Healthy Grocery Shopping Haul (For Beginners)

“Food can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.”

Does anyone else have a love-hate relationship with groceries and grocery shopping in general? It’s one of those areas of life that we can’t live with but can’t live without (unless you’re some type of crazy), right? We, quite honestly, blow a massive amount of our budget on food. It’s a category of our expenses that we’re willing to allocate the largest part of our monthly spending to because we realize how important quality food is (or we just love food...one will never know). After all, we are what we eat!

We mean that literally too. Did you know scientists have demonstrated that diets of organisms can affect the DNA sequences of their genes? In simpler terms, studies suggest that the foods we eat can affect our own genes and even the genes of our children and grandchildren. Long story short...the importance of eating a diet full of quality nutrients goes far beyond just looking good in a bathing suit. Want to take a peek at what a typical week of groceries looks like in our household?

Buckle up - we shop a lot.

To kick our hauls off, we generally take inventory of our “staples” and run down the list from there. We’re 1000% on board with saving money where it’s possible, so we try to stick to Walmart and/or Costco for the bulk of our goods. Once we have secured the goods at the jumbo retailers, we shift to acquiring specialty products at higher-end grocery stores. For example, we know how tainted the meat industry is and refuse to eat low-quality meat.

Quite honestly, if you’re going to keep meat in your diet and you aren’t already sticking to organic, grass-fed (and finished), etc., PLEASE consider manipulating your budget a bit to make quality a priority. Pull up one video on YouTube about the way chicken and beef is mass-produced and you’ll understand where we’re coming from. Seafood is another category that we focus on quality over quantity. Think about eating an animal who has been sitting/swimming in their own feces, eating their own feces, then eating that animal. Yikes. QUALITY friends. Produce is the last food group that we really try to buy organic when possible. A good general rule of thumb to follow is if you eat the skin, buy organic and make sure you wash the food thoroughly before consumption.

Below we’ve put together a master list of the foods you’d likely see in our carts. Occasionally we venture outside of our ordinary staples and spice meals up with fun products, but for the sake of giving y’all a simple depiction, we’ve kept the list to our basics.

*Note: we do not get all of these items every time (that would be nuts). We do, however, try to alternate between different fruits, vegetables, and protein sources to optimize our variety of nutrients.

Vegetables:

• Asparagus

• Bell Peppers

• Broccoli

• Brussel Sprouts

• Butternut Squash

• Carrots (we stick to tri-colored, organic)

• Cauliflower

• Eggplant

• Green Beans

• Leafy Greens (superfood salad mixes)

• Mushrooms

• Onions

• Spinach (frozen for smoothies/green juice)

• Spaghetti Squash

• Sweet Potatoes

• Zucchini

• Frozen Riced Veggies

• Frozen Spiralized Veggies

Fruits:

• Apples

• Avocados

• Bananas

• Blueberries (fresh and frozen)

• Blackberries

• Cherries

• Pineapple

• Raspberries

• Strawberries

Meat:

• Lean Beef/Steak

• Chicken Breast

• Chicken Sausage

• Lean Ground Beef

• Lean Ground Chicken

• Lean Ground Turkey

• Turkey Bacon

• Turkey Breast

Fish: (Wild-caught - always.)

• Ahi Tuna

• Cod

• Grouper

• Halibut

• Mahi Mahi

• Salmon (smoked)

• Shrimp

• Scallops

Protein Alternatives, Dairy, Eggs:

• Almond Milk (unsweetened)

• Coconut Milk (unsweetened)

• Oat Milk (unsweetened)

• Whole Eggs

• Liquid Eggs Whites

• Hard-Boiled Eggs

• “Beefless” Ground Beef

• Tofu

Grains:

• Corn Tortillas

• Gluten-Free Bread

• Brown Rice

• Oats

• Ezekiel (Trevor)

Beans:

• Black Beans

• Chickpeas

• Hummus

• Edamame Pasta (this stuff is amazing!)

• Black Bean Pasta

• Lentil Pasta

Nuts & Seeds:

• Flax Seeds

• Chia Seeds

• Pumpkin Seeds

• Sunflower Seeds

• Pistachios

• Trail Mix

• Nut Butters (Nuttzo is to die for)

Snacks & Treats:

• Power Oats

• Mighty Muffins

• Kodiak Cakes

• Kodiak Waffles

• Apple Chips

• Dried Veggie Chips

• Dried Edamame

• Whole Seed/Grain Crackers

• Rice Cakes

Protein Bars:

• Quest

• FitCrunch

• Perfect Bars

• ThinkThin

• Built Bar

• Zone Macro Bars

“Healthy” Ice Cream (Dairy-Free in our household):

• Halo Top

• Enlightened

• Cado

Pantry Essentials & Condiments:

• Olive Oil

• Avocado Oil

• Hot Sauce

• PB-2 Peanut Powder (overnight oatmeal)

• Sugar-Free/Low-Sugar Ketchup

• Sugar-Free/Low-Sugar BBQ Sauce

• Sugar-Free/Low-Sugar Honey Mustard Sauce

• Sugar-Free/Low-Sugar Teriyaki

Spices, Sweeteners & Herbs

• Fresh Ginger Root

• Cinnamon

• Lowry’s Seasoning Salt

• Montreal Steak Seasoning

• Salt & Pepper

• Stevia Extract

• Taco Seasoning

• Trader Joe's Vegan Chickenless Seasoning

• 21 Salute

Supplement Options:

• Amino Energy Powder (green juice)

• Designer Lite Protein (overnight oatmeals)

• Optimum Nutrition Plant Protein (post-workout protein shake)

• Sports Research Collagen Peptides (green juice)

• Vital Proteins Beauty Glow Collagen

• Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee

• Superfood Powder (green juice)

• Creatine (post-workout)

• Fish Oil

• Vitamin B12

• Vitamin D&K

• Turmeric

• Melatonin

• Ashwagandha

• Magnesium

Beverages:

• Unsweetened Aloe Vera Juice

• Coffee

• Sparkling Water

• Tea

• Water

• 100% Lemon Juice (green juice)

You may have noticed we don’t eat dairy and have only a few products that contain gluten. Just to set the record straight: Kassie cannot eat dairy or gluten. Trevor cannot eat dairy and limits gluten but does have the occasional treat (waffles, tortillas, etc.). We would love to have a few quality dairy products in our diets but we got gypped on being drawn the “able to digest dairy” card (insert small violin playing sounds of tears).

One last time for those in the back:

If you have any questions or would like to dive into changing your life by following a healthy diet, please feel free to reach out! Great news - you don’t have to let the food you eat poison your body. Even better news - we can show you how to follow a diet that’s sustainable, makes you feel good, AND tastes good.