Hello and welcome to the Intermittent Fasting Gems with Jen Podcast.

I'm your host Jen, a middle-aged Michigan mama, wife, and teacher who

in 2021 stumbled upon this crazy cool thing called intermittent fasting.

And before I knew it.

I've lost 46 pounds in four months and gained an incredible lifestyle

filled with complete food freedom.

If you're hungry for unique, no nonsense fasting tips that actually

work, you're in the right place.

So whether you're walking the dog, folding that last load of laundry or cruising to

your nine to five, let's start fasting.

Our way to freedom together.

Hello there, my fabulous fasting friends.

Welcome to anyone who is tuning in and listing for the first time today.

I am so glad you are here with us.

So today I am going to share with all of you my weekly Aldi.

Grocery list.

I go to Aldi almost every single Sunday with my husband on our way

to my parents' house for our family dinner day, and I have pretty much been

getting the same things every single week for the last three to four years.

These are the 13 food items that compliment my intermittent fasting

lifestyle and help me to maintain my intermittent fasting weight loss.

Here we go.

First on my list is Southern Grove brand Deluxe, mixed nuts with sea salt.

As I enter the store, they are right there on the end cap.

At the front of the store, I get the 30 ounce bag that contains a nice mix of

almonds, cashews, pistachios, pecans.

Pecans, however you wanna say it, and macadamia nuts.

It's about $12 for the bag, which is a pretty good price for nuts.

Uh, plus almonds, pecans and macadamia nuts are three of the

absolute best, low carb nuts out there, um, and are great for.

Helping with weight loss, I almost always eat a large handful of these mixed

nuts as one of the first snacks that I have before eating my large Oma or

one meal a day dinner meal for the day.

So after I've had my seven ingredient fast breaking a CV drink and I'm

cooking dinner, um, I like to eat.

A giant.

It's pretty big.

I never measure it out, but I would say it's probably just over a quarter,

um, cup, but a giant handful of these mixed nuts while I'm cooking or just

hanging out, waiting to eat my big.

Dinner meal for the day.

They are so filling and satisfying.

Um, they have the nuts with sea salt and without, I always get

the bag that says with sea salt, um, or salted with sea salt.

And that's because sea salt is helpful during intermittent fasting,

because it provides essential sodium and trace minerals that

help maintain electrolyte balance.

Especially as fasting and increased water intake can lead to sodium loss

and symptoms like headaches and fatigue, muscle cramps and dizziness, and

unlike regular table cell, sea salt is less processed and it contains more.

Beneficial minerals that support hydration, healthy nerve and

muscle function, and just overall wellbeing during fasting periods.

Next on my list at Aldi, sunset Brand Mini.

Cucumbers, we have moved down the first aisle.

Once you enter the store where the fruits and veggies are, I absolutely

buy these cute little mini cucumbers every week so that I can use them

to make my most delicious homemade.

Dill pickles, if you haven't tried my ultimate homemade dill pickles yet.

I started making these, um, just about four years ago.

I guess.

If you haven't made them yet, you are seriously missing out.

They make for the best low carb, almost zero calorie crunchy snack.

I use these mini cucumbers that I get at all the, and I make.

Pretty much make up a fresh batch every single week.

That's how often we go through them.

I'll leave that homemade dill pickle recipe for you in the show notes.

Alright, next up right by the mini cucumbers, you will find

the Driscoll's brand Raspberries.

I just buy one container each week.

I'm in Michigan, so cost me about, it's like, I think

last week it was a dollar 69.

Um, I sprinkle a few raspberries on my Greek yogurt dessert that I have almost

every night after my big Oma dinner.

And oh my goodness, raspberries are.

Definite rock stars when it comes to weight loss.

They only have about 64 calories per cup.

They are super high in fiber, uh, like about eight grams per cup.

Raspberries help burn visceral fat, which is the most dangerous fat

we have around our middle section.

They can help increase metabolism and they are so darn yummy.

All right.

Then right around that same area.

I find the refrigerated section.

I get a carton of friendly farms, coconut milk, which I use as the

liquid base in my fat burning smoothies that I drink a few times a week.

Then we come to a nice container of friendly farms.

Cottage cheese.

Cottage cheese is pretty much a super food.

It's very high in protein and low in carbs.

It's extremely satisfying.

It helps you to feel full for longer, and it also supports muscle

maintenance during weight loss plus.

Cottage cheese is super versatile.

