Most of us lead busy lives, and grocery shopping can feel like a chore that takes too much time. But it doesn’t have to be! With the right planning it could take less than 2 hours of your week to make sure that you’re set up with a fridge and pantry stocked full of nutritious options for the whole week. Here are some tips to get you started.
1. Plan your meals AND snacks in advance
Find a time each week to sit down and plan out your meals for the week with the five food groups in mind (vegetables, fruits, grains, lean meats, and dairy). How can you include all of them in each meal or as a snack? Another simple way to plan each meal is thinking about an empty plate and wanting to fill it up with ½ plate of vegetables, ¼ carbohydrates, and ¼ protein. Have a look at the graphic below for an image of how this looks! Now all you have to decide is what vegetables, carbs, and protein you’d like to have at each meal.
After you have decided what you want to eat for each meal and some snack ideas, write a list of the ingredients you need to get so that once you’re at the store, you have a plan and there is a lesser chance you’ll deviate from it and buy something extra you don’t need.
Great, now the planning is done and you’re at the store. What next?
2. Don’t shop when you’re hungry
I think this is one that everyone is aware of and is guilty of at least once in their lives, and that’s completely okay! But again, we want to stick to the plan, and not let our hunger hormones influence our decisions. If you need to, have a filling snack before you do your shopping.
3. Keep your shopping to the outer sections of the store
If you take a proper look, you’ll notice that when you enter most grocery stores, the fruits and vegetables and fresh foods are all gathered up front, and the fresh meats, fish and dairy will also be accessible at the perimeter of the store. Everything else that is packaged are usually found in the aisles.
This means that you should be able to get most of your ingredients the moment you enter, and at the outer sections for the protein. Of course, then you’ll head to 1 or 2 aisles for some grains and healthy oils. There will almost always be several aisles that you can skip, because they’re contain discretionary items that can be avoided. But I’m not one to limit on foods I like, so feel free to grab a couple to satisfy the taste buds!
4. If you’re buying packaged products, read the labels
Label reading can be confusing, so my number 1 tip is to compare between products. Let’s say you’re buying a canned product and you want to compare the sodium level. Instead of trying to rack your brain or start googling what the recommended sodium intake is, just compare between two products that are the same and pick the one that is lower in sodium.
5. Think about convenience foods
These are always great options to have as a backup plan and can usually last quite long in the fridge or pantry. It could be ready made meals or things like frozen vegetables. Basically, they make your meal planning easier or cooking more convenient. Frozen vegetables are just as nutritious as fresh ones and sometimes they come cut up already, which saves prep time. Some great convenience snack items that you could also get are things like yoghurt, nuts, and granola bars.
There you go. 5 tips for grocery shopping to make it easier for you to have balanced meals. 30mins to plan your meals and snacks for the week, and 1 hour to get it all at the store. Don’t feel like you need to have it perfect in the first week you do this, grocery shopping can look slightly different for everyone, and I believe it should be fun to figure out how it works for you!