Like anyone, we sometimes fall into some ruts where “treats” and “almost real food” become too frequent. Completing a Whole30 is a great way for us to remember how much better we feel (and train) when we don’t overdo the wine, gluten-free treats, and potato chips.

Teens Can Do It, Too

My oldest daughter, KaLynn (age sixteen) carries her real food and Whole30 with her everywhere she goes. KaLynn has aspirations of becoming a holistic pediatrician, and she understands the nutrition–health connection. She has a severe gluten intolerance like her momma and has decided to treat her IBS symptoms at the root cause by avoiding common dietary triggers.

My daughter KaLynn, age 16

Healthy Eating Outside the Home

I sat down to ask KaLynn what kinds of challenges she faces as a teenager who chooses to eat a specialized diet. One of the biggest issues kids (and adults) face is going to friends’ houses and sticking to their healthy eating habits. KaLynn discussed how she deals with these situations:

When I go to my friends’ houses, they know I have to at the very least eat gluten-free. I tell them ahead of time about my intolerance and how it affects me, so that gets their thoughts automatically turned toward more healthy choices. Chicken is usually my go-to meat because it’s easy and versatile.

At first, I thought I was just being a big problem, so I would avoid talking about food and would usually end up not eating much, if anything at all. Then I realized cooking real food recipes together was actually a great way to bond! My friends talk about how they appreciate having me around because it sort of forces them to make better choices and learn to cook. It can be fun!

I also discussed the issue of school lunches with KaLynn, and she expressed the same frustration many adults deal with: setting aside time for preparation. “The struggle is getting the motivation to actually do it that early in the morning,” she said. “The key is making it a habit and cutting up things the night before.”

Dealing With Peer Pressure

But even with preparation, following a Whole30 or any other program brings with it the added challenge of peer pressure. We all are up against the “Oh yeah, I forgot you’re on a diet” comments at the office when we pass on the donuts or decide not to go out to lunch because we already packed food. KaLynn explained how she deals with pressure from her peers:

The pressure to eat like everyone else at school is hard. Vending machines don’t help. I love fruit gummy snacks and it takes all of my willpower not to buy them. My friends bring things like popcorn or brownies and pass them around class. Sometimes I would kill to just be ‘normal’ and eat that stuff like they do. I just have to remind myself how I will feel if I do eat it, and that’s usually enough.

At the end of the day, KaLynn’s favorite thing about doing a Whole30 is developing new and better habits. Said KaLynn, “I feel like I’m sort of lucky, because I’m learning self-control and good habits at a younger age. Really, at the end of the day, it isn’t that hard.”

Weekly Meal Plan

Click Here to Download a Copy of the Weekly Meal Plan 

As mentioned above, planning ahead is one of the keys to completing a Whole30 successfully. Here is a week’s worth of Whole30-approved meals so you can get a taste for what it’s like.

Monday

• Breakfast: Cubed watermelon, mixed nuts, and coconut manna
• Lunch: Rolled Boar’s Head (or other filler-/nitrate-free) deli meat rolled around avocado slices, apples
• Dinner: Beef tips (I use stew meat) stir-fried with ghee and slivers of bell peppers, onions, and garlic (pictured below)

Prepping ingredients for Monday night’s stir-fried beef tips

Tuesday

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs cooked in ghee with sautéed leftover onions and peppers from last night’s dinner
• Lunch: Chicken salad on romaine, made with Whole30 mayo, dill, salt and pepper
• Dinner: Spaghetti with “zoodles” (spiralized courgette noodles with meat sauce – pictured below), salad

Spaghetti with “zoodles” for Tuesday night dinner

Wednesday

• Breakfast: Apples and walnuts seared in coconut oil with cinnamon, hard-boiled eggs
• Lunch: Tuna on courgette slices or carrot sticks, served with grapes or berries
• Dinner: Stuffed peppers with ground beef, onion, cauliflower rice, and spices

Thursday

• Breakfast: Sausage and orange wedges
• Lunch: Butternut squash soup
• Dinner: Grilled chicken marinated in Tessemae’s lemon pepper dressing, roasted courgette spears

Friday

• Breakfast: Leftover courgette with fried egg
• Lunch: Leftover lemon chicken on a large green salad
• Dinner: Baked rosemary and garlic salmon with sautéed spinach

Saturday

• Breakfast: Sweet potato hash with eggs and nitrate-free bacon
• Lunch: Broiled aubergine (To prepare, brush both sides of slices with olive oil and garlic. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes, then broil for 2 minutes.)
• Dinner: Grilled burgers and fried red potatoes, roasted broccoli (To prepare the broccoli, put broccoli florets in a gallon plastic bag with olive oil and salt. Shake until coated. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.)

