I’m sharing my favorite Whole 30 shopping tips with you today! When you’re going on your first Whole 30 shopping trip, it can be very overwhelming to remember all the things you can’t have and finding things that you can! These tips have helped us stay on the Whole 30 track and made shopping for it much easier!
We just wrapped up our second round of Whole 30! Okay – so we stopped a few days early, but we are still happy with our results and having the opportunity to get back on track with our eating! The holidays did a number on our diets – we basically were eating a ton of junk food and feeling like c-r-a-p. I had wanted to do another round in January but wasn’t sure Chris would be on board, so when he is the one that asked, I jumped on that train with him!
Now that we are through two rounds, I feel like I’ve finally started to get into a rhythm with meal planning and shopping that will set us up for success! One thing that they don’t tell you about Whole 30 is that if you’re not used to cooking and doing dishes a lot, your world is about to be rocked. It is a lot of cooking, and subsequently, a lot of dishes that follow.
So with that being said, here are some of the shopping hacks that I learned!
Whole 30 Shopping Tips, Hacks, & Tricks
Heading to the grocery store for the first time to shop for your first Whole 30 is daunting. So let’s get started!
1. Learn to Read Your Labels
It is incredible to see how many things are actually in the food we eat! Manufacturers like to sneak sugar, soy, and other additives in sneakily, thinking that we don’t know words like granulated glucose! I found this freebie from Whole 30 really helpful when I started out. They also have a guide to all the science-y and sneaky names for sugar here.
The bottom line is – the less ingredients something has in it, and the easier they are to read, the safer you probably are! And, if something doesn’t have a label on it (like produce and meats), then you don’t have to decipher those labels at all!
2. Place priority on what you can have vs. what you can’t have.
When you first start Whole 30, it is easy to get sad about all your favorite foods (especially those you thought were super healthy) that you can’t have anymore. Things like peanut butter, corn, black beans, and rice were on regular rotation in our menu so it was a bit of a blow to realize that we had to cut those out for a while! Start focusing on what you can fill your grocery cart up with instead!
Priority #1: Protein
I’ve never eaten more meat in my entire life. I’m not a huge meat eater, and when I do I only like a few kinds (chicken breast, ground beef, and that was pretty much it!) I had to learn to like sausage, steak, and different kinds of chicken to get through it because I did not want to be bored with our meals.
So my advice is, when you decide to do a Whole 30, to start stocking up on protein. The official guidelines tell you to stick with grass-fed, pasture-raised, organic, wild caught protein. But that doesn’t work for every budget and I don’t want to discourage you from doing this on a limited budget! We bought lean cuts of meat (like flank steak, lean ground beef, whole chicken and chicken breasts, Whole 30 approved sausages, and no-sugar added bacon mostly). I did throw in the occasional seafood treat for my husband like shrimp and tilapia.
Priority #2: Produce
Our veggie drawer is simply not big enough for all of the fresh produce that we eat during Whole 30. We made regular use of sweet potatoes and white potatoes for a filling starch, and had a green veggie with it at every meal. Our favorites are fresh green beans, brussel sprouts, and burnt broccoli. We also ate a lot of aromatics like peppers, onions, and garlic, as well as carrots and celery in our cooked meals. My husband is not a huge fruit eater, but we do consume our fair share of apples, grapes, and strawberries.
One of my best tips is to process (wash, dry, and break apart as needed) your produce the day you bring it home from the grocery store. I use the Thieves veggie wash from Young Living and scrub everything right when I get home before I put it away. That way on cooking day, they are all ready to go!
3. Priority #3: Healthy Fats
Healthy fats will round out your meals and help you feel full longer! We rely quite a bit on full-fat canned coconut milk, avocados, avocado oil, ghee, and homemade almond butter. Other options include extra virgin olive oil and nuts – but be sure to check your labels as sometimes they are roasted in seed or canola oil. We get dry roasted or raw cashews and almonds from Aldi and Trader Joe’s and they are pretty inexpensive.
3. Don’t Be Afraid of the Bulk Aisle
If you have a bulk aisle at your grocery store, don’t let it intimidate you! Dried herbs and spices can get expensive and when you only need a little bit, rather than an entire container, grabbing some from the bulk aisle will save you money! I’ve also been able to find things in the bulk bins that were never available on the spice aisle, like chipotle powder.
Our bulk aisle does have some nuts and nut butters, but be sure to read your labels on the items before getting them, as they can sometimes include added sugars and seed oils that are not compliant.
4. Have a Meal Plan & A List
Making a meal plan and having a list to go by will save you time and money while you’re grocery shopping. I make a grocery list every Thursday, order groceries from H-E-B, and pick them up on Friday morning. It makes our entire shopping experience so much better using that method and it is a lot less stressful! Then I will usually run to Trader Joe’s to pick up a few random things (and let’s be honest, because it is such a treat!) and I’m done!
I have found that being extremely specific, up to counting how many avocados we need for the week and planning out how many chicken breasts we will use, has also saved us much food waste as well.
5. Just buy eggs. All of the eggs.
Eggs were 100% at every breakfast, if not at every meal, for both of our Whole 30s. They are a great source of protein, quick and easy to store and cook, and make a really tasty, filling snack when I felt a bit peckish.
We went through about three dozen eggs each week. We fried and scrambled some with our breakfast hash each day and I would hard boil them to add them to salad or have with some celery and carrots in the afternoons when that 2pm slump hit. Eggs were basically my safety fall back when I couldn’t come up with a meal. We would just have eggs, potatoes, and a veggie on those busy nights.
6. Be sure to grab some things that you love too!
One of the habits I broke during my first Whole 30 was the need for something sweet at night before bed. I was so used to having a chocolate chip cookie right before bed – it felt like a little reward after working hard all day! I knew I would still have that craving, so to wean myself off of it, I kept Larabars in the house and replaced my soda habit with a kombucha & sparkling water habit.
These are all of the Whole 30 shopping tips I have amassed so far! What are some of your tricks for staying the course and not getting overwhelmed during that first shopping trip? Share in the comments below!
Many thanks to H-E-B for letting us shop and take photos in your beautiful store! I love H-E-B – their produce is amazing and the stores are always so clean!
