Friday, July 26, 2013

Meal Prepping Part I: The Grocery List


 
 
(photo from tumblr)

Meal Prepping is extremely important for me if I want to stay on track with my meals and hitting my macros. It seems overwhelming at first, especially when you have no idea where to begin so I want to help you out! I want to make things a little easier for you to get started. It does get easier, you will get faster, and after a few weeks or so you will be whipping through it! I can get mine done in an hour or less usually.

First things first, you must make a grocery list of all the foods you will be prepping for the week. I meal prep only lunches (I eat 2 lunches a day) and sometimes I also use my meal prep food for dinner if I have nothing planned and there is extra.

 

1.      Since I work full time I generally don’t have the time to grocery shop during the week so my husband or I will continually add things we need to a free app on our phones called Cozi – it’s a family management system for to-do lists, shopping lists, and calendar appointments. Anything either of us adds can be seen by the both of us and you can check things off and delete them as you go. Very awesome! And one of us will do the shopping over the weekend

 

2.      Sundays and Tuesdays or Wednesdays are my two meal prep days for the week. I will make enough for my husband and I for about 2-3 days so things won’t go bad before we get to eat it.

 

3.      I buy in bulk – tilapia, frozen chicken breasts, shrimp, ground turkey, shrimp, and frozen veggies. I get all of these items from Walmart generally. They are not organic and are generic brands most of the time. I do, however, get low fat and natural foods if the option is available.

 

 

4.      Veggies I purchase from the produce section – Sweet potatoes, avocado, spaghetti squash, asparagus, zucchini, butternut squash, broccoli, tomatoes, spinach onion, etc… I don’t purchase every single one of these every week. I suggest picking a few for each meal prep, so you don’t cook it and have it go bad!


5.      Fruit I purchase from the produce section – Every single week I purchase blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries. Other fruits I purchase, just not every single week are watermelon, grapes, raspberries, apples, bananas (my company always has fresh apples and bananas for free every single morning or those would be a weekly purchase)
 



6.      Other foods that get purchased often are – tuna, whole wheat sandwich rounds, plain non-fat Greek yogurt, quinoa, brown rice, black beans, pico de gallo, spinach, turkey deli meat, whole grain noodles, peanut butter, questbars (can be purchased at GNC or online), almonds, eggs, egg whites, turkey pepperoni, low fat mozzarella string cheese, brown rice rice cakes, rolled oats, half and half, whole grain tortillas, cottage cheese, walden farms chocolate syrup, diced tomatoes (canned), Ezekiel bread, Frozen bags of veggies (nothing added to them),

 

7.      Seasonings – Pam, garlic, Italian seasoning, Mrs. Dash (all of them are awesome), Cracked pepper, sea salt, cinnamon, mustard, sriracha, truvia, all natural mustard

 

Now that you have a nice little grocery list, stay tuned for Meal Prepping Part II where I will share with you all just how I prep these foods for me and my husband’s lunches.

16 comments:

  1. Great post!! Thanks for the helpful info, looking forward to part II.

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  2. awesome excited to read part two!!!

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  3. All that healthy food looks beautiful! Can't wait for the prep part.

    Pacifiers and Possibilities

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  4. I love to prep meals out in advance! So convient for busy sudent life. And I NEED that app! I'd never heard of it before! Sounds awesome!

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  5. This is great info!!! I will be back for part 2--and 3 & 4! Thanks!

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  6. Great information, thanks for the post!!

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  7. Perfect post! I meal prep sometimes but it's hard to keep it up as it's pretty overwhelming, I love the idea of the phone app! I always forget things I need when I go food shopping.

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  8. This is wonderful! I always feel so overwhelmed when trying to prep food for a week, so I just give up. It's nice to know that you have two days a week you do this instead of the typical once a week thing I seem to find on the internet.

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  9. Thank you so much for sharing that you shop at Walmart and you don't buy organic everything! This is the first "real" post I've read from someone who is fit and talking about food prepping for the week. Awesome and thank you!

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  10. How do you typically cook your chicken? On the grill? In the oven? For some reason, more so since I'm pregnant, I swear my chicken has a poultry smell to it- especially when I reheat it. (and no the chicken hasn't gone bad!)

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  11. Great post! I can't wait to read more! Do you use regular tupperwear containers? Thanks again for the great post.

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  12. Awesome post, just shared it on FB! And I just downloaded Cozi-thanks! Not sure if you have it, but Fooducate is an awesome app too. You can scan items and it grades it, tells you why it got that grade and also gives you better options :)

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  13. Thanks for sharing, very helpful!

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  14. Thanks for the tips and tricks. I will definitely incorporate them into my routine. I have to say that once you start to really pay attention to your food, the temptation to eat anything less than healthy really lessens. I find that if I do get tempted and stray from my plan my body reacts badly and so I've decided it's just not worth it. I am constantly research ideas to keep me motivated and now have my own site too:) www.totalhealthformula.com

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  15. I am a vegetarian so what would you recommend I use as a substitute for the chicken/meat.

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  16. You have great choices in your grocery list. I am gonna include these groceries in my diet plans too. Thanks for sharing such nice and wonderful info.

    Healthy Meal Delivery Los Angeles

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