Sunday:

• Breakfast: On the way out the door for church, we slice a banana lengthwise, coat the flat side with almond butter, and smoosh a slice of bacon in the middle
• Dinner: We also put a beef roast in the crock pot with red potatoes, onions, and carrots.
• The rest of Sunday, we eat up leftovers and plan for the following week.

Sunday pot roast

The best way to eat healthy as a family is to make a plan, create a list, and hit up the grocery store and local markets. Good luck to you and your family as you make your way toward better health!

You Might Also Enjoy:

• On-the-Go Mason Jar Meals for Busy Athletes
• Eating Clean On the Go: It’s All in the Planning
• Big Batch o’ Cave(wo)man Paleo Chili
• What’s New on Breaking Muscle UK Today

The post Our Family’s Whole30 Journey – From a Teen’s Perspective appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The Job’s a Game

I used to loathe the idea of having to spend all that time in the grocery store and kitchen on a perfectly good weekend. But once I realized how much time and money I save during the hectic work week by not stopping at the grocery store every couple days and cooking every night, my perception changed.

Even better, our family of nine has now turned the whole event into a game. We spend our Sunday morning coffee time making the meal plan into a grocery list, itemized by store and department.

“[O]nce I realized how much time and money I save during the hectic work week by not stopping at the grocery store every couple days and cooking every night, my perception changed.”

Then we go to the store and do our WOD – “Costco for time.” We’ve learned to weave in and out of the shopping carts pushed by moms with toddlers and local “snowbirds” (seasonal residents) in record time. We are the crazies who go long and throw spiral passes with Kerrygold butter.

Our crazy butter-throwing family

Meal-Prep Sunday

I am absolutely in love with everything about fall, so today’s meal-prep Sunday was especially rewarding. Cool days like today are a rarity in south Florida where we live, so we opened the windows, turned on the muted football game (Go Lions! Yeah, I said it. Don’t judge me), blared some Dave Matthews on Pandora, unloaded the groceries, and got to business. Chili was started on the stove, and dancing, chopping, sealing, and baking ensued.

• Grocery shopping start to final meal in the fridge: 4.5 hours
• Memories made: lifetime

Some of the things we did this week:

• Baked, chopped, and sealed chicken for stir fry later this week
• Prepared homemade fruit and nut bars (like Lara Bars)
• Made pico de gallo and tortillas for taco night
• Baked gluten-free banana bread muffins for grab-and-go breakfasts
• Shredded sweet potatoes
• Pre-made chicken salad and deviled eggs for lunches
• Baked chocolate chocolate chip cookies for a low-sugar, gluten-free kids desert option

Weekly Meal Plan

Click Here to Download a Copy of the Weekly Meal Plan

Meatball Monday:

• Breakfast: Banana muffins with almond butter – I use this recipe, only switch to a muffin pan and cook for 25 min.
• Lunch: Adults- leftover chili. Kids – Boar’s Head Blazin’ Buffalo chicken, carrot and celery sticks with Tessemae’s ranch dip, organic sliced apples, and cheese
• Dinner: Aidells Meatballs – carmelized onion variety with zucchini noodles (“zoodles,” as we call them). You can find a spiralizer to make zoodles here. I guess you could say this is cheating, but a huge box of meatballs that will feed my huge family is only $13.39 at my Costco, and the ingredients are pretty great. We get two boxes to ensure leftovers. The entire meal was less than $30.00, which inclues tomorrow’s lunch.

Banana nut muffins

Taco Tuesday:

• Breakfast: Deviled eggs and homemade fruit and nut bars – there are so many varieties, you could make these bars for weeks!
• Lunch: Leftover meatballs, sliced apples, small salad
• Dinner: Soft tacos on homemade tortillas (holy moly, these are amazing) with pre-made pico de gallo

Wacky Wednesday:

Wednesdays are a madhouse due to extracurricular and church activities.

