Grocery shopping can be dreadful and expensive. But, grocery shopping is probably something none of us can get away from not doing. So what better than to have a plan and shop accordingly to your healthy lifestyle.
When grocery shopping is something you dislike doing, there are so many options. Grocery shopping online has become so easy, and if you haven’t given it a try, you should. Just click and pick out what you need, and it arrives within hours at your doorsteps.
1. Plan your menu for the week
Making a menu for the meals you want to cook for the week is ideal. This gives you the ability to make a list of all the items you will need and avoid going to the grocery store multiple times during the week. Not only does this save you money but time.
Planning your meals helps you stay on track because knowing what you will be eating during the week prevents you from stopping by and picking up fast food because you’re hungry and don’t know what to eat.
2. Create a shopping list
Make a shopping list to stay on budget and on track with your health journey. Clean out the fridge and write down everything you’ll need to purchase. Then do the same with your pantry. This will make it so much easier for you throughout the week and will prevent you from buying things you don’t need or already have.
3. Avoid grocery shopping when you are hungry
I think we have experienced grocery shopping when being hungry and buying everything we see. When planning on going out for groceries, the first thing you need to do is eat or have a snack.
And if you’ve never noticed, when shopping while being hungry, you tend to buy an unhealthier snack.
4. Check nutrition labels
When groceries shopping, you want to look at nutrition labels, and what you want to look for is your serving size and the amount of sugar. You also want to look at the ingredient list.
You want to keep your sugar intake under 25g per day; many snacks have a lot of added sugars.
5. Shop outer aisles first
You want to shop the outer aisles first, grab everything you need fresh fruits and vegetables, meat sections, and then only go to the aisles where you need to grab items. Not only will this help you stay on budget you will avoid buying things you don’t need. When I walk all the aisles I grab so many things I didn’t need and spend so much more than I intended.
Having a plan and setting yourself up for a successful week takes time to plan. This may sound like too much work, but when you incorporate it into your weekly routine, it becomes easier. The hardest part is starting because once you have your first list written out, all you have to do is update it week after week.
