The System for a Highly Productive Trip to the Grocery Store

Put dieting on autopilot

Starting a new diet can cause a sense of anguish in many people. It caused this feeling in me too before I create the system I am about to tell you about below. Following my system will solve your anguish and help you put your weight loss or muscle gain diet on autopilot so that you can focus your time and energy on the things you love.

Building the meal plan

The first step to building a meal plan is to calculate the values of your constraints which are your daily calorie intake and your daily protein intake.

First decide how many calories to eat per day. Click here to find my fat loss guide where I explain how to calculate how many calories to eat per day.

You l need 0.85–1 grams of protein per lb of bodyweight. If you have a tight budget 0.85 grams will be sufficient but 1 gram will ensure you are getting the optimal amount. If you are really overweight then you can eat 1 gram of protein per centimeter in height.

Your calorie goal and the amount of protein you will be the foundation of the rest of the meal plan.

Pick four to six of your favorite protein sources from the following list:

• Chicken breast
• Chicken thighs
• ≥90% lean ground beef
• lean cuts of steak
• Pork tenderloin
• Turkey
• Ground turkey
• Salmon (Canned, Fresh, Frozen)
• Tuna (Canned, Steaks)
• Shrimp
• Canned sardines
• Tofu
• Whey protein powder (Whey Isolate if you are lactose intolerant)
• Non-fat greek yogurt
• Egg whites

Make sure you stick to the above list, there are a lot of foods commonly considered high protein — like peanut butter — that are not really high in protein.

If you are vegetarian your best options are protein powder, tofu, egg whites, and greek yogurt. If you are vegan, a plant based protein powder and tofu are going to basically be your only options.

Next, make a list of each protein source, how much protein each one has per serving, how many calories each one has per serving, and how much one serving of that food weighs (for example one serving of chicken breast is 4oz raw). Use excel or Google sheets to make the process easier.

In a cell in excel type your daily protein intake. In another cell multiply your daily protein requirment by 7. In a third cell divide the weekly protein requirement by the number of protein sources you chose. The third cell contains the number of grams of protein you need to get from each protein source per week.

In a separate column next to where you listed all the data for each protein source divide the grams of protein you need to get from each source per week by the grams of protein within each serving of that particular protein source. Now you know the exact number of servings you need from each protein source per week.

Multiply the number of servings by the weight of each serving to get the total weight of the protein source you need per week. This is helpful as a package of chicken might simply list the weight in the package and the weight of each package can vary.

You may want to re-allocate some servings from one of the protein sources to another. Non-fat greek yogurt is far more expensive than chicken breast and you will notice that basically every tub of non-fat greek yogurt has only 5 servings in one package.

The best way to re-allocate servings is to divide all the final serving amounts by 7 to make it a daily average then pick daily serving amounts for each protein source that you like.

Once you have the daily serving amounts you want, multiply them by 7 again to get the weekly servings, then multiply the weekly servings by the serving weights to get the weekly weight requirement.

The protein part of your list is now done. If you buy those protein sources in the final calculated amounts when you go to the grocery store you will without any doubt have enough protein to last you the entire week.

Next we need to fill out the rest of the calories. The easiest way to do this is with a combination of fruits, grains, and root vegetables. If you literally hate all fruits just skip the fruit part. If you like fruit make a list of fruits you enjoy.

I recommend sticking to hand fruits like apples, mandarins, and bananas because they don’t require any preparation. If you absolutely love pineapple and mango and don’t mind the process of cutting them up then go for pineapple and mango.

I recommend having between three to five pieces of fruit per day. The fruit will give you some fiber, some vitamins, and will replenish your liver glycogen levels. Fruit is also filling so if you are cutting weight make fruit a go to food for each meal.

After picking your favorite fruits do some research on approximately how many calories one of the fruits has. To simplify things just eat one of each fruit per day.