• Breakfast: Sweet potato hash with scrambled eggs
• Lunch: Chicken salad stuffed bell peppers and grapes
• Dinner: Crockpot beef roast with small red potatoes, onions, and carrots. (Hooray for crockpots on crazy days!)

Thai Thursday:

• Breakfast: NO-Oat oatmeal and bacon
• Lunch: Leftover beef roast and mixed veggies, side of grapes
• Dinner: Coconut curried chicken stir fry (with chicken pre-cooked and refrigerated Sunday)

Freaky Fingers Friday:

• Breakfast: Kids’ choice. Egg cooked to order, fruit and nut bars, banana
• Lunch: Lettuce wraps with buffalo chicken and cheese, celery and apples with almond butter
• Dinner: Chicken fingers coated with egg and almond meal, roasted sweet potato spears

Saturday

• Breakfast: Banana pancakes and bacon
• Lunch: Leftovers and kids’ choice
• Dinner: Burgers on the grill

Sunday:

• Brunch: Sweet potato sausage hash topped with fried egg

The rest of the day, we eat up all the leftovers and clean the fridge out for oncoming week.

Homemade pico de gallo

Weekly Grocery List

Click Here to Download a Copy of the Weekly Grocery List

Staples: 

• Coconut flour
• Almond meal (can be made by crushing almonds in a food processor)
• Arrowroot powder
• Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg
• Vanilla
• Coconut oil
• Chili powder
• Flaxseed
• Almond butter
• Organic, grassfed butter
• Coconut milk- full fat, in can, preferably only coconut and water, no guar gum/fillers/preservatives

Meat: 

• Large packs of Aidells Meatballs – flavor of choice
• Nitrate free/filler free/gluten free lunchmeats such as Boar’s Head or Applegate
• Grassfed ground beef (we would use 4lb)
• Free range organic chicken breasts
• One beef rump roast (or two if you’re a family of nine)
• Breakfast sausage

Produce:

• Carrots
• Celery
• Zucchini
• Romaine lettuce
• Bell peppers (we prefer red)
• Tomatoes for pico de gallo
• Poblano pepper
• One jalapeno
• One red onion
• White onion
• Sweet potatoes
• Small red potatoes
• Frozen organic stir-fry veggies
• Organic apples
• Medjool dates
• Organic grapes or seasonal fruit of choice
• Almonds/pecans/walnuts

Other:

• Eggs
• Cheese
• Tessemae’s ranch dressing (or make your own)

Pick your day of the week, print this list, get your music going, and chop and boogey your way to a super productive week. Bon Apetit!

The post 3 Tools for a Week of Healthy Eating: A Meal Plan, Grocery List, and Fun appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

My passion is teaching our children habits they’ll take with them into the future. It’s about spending a little more now, if needed, to not pay huge healthcare costs later. Last weekend, I went to the grocery store and was reminded of all the processed foods that I haven’t so much as looked at in years. It made me realize how much money we actually save now that we’ve changed our eating habits.

Here are some of the healthy foods I bought and how much I spent:

• One pound of bananas: $.54 (on sale, normally $.69)
• Free range organic eggs: $3.69 per dozen
• Sweet potatoes: $.99 each for huge potatoes (I fed three of us on one tonight)
• Organic romaine lettuce: $3.99 for a pack of three stalks
• Organic baby spinach: $4.19 for a giant box

Conversely, here are the prices for some of the junkier foods:

• Frosted Flakes: $3.99 per box
• 1 DiGiorno pizza and cookies in a box (enough to feed 2-3 of us at most): $8.19
• 1 twelve-pack of Coke: $2.99 (on sale)

Here are a few examples of meals I prepared last week, with total cost included:

• One whole pork tenderloin fed six for $7.99. I also bought 24 distilled waters for $2.99. (How much was that twelve-pack of Coke again?) This evening, I made a crock-pot full of pulled pork tenderloin, sweet potatoes, and fresh picked green beans for $11.89. There were enough leftovers for the adults of the house to have for lunch tomorrow. That’s two meals for $11.89.

• A salad consisting of half an organic romaine stalk, a handful of spinach, organic tomato, avocado, and olive oil with half a chicken breast fed two people. In my estimation, it cost about $5.75. I challenge you to take $5.00 to your local fast food restaurant and attempt to feed two people. You may get one value meal to share, but you’ll probably feel awful for the rest of the day.

