Damn girl, that's a lot of fattitude

The first thing people typically want to know is HOW I’ve lost all this weight. What am I doing? Am I taking something? What am I eating? How am I eating? HOW HOW HOW? Because of this I am creating a “Grocery” Section/Page – or something of the like.

Fortunately, I’m a planner so I do menu/list plan in advance. I have a spreadsheet that totals my balance because I’m a nerd and I always a game plan. If I do not have these things I will leave with 2 carts, one with double stuff oreos and the other with ice cream. It’s in everyone’s best interest that I have a list.

Also note, I have no grocery store allegiance. I look over Kroger and Publix’s ad and then decide whose I like better for the week. If I don’t like either I go to our farmer’s market.

Here are my top 5 tips for mastering the grocery store

• Look at your kroger ad and publix ad. I plan all of my menus around the ad so that I save the most money. I don’t do extraneous couponing, but publix/kroger now have digital coupons. I typically just upload them all because I’m lazy and it’s easier and if there’s a coupon that applies it’ll just read it for you. No actual work involved.

• Determine your weekly menu. I have breakfast staples and routines. My lunches are typically left overs and I plan dinner out.

• Make a list. For God’s sake, make a list. Go through your establish menu and write down what you will need for each meal. Look through your current inventory and don’t overbuy. Once you have said list do not stray.

• For those of you on Weight Watchers, my best advance is to go with time and a sharpie the first time. After a while you have a repertoire of things you’ll frequently keep and stock and you’ll get a lot fast at this. As soon as you pick something up that’s in a box/can calculate your points (even if it’s for your kids/mother/husband) and WRITE IT ON THE ITEM. I cannot stress this enough. It’s a game changer and saves you so much time in the long run. Two things happen – you don’t have to calculate your points every time and you’ll feel a hell of a lot guiltier when you take it from the freezer and have a huge 5 staring at you because you are now faced with that fact that 1/2 a cup of Ben and Jerry’s Half Baked Frozen Yogurt is FIVE EFFING POINTS. This has stopped me some times and other times I laugh and eat. 80/20 folks, 80/20.

• Do not go to the store hungry and do not plan hungry. All will power will be lost. You will suddenly find yourself wanting to try everything and then justifying it with “but these are gluten free cookies and healthier” and then you have 80 “healthy” things you never planned on buying.

This is my plan for this coming week. I’ll shop tomorrow. On Sunday I will make my own pizza dough and biscuits to freeze. I’ll eat leftovers for lunch, snack on fruit and have oatmeal or boiled eggs for breakfast. We won’t be home much over the weekend because of labor day and we’ll have dinner out on Wednesday. I bake on the side and have an upcoming event on labor day weekend- hence my “baking” section in my spreadsheet.