Grocery Shopping

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Grocery shopping, and having a good grocery list, is key to sticking to a healthy way of eating. That’s where you choose the foods that are going into your home.

If your cupboards and fridge are full of junk, that’s what you’ll eat. If you fill your kitchen with healthy foods instead, you’ll make it much easier to follow through and achieve your goals.

Specific Meal Plan Grocery Lists

In the meal plan programs, there are specific shopping lists to tell you exactly what you need for the meal plan, week by week, so that you don’t need to do any of the planning.

These lists include enough food for 7 days, including snacks. The system can add in more people, at their appropriate calorie level, and you can check and uncheck people if they’re not eating with you every week.

I split the lists by week, and assumed that you follow the plan days in the order I listed, or at least in the same week.

The first week’s grocery list is the longest, because it includes all of the basics you need for the month – vinegar, oils, seasonings, and stuff like that.

The second week is a quick trip to stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables.

The third week includes another group of dried goods, like whole grains and beans. You could buy those in the first week, but I didn’t want that first trip to be too overwhelming.

Then the fourth week is another fresh fruit and veggie run.

I’ve included a variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains and beans – but I also tried not to give too many so that you don’t have to hunt for too long in the store.

The ingredients in the plan are ones that are usually the easiest to find, but feel free to swap them for the same quantity of other types you like.

If you can’t find a specific food on the list, or if it’s out of season and too expensive, replace it with something similar. I’ve organized the list into categories that I hope will help you see which foods can be substituted for one another.

General Shopping List

Some people prefer to use meal plans as a general guide rather than exactly as laid out. I’m one of those people – I like to get what looks good at the store, and make what I feel like on any given day.

So I also put together a more general shopping list to help you stock your kitchen, especially if you’re just starting out on a healthy eating plan.

My list of healthy foods shows you exactly what I buy and eat on a regular basis. You won’t need to buy everything on that list every week, of course.

A bottle of apple cider vinegar will last longer than a bunch of fresh parsley.

You don’t need to buy all the varieties of vegetables at once – you can try a few different ones each week.

If you make sure you have a variety of healthy foods in your kitchen, you can always pull together a healthy meal.

Even if you don’t have exactly what a specific recipe calls for, you should have the components you need for substitutions.

When I go grocery shopping, I try to get one or two items from each category of fresh vegetables and fruit.

I grouped the list into these categories (leafy greens, starchy veggies, etc) so you can see how I think when I’m in the store.

I keep a few different types of beans, grains, nuts and seeds on hand. Then I just stock up on anything else I’ve run out of from the bottom half of the list, or anything specific I need.