Fitness Addict's Guide to Grocery Shopping

So you've been thinking about taking the plunge to start meal prepping on your own to shed some extra pounds or gain some lean mass. We all know that putting the goals into reality can be a whole different challenge, I've been there! Walking through the grocery store completely ready to pull my hair out because I just didn't know what foods were going to get me to where I needed to be!

First things first, you've gotta get a list together and plan out what you want to eat for the week, I've made things really simple with this chart to guide you through some of the steps to creating an easy program for yourself that actually will get you results. I've already given y'all a rough guideline to how many macros you should be in-taking  on a daily basis and now I'm giving you the grocery list to make it all come true.

So now for the actual list...

I've made a super easy guide for you to figure out your weekly meal prep! Lets start with the basics: Carbs, Fats, and Proteins. First off, I'd recommend that you go ahead and print out this list so we can get going.

Step 1 Print the List:

1. For the carbs, circle or highlight 2-3 carbs that you want to prep for the coming week. For me, this week, I've got oats, brown rice, and cold pressed juice as my carbs!
2. Next, go through your list of fats and chose 1 or 2 that you're going to be eating this week. For example, this week I'm sticking with almonds as my healthy fat. 
3. Proteins is the next item on the list; I recommend that you choose up to three or four proteins for the week. I showed you this week's program where I'm eating 1. Chicken breast, 2. Egg Whites, 3. My Pro7 Protein Powder, and 4. Lean ground turkey!  Choose the three-four that you want for the week and circle them off your list
4. Next comes veggies, You can really pick up to as many as you want off this list for the sake of variety, but I'll be honest, my go-to's are ALWAYS spinach, zucchini, and asparagus (this week, I subbed the asparagus out for peppers)!
• Pro Tip: If you really like a certain veggie, or if you prefer to buy in bulk---buy frozen veggies. They don't go bad and they're way easy to just toss into containers. I almost always have a bag of frozen french-cut green beans or broccoli in my freezer just in case! 
5. Now we get into the fun stuff...here you can go ahead and circle one of the fruits off of the list to have for the week, as you saw I chose blueberries this week's fruity carb.
6. Last, and this one is totally optional but I know there's some of you out there who just aren't ready to take the plunge and get rid of dairy all together... so chose one to two things off this list. I fully do not recommend adding in both cottage cheese and Greek yogurt in the same week though...those carbs start to really add up if you're taking in both of those. 

Step 2 Highlight Your Choices:

Step 3 Compile the list:

Just so we're not all stuck eating unseasoned foods forever, I've added some no-calorie/low calorie add-in's to help make the diet as tasty as you want it !

Step 4, STFP:

Now the last step seems easy enough, right? This can actually be the hardest one, this one comes into play when you're walking through the aisles and you pass your favorite type of candy, or those new white-fudge covered Oreos, or anything else that might tempt you. I'm not saying that these foods are bad necessarily or that you'll never be able to eat them again, but our bodies respond so much better to whole foods that aren't super processed. Also, it feels good to stick to the plan that you've laid out for yourself. For these reasons, it's so important to just stick to the list that you've made, after all you made this list with your goals in mind, right? Now it's time to grocery shop with those same goals as your top priority!