Multiply the calories from each fruit by 7. Add all the weekly calories from each fruit together. Take your daily calorie allotment, multiply it by 7 then subtract all the weekly calories from your protein sources and fruits. If you end up with a negative number, first double check all your math.

If your math is correct you must reallocate some protein out of a more fatty source of protein into a leaner one. Else, reduce the number of fruits you are eating per week. It is highly unlikely that if you are focusing mostly on lean sources of protein you would be over the calorie limit at this point.

Next fill in the rest of your calories with grains and root vegetables, unless you are bulking, in which case adding snacks like pretzels or toast could really make life easier.

Personally I mail it in at this point and just buy a 10–20lb bag of white rice and use that fill out all my meals. This takes a ton of thinking out of my meal prep. I just make as much rice as possible at one time, pack it into a Tupperware, then measure out the necessary quantity when it is time to eat.

If you want to eat any other sources of carbohydrates other than rice repeat the process you used for each protein source and apply it to the different sources of carbs you would like to eat. Root vegetables are going to be more filling and are better if you are trying to lose weight while snacks like bread and pretzels will be less filling making it easier to bulk.

Make the list

All the information on food quantities should now be logged in a notebook or excel sheet. If you have an iPhone the Notes app is a great place to store a grocery list since it has a little check off bulleting system built in. In the notes app add the little check off bullets and start filling in your grocery list with all the foods you added to your meal plan and the exact quantities you need. Be overly specific with the quantities. Include the weights, grams of protein, and number of servings you will need.

Go to the store

Pick a morning- if possible- and head off to the store . Buy everything on the list.

Make sure to save your grocery list on your phone. Re-using a grocery list is part of the system.

Execute

I execute my diet plan by cooking one source of protein at a time in bulk (if you chose canned versions of foods you will have some days off from cooking) and make a large batch of rice. I then put everything in tupperware.

I also choose how many meals I am going to eat every day and what size each meal will be. For example If I am eating three meals per day and I am eating 2400 calories each meal will be 800 calories and contain 1/3 of my daily protein intake for the day. For breakfast I will measure out enough of my protein source to meet my protein goal, do a quick calculation to figure out how many calories that will contain. Then I subtract those calories from 800. Then I subtract the calories in the piece of fruit I am going to eat from 800. The rest of the calories I allot to rice and snacks. This takes only a couple of minutes and ensures I stay on track with my diet goals.

If you have to pack a lunch to go into an office daily as I do then you will just complete the above process the night before you go into work and put all the food into a Tupperware then a lunch box.

Take note of errors

You might make a few errors or decide after a week that you really prefer to eat apples instead of Kiwi. It is easy to make that change especially if it is only a couple changes and you have your initial list to reference. Make note of your errors and adjust you saved grocery list for next time.

The system sustains itself

By re-using your list and eating the same meal plan every week you will save a lot of time and energy. All you need to do before grocery shopping is take your list out, go through the cabinets and refridgerator and uncheck all the foods that you need to replenish.

As you shop week after week using this meal planning system you will have your entire grocery store route memorized and shoppinng will be a breeze. You will no longer have stress worrying what to buy at the store because those decisions are on autopilot thanks to all the upfront work you did.

The list is Plug and Play as your goals change

If you switch from bulking to cutting you will continue to eat the same protein sources but you won’t continue eating the snacks and will not need to buy rice as often.

If you switch from cutting to bulking, just reference the list you made during your last bulking period or maintenance phase. If you have never bulked, first save a copy of your excel workbook and open the copy. Within the copy increase the calorie goal to one that is a calorie surplus over your maintenance calories, and start the meal planning steps from the adding rice and snacks part and be sure to save all the information for reference during later bulks.

Closing

This is the meal planning and grocery list system that I have used for about two years to successfully bulk and cut weight as I have gone through my fitness journey. This system can be easily tailored to whatever your goals are and will save you a ton of time so that you can hit your fitness goals while still enjoying valuable free time.