In my previous article I wrote about the secrets of losing weight from my perspective, and just as a reminder here are the three secrets.
1.
Eliminate the white stuff, rice, sugar, and pasta.
2.
Exercise 3.
Have a support network.
Now as I ponder the list I keep thinking about how important grocery shopping is to your success.
Before my wife and I got healthy we never had a plan when we went to the grocery store, but since we made the decision to get healthy, now we always have a plan when we go to the grocery or food shopping.
Having a list, and knowing what foods we want to have in advance helps to shop smart.
The list involves the meals for the week so our shopping list includes the items we need for our meals and healthy snacks.
Since we don't eat the white stuff, and not wanting to sabotage our exercise efforts our shopping involves a traditional grocery store with a large health food section, the Public Market, discount bread store, and on occasion the large in-bulk discounter.
Don't worry I don't recall a week where we had to go to all of them, most weeks our shopping involves two.
The traditional grocery store is where we get a lot of our day-to-day staples energy bars, dairy, and some produce depending on whether or not we have time to get to the public market.
If you notice all of these items are on the perimeter of the store and I would say we spend 90% of our time at the grocery store on the perimeter.
In the middle of the store is where you usually find soda, crackers, candy, cookies, you know all the stuff we need to avoid to lose weight.
Most local grocery chains have good health food sections now and this is where we buy many of the alternatives we used to buy in the middle of the store.
For instance we still enjoy a pancake breakfast on occasion so instead of buying the white flour version in the middle of the store we buy a whole grain mix in the health food section.
We also get cereal bars, whole grain flour, salad dressing, and our soy milk there.
If you live in an area with a Trader Joe's or Whole Food's these stores can be an option for you, if your traditional store does not have a good health food section.
For our produce we shop at our local Public Market.
The prices are less than those at the grocery store and since we're buying without the retail mark-up we save money, and it's fresher.
Another huge benefit of shopping at a market is that much of the food is local so you are helping the environment by not having your food shipped long distances before it reaches your table, a true win-win.
Plus it's nice doing business with a local farmer versus a faceless grocery chain.
Discount bread stores provide us huge savings versus grocery stores.
The bread we buy in the grocery store is $3.
99 a loaf and at the discount bread store regular price $1.
79 per loaf.
However, many times we find it on sale for 2 for $3, and did I mention this bread has no high fructose corn syrup or sugar in it? Sure it's a bit of a drive but we go there twice a month, stock-up, bring it home, and freeze it until we use it.
Big box bulk stores while not our favorite places to shop do a play a role in healthy eating, and saving money is not a bad thing.
When we cook pasta (whole grain) we prefer to make our own sauce and to do so we use tomato paste and canned tomatoes, and by far the best price per can for these are in the multi-packs at the large in-bulk stores.
Sometimes we might buy a large bag of skinless/boneless chicken breasts there, and when on coupon we buy energy bars in bulk there.
This really helped us out on our recent trip to the Virgin Islands where energy bars at our resort were $2.
50 and we paid less than a $1 for the ones we packed in our luggage.
What does this all cost? We have tracked our grocery spending for years, and yes we spend more on a per item basis to eat healthy but you know what? Our grocery bills have remained constant and this is because we don't snack and binge as we did before.
In fact as the weight came off our cravings for sugary treats, fast food, and the midnight bowl of cereal went away.
So I won't let you use the "it's too expensive" line as an excuse not to get healthy.
It just takes a bit of preparation, knowing how to plan your shopping, and the will power to follow through.
Oh I almost forgot, don't shop hungry, you'll buy everything you see.