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Tip re: planning that you may or may not find useful


LivelyLady

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As we all know, planning is key to sticking with our Whole 30s and I wanted to share the system I've adopted in case anyone is having trouble keeping their lists straight.

I use Google Tasks for my meal planning and shopping lists. It syncs to my phone, so whether I'm at my computer or on my phone, I can view and edit my lists. I have one called To Cook This Week, one for the health food store and one for Costco. That way, when I'm on a recipe site and see something I want to make, I can quickly add it to my cooking planning list for whatever day I want to make it, and just as quickly add the ingredients to my shopping lists. Then when I do my shopping, I just use the phone app to check stuff off. Easy! I think that method has saved me lots of frustration, extra trips to the store and "what am I going to cook tonight?" panic. I know this is not a ground breaking idea, but just in case it hadn't occured to you, I wanted to share. :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

That's great, thank you!

I have a tip for those of us using the Well Fed weekly cookup system---when I plan out my weeks worth of food, I put the grocery and prep lists in my computer. After 6 weeks, I'm going to start rotating the list back to week one (with whatever tweaks I want). I'm finding that if I make each week diverse enough, I should cut down the time it takes for me to plan and will avoid being too repetitive with my meals. :)

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  • 1 month later...

As we all know, planning is key to sticking with our Whole 30s and I wanted to share the system I've adopted in case anyone is having trouble keeping their lists straight.

I use Google Tasks for my meal planning and shopping lists. It syncs to my phone, so whether I'm at my computer or on my phone, I can view and edit my lists. I have one called To Cook This Week, one for the health food store and one for Costco. That way, when I'm on a recipe site and see something I want to make, I can quickly add it to my cooking planning list for whatever day I want to make it, and just as quickly add the ingredients to my shopping lists. Then when I do my shopping, I just use the phone app to check stuff off. Easy! I think that method has saved me lots of frustration, extra trips to the store and "what am I going to cook tonight?" panic. I know this is not a ground breaking idea, but just in case it hadn't occured to you, I wanted to share. :)

would you mind sharing, what is on your Costco list? I would like to know, what I can get from there, that is compliant. I am just never really sure. It would help me get started on my "own" list. Thanks :)

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Krisy- when I go to Costco, I get wholly guacamole, sweet potatoes, onions, cucumbers, blue, black berries and strawberries, raw almonds, eggs, bacon, avocados (if it's not cheaper somewhere else), spinach, mini bell peppers, broccoli, etc. Hope that helps. Ps sometimes I get filet mignon too... Even though it's not grad fed, I can't afford filet mignon grass fed, an it's very lean... So I make an exception for that.

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Cysgr8 has great suggestions on her list. :) Mine is shorter these days since I have to avoid nuts, avocados and eggs due to migraines. If I didn't, I'd for sure still be getting almond butter there since it's a great deal, as is the guacamole. Lately I've been getting carrots, peaches, strawberries, lettuce, cucumbers, blueberries, frozen berries and TONS of spinach, as well as frozen organic chicken breast. I get my red meat at the butcher since they don't have grass fed at Costco.

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I buy tons of stuff at Costco, ever since I lost weight, and there's a ton of stuff you can get there that is compliant.Here's what my average grocery list from there looks like:

chicken breast (usually they have free range/organic, sometimes not)

salmon (have to make sure that it's wild caught, not farmed, sometimes they dont have wild)

pork loin (usually buy a whole loin and cut it into chops and roasts)

ground beef (my Costco does carry grass fed ground beef, but not roasts)

chicken sausage (might not be compliant)

tilapia

frozen shrimp (the 31-40 size with tails on)

onions

sweet potatoes

spinach (big 5 pound bag which I chop and freeze for use in smoothies and soups)

grapes

avocadoes

lemons and limes

seasonal veggies (last time I got some gorgeous asparagus)

garlic (buy the already peeled cloves and freeze them)

Not on Whole30, I also buy cheese and butter and almond milk, plus bulk grains like quinoa and couscous at Costco. :)

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I don't have an Aldi's near me, and while there's a Costco in my area, I don't really have the space to buy a bunch of things in bulk. I do, however, LOVE my Whole Foods, just because I can find clean things there that I have trouble finding elsewhere.

For the best meats, though, I rely on local farmers. I'm very lucky to live in an area where I can get local grassfed, grass-finished beef as well as true free-range poultry and pork (literally--the chickens roam the yard and are only kept in a henhouse at night, and the pigs live in the woods and forage for their own food). I belong to a local co-op where I can order meats and eggs, as well as in-season local veggies & fruits, every week. I try to spend the bulk of my food dollar there, where it's going straight to the people who grow my food. Then I use Whole Foods to fill in the rest.

I use an app called Cozi on my iPhone to house my shopping lists. I have a lot of things that I buy every week, so it's great to just be able to leave those items on there, and check/uncheck them as needed. This app has a calendar and to-do lists and a journal, but I rarely use any of those functions.

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