cooking often breaks down at the end of the day right when energy and decision-making capacity are lowest.
What doesn’t help:
More choices or recipe inspo that ends up adding to the noise.
What does help:
Reduce decisions by:
Limiting options
Repeating meals or components
Creating default meals for busy nights
Reducing cognitive load is often more effective than trying to increase motivation for this type of client.
5. Fear or Resistance to Change
For some clients, cooking more represents a shift away from familiar routines, convenience foods, or identities they’ve relied on for years.
What doesn’t help:
Pushing for change before someone feels ready.
What does help:
Approach cooking as an experiment, not a mandate:
Start small
Normalize discomfort
Focus on curiosity
Lightly modify familiar favs
Change feels safer when it’s self-directed and compassionate.
6. Limited Equipment or Kitchen Access
Not everyone has a fully stocked kitchen, like college students, for example, so working within equipment restraints is essential.
What doesn’t help:
Recipes or strategies that require specialized tools.
What does help:
Help clients work with what they already have by:
Identifying a few multipurpose tools
Adapting recipes to limited equipment
Designing meals that fit their actual environment
A Bigger Reframe
When clients struggle to cook more, it’s rarely a motivation issue. Usually, it’s a mismatch between expectations and skills.
Cooking is a learned behavior. And like any skill, it becomes easier with the right support, structure, and mindset.
When we shift the focus from trying harder to building personal approaches that meet clients where they’re at, cooking can start to feel less overwhelming and a lot more sustainable.