Just type in cottage cheese, weight loss recipes on

Pinterest, and voila, you've got.

Seriously, a million different ways to use cottage cheese.

Kind of like the cauliflower craze was a few years ago.

You've got cottage cheese pancakes, um, even cottage cheese cookie dough.

I'm not so sure about that one, but it's.

People are doing it.

So I like to keep it simple, which actually brings me to

the next item on my list.

Every week I buy a dozen gold hen large grade A eggs.

My husband and I like to have breakfast for dinner, usually one night a week.

Um, and I almost always add cottage cheese into my scrambled eggs.

It's a great way to get a ton of protein, and the cottage cheese makes

my eggs so fluffy and extra creamy.

I also like to mix the cottage cheese with a little mustard and

use it to make, uh, egg salad.

So cottage cheese and eggs kind of go together for me.

Sometimes I like to boil up three or four of them per week and have, uh,

a few hard-boiled eggs throughout the week as a nice quick snack too.

Okay, moving right along a couple aisles over.

I grab a 14 ounce jar of organic, unrefined simply nature

coconut oil for just under $5.

You all know how much I love my coconut oil.

I use it to cook with.

I also like to put a scoop of coconut oil in my fat burning smoothies.

And of course, my favorite way to use coconut oil is in my coconut oil fat

bombs that I end my eating window with.

So often and that helps me to fast easier and longer into my

next fast the following day.

So, in this kind of section you can.

Also find ghee, GHEE, clarified butter, and you can usually find it in a jar.

But I, I say usually because, um, I can't always find it at Aldi.

And also I would never need to buy a whole jar of ghee.

For a week.

GH lasts a really long time, but keeping that in mind, ghee and also

avocado oil you can find right there, which is really, a great cooking

oil that's healthy to keep on hand.

I use.

Avocado oil.

, A lot when we grill out, when my husband grills out, I guess I should say.

So, um, those are a few other, you know, kind of items, ghee, avocado,

oil that you obviously won't need to purchase every week, but they're near

the coconut oil and, , great options too if they are, uh, happen to be available.

Aldi at the time you're there after grabbing the coconut oil, then I

need to get my sparkling water for the week, and Aldi is the best place

in my opinion for sparkling water.

And that's because they have a huge selection of.

Different yummy flavors and even more importantly, the price is right.

I have compared sparkling water prices between all sorts of

stores, Walmart and Target, and of course off Amazon and all of that.

But Aldi always comes.

Out on top.

So they have the Waterloo brand, which I love because they always

have different fun flavors that they kind of rotate in and out.

My favorite Waterloo flavor right now is Blackberry Lemonade.

They also have a super yummy orange vanilla flavor and a

spiked apple flavor in the fall.

Um, so, so good.

So I pick up a 12 pack of flavored sparkling water every week, which I drink

during my eating window hours, and then I always pick up another 12 pack of Bella

V brand, plain sparkling mineral water.

That's, uh, the blue packaging cans.

And these I drink strictly during my fasting hours.

I also like to use the plain ones when I mix in an element or LMNT

electrolyte supplement packet when I am doing an extended fast.

So, next we come to, on the back wall in the cooler section, I

grab a container of TKI Dip.

Aldi has three different flavors, all super yummy.

They have a spinach artichoke flavor, cucumber, dill, and

spinach parmesan, flavors.

I use this low carb teki dip for a bunch of different things throughout the week.

I. First, like to dip my veggies into it makes a great, snack.

I also like to use it to make low-carb zeki chicken pizza.

Um, I make a few other awesome recipes with this taki dip, like, taki chicken

salad and zeki dill pickle hummus, which I actually throw in the pickle juice from

my homemade pickles that I talked about.

So you can find all of these Zeki recipes on my IF recipes with Jen website and

that link will be in the show notes.

And if you don't have time to get chickpeas and make own hummus, which

is often the case with me 'cause life is busy and crazy, you can buy

some really great hummus at Aldi.

They have a bunch of different yummy varieties.

Hummus is a great weight loss food.

It's high in fiber, it's a healthy fat food.

It's high in protein and it's packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

Again, Aldi has a great selection of hummus with most varieties under $3.

I have liked every single kind that I've tried, including, which sounded a little

weird, the pineapple jalapeno hummus.

Um, that I picked up last week.

I think that might be a seasonal one, but it was very, very good.

It's great for dipping healthy veggies into.

