Locking Down Your Nutrition during lockdown

Locking Down Your Nutrition During Lockdown

Hello friends! Happy Friday.

So, here we are, cruising through April. Still social distancing. Still in Pandemic Land. It’s tough on all of us, and I know it can be very frustrating and anxiety laden when we consider just WHERE the light at that dang end of the tunnel is.

Unfortunately, it’s exact point in time is outside of our circles of influence and to help us reclaim our sanity we’re going to take a little step inside one of our current circles of influence and look at our nutrition.

During these times, especially for those who find themselves out of work, it is very very important to carefully plan how we spend our finances during this time.

We also should be planning our shopping trips carefully too, hopefully making it so we only have to venture to the market 1x per week.

This is the perfect recipe for taking more control and charge over what you’re feeding yourself and putting into your body. Also, believe it or not, but buying fresh whole foods in bulk and taking the time to prepare and cook them yourself will save you a butt ton of money that you might otherwise spend on pre-packaged meals or ordering out. So not only is it good for your health, it’s also frugal!

So where do we begin?

If you don’t have much experience shopping and cooking this can seem like a tough task and may bring on some anxiety.

Stop.

Breathe.

We’re going to start with the basics and keep it straight forward so you can crush this!

1.) Know Your Store.

Most grocery stores are laid out the same. Whole fruits and vegetables are on one end of the store, meats, dairy, and finally frozen / refrigerated foods tend to then roll around the perimeter of the store, sometimes ending in the grains if they aren’t combined with your fruits and veggies section.

See, that’s not so bad right? The golden rule is that most of your shopping will be done on the perimeter of the store, saving only choice items being purchased from the middle isles.

2.) Make a Plan Before Venturing Out.

Just like with anything that you want to be consistently successful with, you need to have a plan in place. Make yourself a meal plan for the week, roughly outlining what you plan on having for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.

Once you have your meal plan, make your grocery list based on that so you don’t end up doing “browsing shopping” which is just bad-news-bears.

3.) Don’t Shop Hungry.

It’s hard enough making good decisions based on logic and reason. Don’t do this to yourself and make it even harder.

4.) Stick To Your Budget.

Budgeting is tough, and it’s even tougher when financial futures are dicey. There are tons of great apps out there for finding coupons and other ways of saving as much money as you can on groceries. As well, lots of stores do reward programs and give you points or cash back for buying store brand over name brand.

That’s it! See, it’s not so scary. You just have to practice, and have a good plan in place.

Now .. to address those who aren’t too concerned about finances during these times. I urge you to consider adding into your meal plan at least 1x a week where you order out to help support the local economy around you. You can afford those calories and the restaurants you patron will thank you as well, and hopefully, we can all lean on each other and continue to prop eachother up in these tough times.

Human beings are social creatures, that’s why solitary confinement is one of the worst things you can do to a person. So let’s all be a little kinder, and let’s all work a little harder to see the bright side and make someone else smile.

Also, shameless self plug! If you need some killer meal plans or recipes to help you make the most of all the time you’re going to have to spend in the kitchen, head on over to our School Store and pick up one of our three cookbooks! (Or all 3!) each one has 2 meal plans and corresponding grocery lists already done for you!