Grocery Shopping Just Got Easier
As women in demanding careers or owning your own business, time can be a hard thing to find. Many women who work outside of the home end up working more total hours then their male counterparts when you add up obligations to children and running an efficient household. With so much time spent at work or working on your business, finding time to cook a healthy meal let alone hit the grocery store to get the food to prepare can be hard to do. We as a society have gotten away from the nice home cooked dishes so lovingly prepared to eat as we sit down with the rest of our family at the dinner table to enjoy. Our lives are now filled with quick meals that we either pick up on our way home from work, or so conveniently have delivered to our front door. And if it’s not one of these options; we pull out an already prepared frozen dinner throw it in the microwave and voilà, dinner is served.
Now, there are ways to make shopping for healthier meals a lot easier and less time consuming. The major thing we need to do when accomplishing this is to have a plan. Fitting in time to go to the grocery store and picking up healthy options doesn’t have to be so difficult and time consuming. Make it easy on yourself, and spend more time doing things you love.
First thing you can do is, make a list. Taking a mental inventory of what you already have at home and what you need for the grocery store allows you to get mentally prepared. It gives you direction on what you need, which helps you to save time when deciding what to get while at the store. Going in with out a list can cause you to get sidetracked and distracted by food choices you may not even need. This can waste time and even add frustration.
Going to the store at off peek hours such as weekdays can really shave time off your trip. People love shopping on Saturday and Sunday. I almost never go to the store on these days. For one, all of the produce has already been picked over and what’s left is hardly any good. And two it takes forever to get out of the place. Between climbing over people to get to a shelf with the product I want, or causing a shopping cart traffic jam at the end of the aisle, you can never get out on time. And we haven’t even made it to the checkout line yet.
Along with going at off peek hours, pick a day of the week and time and try your best to stick with it. Creating a routine and sticking to a specific day will make it easier for you to stay consistent with your trips. This also allows you to schedule time more efficiently around your shopping. When you know what to expect, time management becomes much easier.
When going shopping pick one to two grocery stores to shop at. This helps you to get to know your store, and used to where they position their food and products. When you’re more familiar with the layout of your store, you can navigate the aisle a lot smoother and decrease your time there.
For certain foods that are non-perishables like beans, grains, frozen fruits and veggies buy in bulk. You can even by fresh veggies or meats in bulk and freeze them yourself. Buying food in bulk allows you to buy more at one time, which then decreases the amount of time you need on the next grocery trip. Or eliminates the next trip all together.
Technology has come a long way, and who ever came up with the idea of insta-cart…. Pure genius. For those of you who don’t know, insta-cart is an applicaton that allows users to order their groceries from varies stores, from your phone, and have them delivered right to your door. With this lovely app, there are no excuses. There are also some grocery stores that allow you to order your groceries online and then conveniently pick them up when they are ready. This is just like ordering some pizza to go, so the next time you think about placing an order and picking up some dinner to take home after work; try ordering from your local grocery store instead.
Hitting the grocery store is a non-negotiable when feeding your face with healthy meals. Arm your self with a plan, execute and BOOM… Nail it!