And in the same section where you find the hummus and the tki, you will find

all these glorious wall of cheeses.

Oh, I love cheese.

And if I had to give up cheese, um, to lose weight, I never

would've been able to do it.

So, they seriously have the best variety of cheeses, gourmet

cheese, for like that saying goes champagne taste on a beer budget.

That's what it is.

They have tons of fancy bougie cheeses for really, really great prices.

I usually just stick to the Happy Farms brand, gourmet

cheese sticks they make awesome.

Healthy grab and go.

Weight loss snacks.

My favorites are the guta cheese sticks and the habanero jack cheese sticks.

You get 12 sticks for just under $4 I think.

Then you move into the frozen food section, which is

generally on the back wall too.

I always grab a bag of seasons choice frozen fruit.

I buy the frozen berry medley kind, and this is.

I gotta tell you, this is the deal of the century.

You can get a 32 ounce bag of this frozen medley, for around $7.

I mostly use the frozen fruit in my fat burning smoothies

that I make throughout the week.

And finally the last item on my grocery list.

I. Is not a food item.

And what it is, is it is a reward to myself for sticking to my intermittent

fasting plan for the week, and that is, again, it's a non-food item.

I head to the Aldi fun aisle.

I think they often call it the Aldi aisle of shame.

I'm talking about that center aisle in many Aldi stores where they feature

a constantly rotating selection of fun items called Aldi fines.

And these items are typically not grocery staples.

They can include everything from.

Seasonal decor in home goods to unique kitchen gadgets and even some

more just fun and unusual finds.

Every week I pick something fun out for myself.

Um, it's just the coolest thing.

I've bought candles, soft blankets, lawn items, cute yoga pants with pockets games.

And then last week I picked up a really cool pineapple slicer.

So just have fun with it and after you've gotten all of the things that you need,

um, go get something that you want.

And there you have it.

My weekly Aldi love list.

I guess you could say.

Number one, southern grove.

Deluxe mixed nuts with sea salt.

Two sunset, brand mini cucumbers.

Three Driscoll's raspberries.

Four.

A carton of friendly farms coconut milk.

Five.

A container of friendly farms, cottage cheese.

Six a dozen gold hen large grade A eggs.

Seven.

Simply nature.

Coconut oil, possibly avocado oil in ghee if they have it.

Eight sparkling water flavored for your eating window and plain for your

fasting window, and for mixing it with your electrolyte supplement if needed.

Nine Zeki dip 10.

A container of hummus.

11. Happy Farms.

Gourmet cheese sticks for snacking.

12. A bag of seasons choice.

Frozen berry medley fruit for your fat burning smoothies.

And number 13.

Last but.

Definitely not least reward yourself and head to the Aldi Isle

of Shame and pick yourself out something super unique and fun.

And if you don't have an Aldi near you, first of all, I am so sorry.

However, you can find most of these items at your local grocery store.

Just be careful to read the ingredient labels very closely so you know

exactly what you are getting.

Especially with items like the coconut oil, you wanna make sure

it says organic and unrefined.

So just be careful with stuff like that.

I'll write my fabulous fast.

Get out there and have yourself a great week of fasting.

Why not come hang out with us in our free intermittent

fasting Facebook support group?

So what if with Jen?

And also a quick reminder to use the Code GEMS 10 at checkout.

If you are interested in my intermittent fasting and weight loss masterclass,

six weeks to Sexy Video course.

Thanks so much for listening today.

I will catch you.

And the next episode.

Hey, thank you so much for choosing to spend part of your day listening

to this episode of the Intermittent Fasting Gems with Jen podcast.

If you think these tips could help a friend or a family member, please

consider sharing this episode with them.

And if you really enjoyed the show, taking a minute or two

to leave a positive review.

Would be so appreciated.

Tune in for new 15 to 25 minute episodes released on the 10th,

20th, and 30th of each month.

Episodes will feature solo shows filled with if F hacks that

have worked for me, as well as episodes where I get to chat with.

Fun folks of all ages who've experienced incredible success

with intermittent fasting.

If you have questions or want more unique intermittent fasting health and

weight loss tips, tricks and recipes, please visit my website and blog at.

So what if with jen.com?

Finally, we'd love to welcome you into our free intermittent.

Fasting Facebook support group.

So what if with Jen?

Find all of these links in the show notes below.

And as always, I hope you spend your day loving without fear and

laughing until your cheeks hurt.