Grocery 101

Happy Tuesday, everyone, it is FRIGID this week! I am sitting in our living room in front of our tiny heater with my flannels on, hood up, and I'm still cold.  I was foolishly tricked into believing we may just skip over winter right into spring.  Mother Nature had other ideas though.
This cold weather made grocery shopping especially fun yesterday.  There is literally nothing I hate more then dry hands inside of gloves, but when I opt to not wear gloves the combination of pressure from holding bags against wind chill is just so not fun.

I have had quite a few people message me recently and ask me about what this whole clean eating thing involves and how it fits in with weight loss. So I wanted to address some of these questions today as well as offer some grocery list changes that you can make to kick start your own journey.
First of all, no one should EVER be embarrassed to ask questions to anyone.  Surfing the web for answers can be intimidating because there is so much out there. 

I specified in an earlier post what exactly clean eating is, most basic ingredients, one ingredient is best, no chemicals, etc. But a lot of people have been wondering what changes to make.  It is really daunting thinking about all of a sudden "giving up everything you love" and finding a whole new routine for things.  If you can go cold turkey and make the switch 100% in one swift movement, more power to you.  But for a lot of people it takes time.  And I think by making simple changes to start, and gradually merging over to a new way of eating is what works best for most people. 

When I first started losing weight I had no idea where to begin because I already felt like I was eating healthy. Here is what my day would have looked like prior to beginning my weight loss journey:

Breakfast-2 eggs with cheese, 2 pieces of whole wheat toast, sometimes bacon or yogurt
(another favorite was 2 eggs in a flour tortilla with cheese and baked beans, Andy discovered this delicious combination!)

Lunch-sandwich on whole wheat bread with lunch meat, sometimes peanut butter & jelly, yogurt, cheese & crackers or chips & salsa.

Dinner-6 oz meat, potatoes, bread, corn or peas and sometimes green beans sauteed in butter or something of the like.

Snacks-apple/banana/pita chips & hummus/ice cream/and I would always indulge if there was cookies/coffee cake available for a work/school thing.


The problems I see above:
-The amount of bread I consumed in a day, 2 for breakfast, 2 for lunch, and 1 for dinner? That is almost half a loaf per day and TONS of carbs.  At this point I was not buying whole grain either (more on that later.)
-Too much cheese.  I never measured how much cheese I was putting on my eggs in the morning, cheese for lunch on a sandwich, and typically some cheesy sauce for dinner. Cheese is OK for you in moderation, but when used as above that is a lot of fat.
-Too much starch for dinner.  Potatoes? Corn? Bread? Meat?
-No restraint with avoiding available food.
-Where is the color? Fruits and vegetables of different colors provide different nutritional benefits including different kinds of vitamins and minerals that are necessary for optimal body function! All of my foods above are white and yellow!
-Too much peanut butter.  You can't see it because I didn't list portions of peanut butter, but it was not unusual for me to use 1/4 C on a sandwich, and again later I would sometimes scoop it out of the jar or eat it with a banana.

The foods we were eating, like I said, not necessarily unhealthy (to an extent...) but; A) Portions, B) Variety, and C) Color are the three most important lessons that I needed to learn, and I would imagine many other people could use as well!

The steps I took to achieve my goals:
1) I decided I wanted to change.
2) I COMMITTED to change (no matter how miserable I was for the first two weeks at least. I'm not kidding. I was really hungry.)
3) I cut my portions almost in half and paid attention to "serving sizes" on labels. 
-Breakfast then looked like: 1 egg (no cheese), 1 piece of whole grain toast, and a banana or handful of berries.
-Lunch then looked like: a sandwich with one piece of bread, lettuce, tomato, and turkey, with raw carrots/peppers and hummus, and an apple on the side.
-Dinner then looked like: 3-4 oz of lean protein, and one or two greens on the side, often steamed and then stir-friend for a few minutes in 1 tsp olive oil with garlic.
-We also now eat a lot of Mexican food with corn tortillas, black beans, homemade salsa, and avocado!
4) Started tracking my food.  I used Weight Watchers to help me figure out how to eat better (while avoiding their pre-packaged foods,) now I use MyFitnessPal, which is a free calorie counting app that ALSO let's you set your Carb/Protein/Fat goals for the day and has a great visual for showing how your day balanced out.  I HIGHLY recommend recording food for anyone trying to make changes!
5) Things I almost never consumed while trying to lose weight:
-Cheese
-Crackers
-Chips
-Pasta
-More than 2 TB of peanut butter at a time
-Breaded anything (but I did eat actual bread...) does that make sense?
-Butter & Jelly on toast (instead I'd make an over easy egg and serve it directly on top of the toast.)
-Granulated Sugar in my coffee (switched to Stevia and LOVE it!)
-Alcoholic Beverages other than wine (red wine is actually great for your heart, when it's not abused!) I have never been one to drink my calories (store-bought juices, milk, etc.), but if we were going out for Mexican or having people over, having a Margarita was not unusual.
6) I Broke up with baking (unless it was for someone else or homemade bread)
7) Quit late night snacking, and if I really wanted something, I would make stove-top popcorn.
8) Spent more time meal-planning ahead of time, and cut up/washed fruits and veggies ahead of time.  This is one of the oldest tricks in the book that I'm sure you all heard. Before, I was like "Psh. I don't need to pre-cut/wash, if I want them it doesn't bother me to do it right before I eat." NOT TRUE! If it's there, you will see it, you will eat it.
9) Donated many of the foods I knew would be tempting for me to the local soup kitchen, did not throw anything away. (Hubby was SO supportive because he wanted me to succeed, even if it meant not having potato chips/pretzels in the house!)
10) Finally, had an accountability partner who wanted to lose weight too.  She was AMAZING and so uplifting.  We checked in with each other twice a week just to see how each other did for the previous 3-4 days, good/bad/ugly.  All of it.