Practice Makes Perfect

I used to feed my family the same “cheap” grocery store food. When I first switched to real food, I spent a lot of money. I realized after some research I had to simply plan better.

While standing in the grocery line the other day, I got up the courage to ask the lady in front of me how many people she was buying groceries for. She said two people, herself and her husband, and added that her grandbaby comes over twice a week. She had the usual items: soda, bread, hamburger buns, cereal, yogurt, spaghetti sauce, noodles, and mac and cheese. She told me it was all she planned to buy for the entire week.

Her total for two (and a half) people for the week was $129.67, while my total for a family of nine was $198.76. If you’re tracking with me, that’s a difference of $69.09 for seven additional people.

At the end of the day, the key to saving money is planning. If you already have a meal planned and prepped at home, you’re much less likely to fly through the drive thru or order take-out. You will save your wallet and your health!

As an example, here’s a week’s worth of meals and a shopping list:

WEEKLY MEAL PLAN 

Click Here to Download a PDF of the Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday

Sunday is meal plan and cook-ahead day at our house. For this week’s plan, you will need to cook several chicken breasts. You’ll make chicken salad with half of it and cut up the other half into stir fry pieces. Also, cook a pound each of ground beef, ground chicken, and sausage for tomorrow’s crock-pot chili. This way, you’re all ready to make dinner in a flash all week. When you cook dinner, always cook a little extra so you can have leftovers.

Monday

• Breakfast: No-atmeal
• Lunch: Chicken salad on romaine, side of grapes
• Dinner: Crock-pot chili

Recipe: Take one pound each of the pre-cooked ground beef, ground turkey, and Italian sausages, and put them in the crock-pot. Add half a white onion, two tablespoons chili powder, one teaspoon paprika, salt and pepper to taste, and one bottle of V8 juice. Place in crock-pot on low for 6-9 hours.

Tuesday

• Breakfast: Sweet potato hash and bacon
• Lunch: Left over chili
• Dinner: Chicken apple stir fry

Tip: Bake your bacon while you get ready for work. Heat oven to 400 degrees, place bacon on a cookie sheet, and in 20-25 minutes, it will be crisp and ready to serve!

Wednesday

• Breakfast: “Garbage omelette” – Use any veggies you have in the fridge, sautéed and thrown in with the eggs.
• Lunch: Large salad with the leftover chicken from last night’s dinner
• Dinner: Burgers topped with fried eggs and grilled zucchini spears

Thursday

• Breakfast: Frozen fruit smoothie and hard-boiled egg
• Lunch: Leftover burgers and veggies
• Dinner: Seared pork and sweet potatoes

Recipe: Preheat oven to 325. Rub both sides of pork with onion, garlic, paprika, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Sear on both sides then place in a baking pan with onions and garlic. Bake for 30 minutes. For added flavor, add apples to pan.

Friday

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and sausage
• Lunch: Leftover pork
• Dinner: Crock-pot beef rump roast with onions, carrots, and small potatoes

Saturday

• Brunch: Banana pancakes and sausage
• Dinner: BLT UNwiches – Bacon, lettuce avocado and tomato on romaine

Sunday

• Breakfast: Bacon and fried eggs with apple pear sweet potato hash
• Dinner: Mongolian beef made with leftover beef roast and coconut oil in place of sesame oil as recipe suggests.

Our family’s meal planning chalkboard

WEEKLY GROCERY LIST

You’ll remember from the last meal planning article to write all ingredients and quantities down to the last detail, then cross off the quantities you already have.

Click Here to Download a PDF of the Weekly Grocery List

Staples and Spices

These are things you may already have or only need to buy a few times per year.

• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Ginger
• Chili powder
• Paprika
• Rosemary
• Coconut aminos (or gluten free soy sauce)
• Flax seed
• Raw organic honey
• Almond butter
• Coconut or arrowroot flour
• Mixed nuts: Almonds, pecans, cashews, macadamias

Meats and Cheeses

Amounts will depend on number of people you’re feeding. For meats, plan for approximately .25lb per person.

