A good diet begins with a good purchase. Remember that we will eat what we have within reach and it will not be more than what we have previously bought. Last week, in the post  how to plan and organize your diet  and remembering, we saw that the planning steps are:

Planning the shopping list

1. Prepare the weekly menu
2. Balance it and vary it
3. Always have it in sight (hanging in the fridge, for example)
4. Make the shopping list (with the menu next to it)
5. Have all the necessary food to prepare the menu

Today we are going to discuss this fourth point, and that is why I bring you 5 tricks to make the shopping list.

1. Customize your shopping list

To prepare the shopping list we will need a template where we can write everything we need. The first time we will have a little more work, but later it will be easier, since we always buy the same foods and make a regular consumption of them, so it will only be a matter of adding new products.

I have made this template (you can download it by clicking on it), but you can use the one you like the most or the one that best suits your needs, maybe you don’t buy frozen or canned food, you should customize it according to your habits:

In the others section you can also write everything that is not food, such as hygiene or cleaning products. As you can see, everything is food, there is no section on sweets, or processed products, sauces … It is important that they are already discarded from the beginning, so you will avoid buying them.

2. Lean on your menu

Whether you do the weekly or monthly shopping, you should always rely on the menu that you have previously prepared in a healthy, balanced and varied way. Remember that you have a complete course to know how to make your own menu in the web academy: https://www.comiendoconmaria.com/cursos/ .

With the menu next to it, it is only a matter of adding the necessary ingredients to carry out the menu to the template of your shopping list. Make sure to write down all the ingredients and pay more attention to all those complements of the dishes such as seeds, spices … or foods such as olive oil, salt, garlic, lemon or bicarbonate, which are the most forgetful. Remember to always write down the foods from the notepad (point 4). You can also end up doing a review of your pantry and refrigerator, and check that you do not need anything that may not be on the menu for that week.

3. Have practical supplies handy

It is very useful and practical to have this material on hand that will help you make your list. The seasonal fruit and vegetable calendar will help you select those seasonal fruits and vegetables and thus avoid buying those fruits and vegetables that are not seasonal and therefore will not be local. You will also save money, since seasonal food is also cheaper and more tasty and local. You can have the calendar hanging in a visible place, such as in the refrigerator. You can download the calendar by clicking on the image.

Another material that can help you is the supermarket magazine where you usually buy , to know the offers and promotional foods. Even so, remember that it is always better to go to the market, where there are no magazines or labels, which makes shopping easier.

4. The notepad

You can help yourself with a notepad, where you write down what you need at the moment . It is more useful if you have it in the kitchen, since it is where you will realize that you are missing some food. While you cook, if you see that you have some food about to run out or you have directly finished with your reserves of that food, write it down in the notepad and when preparing the list, do not forget to add it. It is always better to be proactive, and write down what you have little or are about to run out of. So you will never lack for anything and you will not have to improvise.

There are different ways and types, for example I have it hanging on the wall, but there are those who have it in the fridge with a magnet or use a chalk or magnetized blackboard. It does not have to be very big, since there you will only write down the things that are finished or that urge you.

5. For the most technologists

If you are of the latest technology, you can also make your list with an app . There are more and more applications for mobile phones and other devices that can help you make your shopping list. As recommended to consume, some of the most complete are the following:

• myShopi  is free, available for Android and iOS and with a complete supermarket catalog. In this way, it is not only possible to make a shopping list based on the products that are needed, but also taking as a reference the establishment in which it is purchased on a regular basis. Making the list is very simple and you just have to click on the corresponding icon and choose a supermarket. A varied range of products appears divided by categories, which to add them you just have to click on them and indicate the quantity.
• LiShop  allows you to create the list with ease, choosing the products (classified in alphabetical order) and indicating the quantity that is needed. When it’s done, you can send it to anyone you want by email or save it to Dropbox. Once in the supermarket, you only have to mark what is added to the cart until the task is completed.
• ListOn Free , available for Android, lets you make several shopping lists at the same time. It has three sections (list, pantry and share) and, when items are crossed out, they are moved to the pantry (purchase history), so that products can be retrieved for a new list. One of the advantages of this application is that the list can be shared by WhatsApp or by email, which makes it easy to send it to another family member -or whoever makes the purchase- to complete it.
• Out of Milk , in addition to making a very complete list, stands out because it offers the possibility of taking an inventory of what you have at home to avoid unnecessary purchases.
• Buy Me a Pie!  It has a very useful and visual function that allows the assignment of colors to the different categories (meat can be marked in red, dairy products in blue, eggs, pasta and bread in yellow, etc.). In this way, making the list is very simple and, when you arrive at the supermarket, the task of shopping will be faster.

Some extra tips

To finish I want to give you some tips when making the purchase:

• • When you go shopping, always do it on a full stomach, after having eaten. Going without hunger will prevent you from buying superfluous and unhealthy products.
  • Avoid the aisles of sweets, snacks and appetizers. When making the list we already try to make this happen because we do not add any food that is in these aisles, but if we avoid it in duplicate, it will be easier to get it.
  • Try new foods. Every time you go shopping, take a new food with you: some fruit or vegetables, a whole grain… and prepare a dish with it. In this way you will vary your diet more and eat healthier.
  • Learn to read labels and reject those that have:
    • Hydrogenated  or partially  hydrogenated fat  , refined oils and other unidentified fats.
    • Added sugars (sucrose, glucose, dextrose, glucose syrup, corn syrup…).
    • The nutritional traffic light can help you:

• • Remember that the list of ingredients is ordered according to the amount that this product contains. That is, the first ingredient will be the one that is in the most quantity in the product and so on. The longer the ingredient list the more insane the product will be.
• Choose whole grains over whites. Its caloric value is similar to the refined version, but they provide us with fiber and a good dose of minerals and vitamins (group B above all) that refined ones do not have.
• Consume eggs whose first number in the series that are printed is a 0, which means that they are from hens raised free range and fed with grain. Or failing that, the 1.
• If you can’t live without chocolate, choose black, with 80% cocoa or higher.

With these tricks it will be very easy for you to make the shopping list and consequently, to eat a healthy diet.