Healthy FreshDirect Shopping List

A Peek Into a Personal Trainer’s Kitchen

Many New Yorkers – busy with work and social commitments – struggle to clarify which healthy habits will lead to the most meaningful results.

As I often tell people, the shifts in lifestyle only need to be very, very small. One notable example is grocery shopping. A consistent, weekly grocery shopping routine with a few key items on the list can change everything.

Everything.

Seriously.

For city dwellers, grocery delivery services like FreshDirect – with the ability to save shopping lists and re-order – can completely transform your relationship to food prep by streamlining, simplifying, and automating your decision-making.

Why is this?

The Tyranny of Choice

Many of us in the U.S. – and especially in bigger cities – struggle with what’s known as “the tyranny of choice.” With the world at your fingertips, between fabulous in-person grocery stores and a myriad of online choices, how do you make decisions? Studies have demonstrated the phenomenon of the negative effect of having too many options – as the Scientific American says, “abundant choice often makes for misery.”

In other words, having unlimited options, even though it sounds great, does not lead to better decisions. In fact, it often leads to “analysis paralysis” and (often) poorer decision-making.

By having a consistent grocery list that always includes some of the same items (especially a digital grocery list that you can put on autopilot and re-order over and over again), you can relax and trust your process and habits.

Put your Grocery Shopping on Autopilot

I have linked my suggestions to the FreshDirect website, and I suggest that you make an order based on your tastes (drawing from these items) and then use this list to re-order (instead of make a new list) for future weeks. I promise it works, and you will experience mental relief from not having to plan and make detailed food decisions every single week!

If you don’t live in an area that has FreshDirect delivery services, you can still print and use this shopping list for inspiration!

The overall goal is to make grocery shopping so ridiculously easy that you almost cannot screw it up or forget to do it.

Here are my “favorites” for building healthy daily eating plans:

My Favorite Lean Proteins

Lean protein should be the bottom of the pyramid for your meal-building. Start with the most significant amount of protein, then build everything else around it.

My Favorite Colorful Vegetables

Every meal should include at least one colorful vegetable. Try to squeeze them into your snacks, too! You can get sneaky with it by blending spinach into smoothies, cooking shredded and steamed brussel sprouts into homemade mac and cheese, or layering zucchini into a lasagna.

My Favorite Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates should be built in after lean proteins and colorful vegetables. Many of my clients are surprised when they begin tracking food that healthy vegetables like sweet potato, jicama, and beans are extremely high in carbohydrates. That is why I have grouped carb-y vegetables into the “carbohydrate” category instead of the “colorful vegetable” category. You shouldn’t avoid them because they’re high in carbohydrates, but you need to treat them like carbohydrates, instead of having a side of rice and a side of sweet potato in the same meal.

My Favorite “Extras” (Sauces, Cheeses, Etc.)

Use these items to give dishes more pizzazz!

My Favorite Snacks

You’ll notice that I don’t include “healthy” versions of most processed junky snacks. When it comes to snacking, I believe two things: (1) most people don’t need to snack as much as they think they need to, and (2) poor snacking habits can drive up overall calorie intake significantly. If you feel like you cannot get through the morning or the afternoon without several snacks at your desk, it is probably a mindless eating habit, not actual hunger, and that habit needs to be tamed through simple habit change techniques, like drinking more water or taking a brisk walk. If it is actual hunger, then your meals need to be slightly bigger, so that you’re only eating every 3-4 hours (not every 1-2 hours). Unless you are an extremely active person or you are eating extremely light meals, you probably do not need multiple snack options between each meal.

That being said, here are my favorites:

If you need help sorting these items into workable recipes, fill out this form to get access to my exclusive cookbook! It will be sent directly to your inbox, so be sure to check your spam if you don’t see it within a few minutes!

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Rachel Trotta

I am a Certified Personal Trainer, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, Physique and Bodybuilding Specialist, and Women's Fitness Specialist. I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and I coach clients online all over the world. As a trainer and health writer, my mission is to make healthy living sustainable for the average person. I’m also a wife, mom, nature lover, runner, avid cook, weightlifting aficionado, history nerd, travel addict, and obsessive podcast listener. Get in touch!

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