• Chicken
• Pork chops
• Large rump roast
• 3 pounds grass-fed ground beef
• 1 pound ground chicken or turkey
• 1 package Applegate italian sausage
• 4 pounds uncured nitrate free bacon
• 1 package breakfast sausage (no fillers)
• 1-2 dozen eggs
• feta cheese

Produce

• Organic romaine lettuce
• Organic tomatoes
• Bushel green onions
• Seasonal veggies for salads and sides ( broccoli, carrots, bell peppers, etc)
• 2 large onions (one white one red)
• 4-6 large sweet potatoes
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 5 pound bag organic apples
• Grapes/other seasonal fruit
• Frozen organic berries
• Bunch bananas

Other

• Almond or coconut milk (You can also make your own)

I encourage you to browse the Internet for sales or visit Eat Wild to find locally-sourced eats and vegetables. Get a Costco membership (even split with a friend), take advantage of Target’s Red Debit card for five percent off, and buy locally at farmer’s markets as much as possible.

Again, your first trip for staples may be a bit pricey. However, with some planning, it can be done on a budget. I encourage you to visit your bank statement and add up all the restaurant take-out meals, protein bars, and last-minute shopping trips along with your regular grocery bill. I promise you will save money by planning your meals in advance. Bon Apetit!

Click Here to Download a PDF of the Weekly Meal Plan

Click Here to Download a PDF of the Weekly Grocery List

Photos 1 and 4 courtesy of Nichole Rheiner.

Photos 2 and 3 courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post How to Feed a Big Family Without Breaking the Bank appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The key to keeping my sanity through the chaos: planning. Sounds so simple, right? The problem is, most people won’t invest an hour or two per week in themselves. The week slips by with missed workouts, crazy running around, extra grocery store trips, and, God forbid, drive-through visits.

Make a Menu and Create a List

I assume anyone reading is well aware of the role nutrition plays in athletic and even day-to-day performance. For me, there is not a remote chance I could keep up my insane schedule without being properly fueled. By taking an hour or two once per week, getting off YouTwitFaceGram, and investing some time in planning, you can make a world of difference in how well you eat, train, and live. Secondarily, I would be willing to bet you’ll save some money by having a plan. Here’s a little insight into how we do things in our family.

Once per week, usually Sunday, we sit down with the kids and choose our meals for the week. I am fortunate enough to have an equal number-of-children to days-of-week ratio, but assume this isn’t the case for most. After we pore over websites and paleo cookbooks and decide breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for the week, we make a separate list of each ingredient needed for each meal. Every, single ingredient.

This part is important because the one item you forget will be the very thing that causes you to have to run back to the grocery store or say, “Screw it,” and order a pizza. Now that you have your detailed grocery list, go through your fridge and cabinets and mark off those things you already have, being aware of the amount needed versus the amount actually on hand. Double check.

A Sample Weekly Meal Plan and Grocery List

I’m not usually much for following other peoples’ meal plans, as there is a pretty solid chance you won’t like at least one or two options, which confuses the situation and causes you to run off and order takeout. My goal with our clients is to teach them to think through their week, make their own menu according to their likes, and plan accordingly.

In the spirit of leading by example, however, I will share our meal plan for the upcoming week. If you’ve not learned to cook and don’t know your way around a kitchen, may I suggest getting your hands on The Gym Life Book of Cooking Technique, by Colin Stuckert.

Weekly Meal Plan

Click Here to Download a PDF of the Weekly Meal Plan

Supplies You Will Need:

• Crockpot
• Vegetable spiralizer
• Small, medium, and large food storage containers
• Pots
• Pans
• Ice packs for lunch boxes
• Cookbooks and online resources – I like Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook, Paleo Slow Cooker, the PaleoOMG blog, and The Paleo Kitchen.

MONDAY

Breakfast: Coconut milk fruit smoothies and hard-boiled eggs

Lunch: Boar’s Head or Applegate sliced turkey, hard cheddar, kale chips, grapes

Dinner: Beef kebabs with red bell pepper, red onion, and small red potatoes on the grill

TUESDAY

Breakfast: Egg muffin cups

Lunch: Leftover kebobs and potatoes. Kids: Beef, carrot sticks, apples, almond butter

Dinner: Crockpot chicken enchilada stew over cauliflower rice – To make cauliflower rice, just process the florets lightly until rice-like, then microwave for five minutes.

