CrossFit South Bend

In this video we talk about the foods I tend to buy on a weekly basis at Whole Foods. My weekly/semi-weekly haul typically consists of the following things that we discuss in more detail in the video.

-Grass-Fed Pasture Raised Beef
-Ground Pork
-Ground Turkey
-Organic Bok Choy
-Cabbage
-Broccoli/Cauliflower
-Organic Kale
-Plantain Chips
-Four Potato Hash-browns
-Organic Grapes

-Your Whole Foods, in your part of the country, may differ.
-There’s a whole bunch of other healthy stuff you can get at Whole Foods that’s healthy that I just happen not to get on a regular basis

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Today, we are gonna be talking about my weekly Wholefoods haul. So, what I typically get from Wholefoods on a weekly basis. So, you might be seeing this at a later date, but we are filming this right around Halloween 2018 and we got Jager over there in a Superman cape, Rocket chillin’ with the Captain America helmet and the Captain America shield, and then Remmy down there with the Batman cape. Got our superheroes in tow. Alright guys, so let’s talk about what I typically get at Wholefoods on a weekly basis. So, again, if you watched any of my other videos or seen any of my other talks, I always talk about composing a healthy meal in terms of protein, veggies, and typically some healthy fat, which we talked about as well in the Costco video, fruits, and then maybe some finishers. So, that’s kind of how I organized things today. So, let’s start off by talking about quality protein. So, I think when you talk about quality protein, you know, it’s important to mention things like, you know, is it grass-fed, is it pasture raised, is it non-GMO, and this is one of the places where I think Wholefoods really excels. Now, whenever I start working with people, I always tell them, “Look, you don’t need “to worry about getting grass-fed “and organic and all this stuff to start,” but eventually, yeah, from a health perspective, environmental perspective, ethical perspective, it does matter and it is important, and I think Wholefoods is pretty much better than almost anyone in terms of how they rank things and the type of meat that they sell. So, typically, each week, I’ll get a couple pounds of some organic, grass-fed Nature’s Rancher beef. If you’re curious about what the holy grail of beef would look like, that would be it. 100% grass-fed, organic, pasture raised, all the rest of it. Jager really likes the ground beef and the ground pork. Ground pork is non-GMO. Harder around here to get pasture raised stuff, but this is definitely a step above like what you would typically get at most grocery stores, like, a non-GMO pork. Just for the record, when it comes to beef, you know, cows are naturally fed grass, but with pigs and poultry, you know, they’re typically omnivores, so what you’re looking for is the term pasture raised. That’s what you’re looking for if you can get it. I’ll typically get a couple organic, bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, and what I’ll do with those is put a little bit of sea salt on them, and then roast them in the oven at 425 for a half an hour and they come out perfect. Organic ground dark turkey, that’s typically the turkey that I like, and then I’ll get some organic, pasture raised eggs as well. So, you know, especially from a cost-saving perspective, you know, people always think of Wholefoods as whole paycheck, but that’s not necessarily true, honestly, and if you compare a lot of their stuff to other places, it’s not actually that much of a difference, and the other thing to say is, you know, when it comes to food quality, it’s important to get the best quality stuff you can get and if you’re gonna be paying more for a little bit higher quality, getting things like ground meats or chuck roast or, you know, a whole chicken or things like that, that’s a good way to save money. So, you’ll notice that I don’t have much in the way of, like, boneless, skinless chicken breast or in pork chops and steak because that tends to get a bit more expensive, and these are kinda the utilitarian, day-to-day meats that I’ll get and I’ll try to get the higher quality, but get the more usable stuff that you can use on a daily basis. Okay, so that’s it for protein. Let’s talk a little bit about healthy starches. So, when people think of carbs, they almost always think pasta, breads, cereal, cookies, crackers, all this other stuff, but remember, all plants are carbohydrates in one way or another. That goes for vegetables, fruits, and these more starchy carbohydrates. So, there’s nothing wrong with carbs per se, you just wanna get the right kind. So, good starchy carbs to have on a regular basis, especially if you’re working out, would be things like white potatoes, these are sweet potatoes. White potatoes, it is important to try to get organic, so I’ll specifically go to Wholefoods to get the russets, reds, or