The Importance of Grocery Shopping

Grocery shopping is one of those things that everyone dreads, but must do. Most people blindly go into the grocery store without seeing the importance of the choices they are about to make. Once you are able to see the importance of grocery shopping, you will find that it takes practice and doesn’t have to be such a pain.

The importance of grocery shopping

If you don’t want to eat out for every meal, then you must buy groceries. The food you bring home determines what you will eat. All of the food you bring into your house from the grocery store and eat, is going to affect your body in some way. When you are hungry all you will have is what you brought in from the grocery store. If you avoid bringing in unhealthy processed junk food, then when you do get hungry, you won’t be forced to eat unhealthily. If you bought a lot of processed junk food, then when you get hungry that is what you will have to eat. If you bought a lot of healthy options, then when you get hungry you will eat healthily.

Make sure the food you bring in will affect your body positively.

You are what you eat.

Tip #1: Plan for the week ahead

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail

If you go into the grocery store without a plan of what you need to buy, you will waste time by aimlessly browsing. This will lead to two things; you’ll end up buying what you WANT, instead of what you actually NEED, and you will not want to go grocery shopping because of how long it takes because of the aimless browsing.

Aimless browsing leads to pointless buying.

Keep it simple! If you are new to meal planning, then plan for 3 square meals a day, 7 days a week, for a total of 21 meals. Decide on a healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner for every day of the week. If you don’t buy enough food for 21 meals, you will leave holes in your plan that will most likely get filled by fast food. Do not do this.

Personally, I plan enough meals for 8 days and try to get in the store on day 6 after my last trip to the grocery store, so I have wiggle room in case my food runs out and I can’t make it to the grocery store.

Tip #2: Avoid the snacks

If you want to save money and lose weight, ditch the snacks! Snacking is the worst thing you can do if you want to maintain a healthy weight.

We eat snacks because we are bored. We get bored and sometimes go straight to the snacks. This pointless grazing of snacks will just add inches to your waistline over time, so stop!

We eat snacks because we think they will satisfy our hunger. Snacking doesn’t actually satisfy your hunger. If you are hungry and you think that grabbing a bag of chips will help you, you are usually left disappointed and hungrier. All those chips did was kick start your appetite.

Once you pick them up, they are hard to put down.

Just don’t buy them! I know how pointless and detrimental they are, so I never bring them into my house to avoid the temptation. Make losing weight easier by not buying snacks.

How to plan for the week

DISCLAIMER* I am not a medical professional; this is just how I ate to lose weight and how I maintain my body weight. In my OPINION, you need all of the macronutrients (fats, carbs, protein) in your diet, however, keep the protein the highest and fill the rest of your calories in with fats and carbs as needed.

First, plan for your protein. Pick out the proteins you will have for all 21–24 meals. I think it’s important to have a healthy source of protein at each meal. I like to eat eggs for breakfast, chicken for lunch, and either chicken, steak, or ground beef for dinner.

Next, plan your carbs. Carbs are tricky because everyone has different opinions on carbs, all I know is that while I was losing weight, I ate carbs and I still continue to eat carbs. Carbs are in a lot of food, so if you don’t want to cut them out of your diet, just eat them in moderation! My go to carbs are oatmeal for breakfast and rice and bread for lunch and dinner depending on the meal.

Lastly, fats. You need some fats in your diet. Keep your fats low while still feeling energized and eat them sparingly for maximum weight loss. My go to sources of fats are peanut butter in the morning with my oatmeal, and then I will toss some shredded cheese and mayo on my food for lunch and dinner.

Eat as many veggies as you want! In my opinion, there are no rules for veggies, just eat as many as you want.

The food you bring into your home is what you will eat and will affect your body, so be very picky about what you bring in. Make sure to plan for the week and avoid the snacks!