WEDNESDAY

Breakfast: Egg muffin cups

Lunch: Chicken salad unwiches, tangerines, celery with almond butter

Dinner: Taco salad – Romaine lettuce, taco meat, cheese, green onion, avocado, and salsa dressing

THURSDAY

Breakfast: Banana muffins

Lunch: Salad – mixed veggies, tomatoes, avocadoes, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, with a scoop of chicken salad from yesterday

Dinner: Crockpot roast, small red potatoes, onion, carrots

FRIDAY

Breakfast: Quick garbage omelet (throw any veggies cut from yesterday’s salad in a pan with some butter, whip up two or three eggs, cook, flip. Add goat cheese if that’s your thing.

Lunch: Leftover crockpot roast

Dinner: Meatball Marinara over Zoodles (spiralized zucchini) -this also works over spaghetti squash

SATURDAY

Breakfast: YESSS!! Big breakfast day! Sweet potato bacon hash with sausage onion feta omelet

Lunch: For us, we eat breakfast as more of a brunch, or just snack for lunch.

Dinner: Salmon and sautéed spinach and Brussels sprouts

SUNDAY

Breakfast: Super easy banana almond butter crepes, bacon

Lunch: Grilled chicken marinated in Tessemae’s buffalo sauce, roasted garlic and rosemary sweet potatoes

Dinner: Finish the leftovers from the week while working on next week’s plan!

Weekly Grocery List

Here’s the grocery list of ingredients needed for this week. Keep in mind, I’m feeding nine people. Your quantities will most likely be much less, so adjust them as needed. Again, I make the list day by day, recipe by recipe. I then go back and re-organize it by market or store and department to make the trips faster.

• 4 cans coconut milk, no additives
• Frozen organic berries
• 2-3 dozen eggs (We have chickens, so this will get crossed off)
• 2lb Boar’s head/Applegate or other filler-free lunch meat
• Bushel organic Kale
• 2lb organic grapes
• Beef tips/stewing beef
• 4 large red bell peppers
• 2 large red onions
• 5lb bag organic red potatoes
• 1lb ground sausage
• 3 bushels green onions
• Organic carrots, celery, bell peppers
• 2lb chicken breasts
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 can green chiles (+1 can jalapenos, if you like spicy)
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 12oz can tomato sauce
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp oregano
• [Note: You can omit the above eight ingredients and use the cheap, easy version if desired: One bottle of salsa over chicken, add cumin.]
• One head cauliflower
• Chicken salad (If you want to make your own chicken salad, this is where cooking ahead comes into play. On Sunday, bake some chicken breasts in the oven for thirty minutes at 375 degrees. Refrigerate half, and use the other half for the chicken salad. To make the chicken salad, process the chicken, then add mustard, mayo, onion, and dill. Add this amount of chicken to the two pounds above when making your final list.)
• Taco seasoning
• 2lb grass-fed ground beef
• Salsa
• Avocado
• Cheese (if you do dairy)
• Romaine lettuce
• Bananas
• Almond butter
• Butter (We use Kerrygold)
• Coconut flour
• Baking soda
• Baking powder
• Salad veggies – Tomato, peppers, cucumbers
• Olive oil
• Bacon – Lots of bacon
• Feta cheese
• Rump roast
• Organic spaghetti sauce
• Aidell’s meatballs or more ground beef to make your own
• 2-4 zucchini
• 4 sweet potatoes
• Fresh rosemary
• Salmon
• Spinach
• Brussels sprouts
• Tessemae’s buffalo sauce

Now you’ll want to write one more list, re-worked into sections of the store. So copy, paste, and print the list above. Then make categories on a separate piece of paper for produce, meat, cheeses, fish, eggs, and other sections of your grocery store. Create your own list by adjusting the quantities and removing any items you don’t need.

If this is your first real food or paleo grocery trip, prepare that it will be a tad more expensive, because you’re buying the staples for the first time. For me, I’ll cross off much of this list, because I already have the spices, sauces, oils, and other staples. However, compared to eating out or last-minute trips, I guarantee this will save you money in the long run.

Have fun with this. Involve your family. I promise: Week to week it gets easier! Bon appétit!

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Eating Clean On the Go: It’s All In the Planning appeared first on Breaking Muscle.