You could be in the gym 7 days a week, and working hard with 2-3 hour workouts per day, and still not see results unless you employ food changes.  Weight loss is 75-80% nutrition, and 20-25% exercise. Once you recognize that, and use a combination of the two, I have no doubt that results will be achieved! Obviously both are so important to weight loss, but if you had to choose one between nutrition and exercise, nutrition would definitely be key.

Here is a list of foods that make it on my grocery list every single week (other things not listed in random rotation):
-blacks beans!! (a household favorite)
-PB2 - I buy 2 lbs of this stuff on Amazon every month.  It is a much healthier option than regular
-Peppers, Carrots, cherry tomatoes, yams, green beans, onions, kale, spinach (even if you don't like the leafy greens, you can't even taste them in a smoothie!)
-hummus
-Chobani Greek yogurt (plain is best, I buy Vanilla Simply 100 which is sweetened with Stevia.)
-Stevia (if you like sugar in your coffee) this is a natural sweetener, no chemicals added. Be careful because some store bought versions contain dextrose.  The liquid extract version is my favorite, though I always carry packets in my purse.
-Apples, banana, berries, tangerines, etc.
Produce usually makes up about half of my weekly budget.
-Coconut Milk/Almond/Rice Milk.  We go in spurts.
-Alvarado St. Bakery Sprouted Multigrain bread.  It is more flavorful than Ezekiel and has better texture. At least in the Richter household we think so :)
 -Large bags of frozen fruit for smoothie making (even better if you can freeze it yourself in the summer!)
-Hot sauce for hubs.
-Rotisserie Chicken.  Every Monday I purchase it, let it cool, peel the skin off and shred it in a tupperware for sandwiches for the week. We use this instead of deli meat. Organic is best, but non-organic is still better than deli meat because it is nitrate free.
-Not every week, but usually once a month I buy a large amount of chicken breasts, cut them up into 3 oz servings, bag them individually, and then freeze them.  They make quick lunch/dinner options as all you need to do is put the bag under hot water for a minute or so to thaw (since they're so small it doesn't take long), throw them in a microwave safe dish, add seasonings, fill with 1-2 inches of water, cover, and microwave for 7ish minutes.  Super easy.

And finally, snack ideas! :) Because we all need pick-me-ups! Most of these are from the list above!
-Greek yogurt with 2 TB PB2! Makes a mousse consistency and is a great kick of protein to hold you over til the next meal time.
-Raw veggies with hummus. Peppers, carrots, and cucumbers are our favorites. I lied, Andy only likes carrots.
-An apple or banana with PB2.
-A smoothie with 1 C of leafy greens (spinach, kale), broccoli, 1/2-1 C frozen fruit, cinnamon, 1/2 C of dairy-free or dairy milk of any kind, and 1/2 C of water.  This makes a delicious, healthy snack, and think of all the servings of veggies your getting in this that you otherwise probably wouldn't eat!
-Shakeology.  This is a personal favorite.  It is expensive, but at $4 per serving and having it fulfill most of your daily nutrients needs, it makes a MUCH better option than the $4 you could be spending at a drive-thru, Starbucks, or gas station...(Sheetz, Wawa anyone?)
-POPCORN! This is my favorite.  Literally my addiction.  Not a lot of nutritional benefits but you can eat a lot of it with zero guilt!


If you're trying to lose weight, do yourself a favor and skip the pretzels, chips, and crackers.

It's as simple as that.

Obviously we all have different habits, and you may not have a lot of the habits that I did before.  But if you are trying to lose weight, I would suggest looking at the list of 10 things, picking 1 or 2 to start, and gradually continue to add items from the list until you find a routine that works for you and more importantly, you see results! Losing weight is not a comfortable journey to start, I felt like I was starving for the first couple weeks.  But as soon as my stomach caught up to my brain, I began filling up very easily, and things just came naturally. 

Please feel free to contact me via FB or e-mail about anything! I am ALWAYS available and would love to help you meet your goals!

Remember, it took more than 1 day to gain weight, so it will take more than 1 to lose it.