yellows, which are all white potatoes, organic. These are the Hannah yams that they sell at, or, Hannah sweet potatoes, excuse me, that they sell at Wholefoods. One of the things I like about Wholefoods is that they’ve got a bunch of different sweet potatoes. Like, if you go to most grocery stores, they’ve got a whole bunch of different sweet potatoes, or, excuse me, they typically have one sweet potato, but they don’t have a variety, so at Wholefoods, they’ve got the Japanese sweet potato, the purple one, the Hannah, a bunch of different ones. Now, what do you do if you’re in a time crunch? So, these Dr. Praeger’s Four Potato Hash Browns are really pretty good when it comes to ingredients. They’re basically just white potatoes, a little bit of canola oil, which isn’t, like, the greatest thing in the world, but it’s a teeny bit and if you’re having it occasionally, it’s not that huge a deal, and some spices, and very low on sugar. So, this is a really good, kinda quick option that you could throw in the oven in the morning for breakfast. Plantain chips, I like these a little bit too much. These are really good. They’ve got plantains, palm oil, sea salt, really good option, so, you know, if you’re looking for a snack on the go, this is gonna be a really good thing to get. Jager’s trying to see if he can get a little, you want some potato action? Is that what you’re looking for? Let me fix your cape. Let me fix your superhero. Okay, there we go, alright pup. Okay, so let’s talk about vegetables. So, you know, by this point, when you guys are watching this, the Costco video should’ve already been released, and in that video, I talk a lot about other vegetables that I get there, but typically, at Wholefoods, I’ll get certain vegetables that, you know, typically, it’s not that I can only exclusively get them there, but that I like to get there. So, organic kale, I’ll get a couple bunches of these a week, and sometimes, it’ll be the organic green stuff, sometimes it’ll be the organic red stuff. I’ll try to switch it up to get good variety. Especially with your leafy greens, it’s gonna be really important to get them organic, as opposed to conventional, so that’s one of the reasons I get them there. Broccoli, sometimes I’ll do broccoli, sometimes I’ll do cauliflower. I’ll typically throw these on a sheet pan with these, put some oil, salt, and roast them, and that’s kind of my dinner vegetables. Cabbage. So, I got a red one this week, I’ll switch back and forth between red and green, again, just to get some good variety in there. With the cruciferous veggies like the cabbage and the broccoli and the cauliflower, it doesn’t matter as much to get them organic, but you certainly can. And then, bok choy. So, this is one that I didn’t really know how to cook, but again, that typical roasting method where I just slice them up, throw them on a sheet pan, oil, salt, and high heat, and they come out actually really good. And again, I try to buy those organic. So, that’s it for vegetables. Let’s talk a little bit about fruits. So again, in the Costco video, I talked about how I’ll typically get organic blueberries and apples from Costco, sometimes I’ll get them from Wholefoods, just depending on what Costco’s selling in a given week. Organic grapes, I like to get these a lot. Kinda going out of season here at this point, but these are really good. Again, with any fruit that you eat the skin of, you definitely wanna try to get it organic. Okay, and then lastly, just a couple little treats that I’ll occasionally get from Wholefoods. Let’s start with the Alter Eco Blackout Dark Chocolate. This is probably my favorite brand of chocolate, it’s an 85%. They have a really good ingredient list where there’s no, you know, crap on the inside, it’s just organic cacao beans, cacao butter, cane sugar, which it’s gonna have if it’s not 100% cacao, and vanilla beans, and it tastes very good. And then, these guys, Better Bites Chocolate Chip Cookie Do Bites, these things are like crack. They are chocolate-enrobed cookie dough, as you can see there, enrobed. That’s probably why they cost $9 for six. If you’re a Prime member, they recently had these on sale for buy-one-get-one-free, so that brings up a really good point, which is if you are worried about the cost of Wholefoods or the cost of some other place, you know, typically, all these places have sales during the year, so when they have sales for things that, you know, are freezable, like meat or, you know, chocolate or, to a certain extent, you know, things like Dr. Praeger’s, stock up and that’s gonna be a really good way to save money. So, probably in the future, I’m gonna do a video about all the other stuff that you can get at Wholefoods that I don’t happen to buy, but for right now, that just gives you a sense of the typical stuff that I buy on a weekly basis. Alright guys, thanks so much for tuning in. We’ll see you next time.