6 Tips for Your Healthy Living Grocery Shopping List
Preparing your grocery shopping list for a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to be a daunting task. And it doesn’t have to include carrots and celery sticks. Unless of course, you actually like carrots and celery sticks.
Tip 1:
Remember that eating healthy involves a balanced menu. Your grocery shopping list should have a good variety of proteins, healthy (complex) carbohydrates, and healthy fats.
- Proteins of course consist of meats, poultry, fish, eggs, and some veggies and grains are also high in protein. Dairy has protein, but it’s a higher concentration of fats and carbohydrates from sugar. I would recommend consuming dairy in moderation.
- Healthy carbohydrates consist of veggies, whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, bulgar, millet, whole oats (not the instant flavored type), and corn to name a few. Use moderation with corn due to the fact that it’s the most genetically modified vegetable and higher in sugar.
- Heathy fats come in a variety of forms. You can find them in fatty fish like salmon, nuts, nut butters, avocados, coconut oil (virgin tastes and smells like coconut, refined does not), extra virgin olive oil (dark bottles with sediment at the bottom), and seeds like chia and flax are a good start.
Tip 2:
Shop from the perimeter of the market. Picture any grocery store and the outer edge of the market is where you’ll find all the whole foods. In other words, that’s where you’ll find all the foods that haven’t been processed to hell, all the foods without a label. The aisles on the other hand, contain all the “foods” that require nutrition labels because of all the other junk they add to them, most of which you can’t pronounce. My only exceptions are the aisles that contain spices, oils, vinegars, frozen veggies, and teas and coffee.
Tip 3:
Season your food! Just because it’s healthy, doesn’t mean it has to be boring. I’ll never understand why people get this one so screwed up. A little olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper goes a long way. A mix of the right herbs and spices and you’ve got a winner, winner chicken dinner! Check your pre-mixed spices and dressings, though. A lot of brands do add sugar and they’ll disguise it as cane syrup, anything that ends in ‘-ose’ such as fructose, maltrose, dextrose, or glucose, as well as barley malt. That being the case, avoid fruit juices that add sugar. Fruit juices should be had in moderation anyway, especially for diabetics. Sugar from fruit is natural and unprocessed, but it’s still sugar. Juicing greens on the other hand is much lower in sugar content. And when it comes to salt, use sea salt. According to the Mayo Clinic, both are just as salty, but regular table salt has additives to prevent clumping (not that my sea salt clumps at all) and iodine, which can be harmful if taken in excess. In either case, use salt in moderation.
Tip 4:
Veggies: Fresh vs frozen? Unless you actually like shopping every week, you can do frozen. I absolutely hate preparing a grocery shopping list, getting to the market, looking for parking, looking for what I need, standing in line…ugh! So, I only go every other week. I found that fresh produce didn’t quite make it that long. And contrary to popular belief, frozen is in most cases fresher. Why? Because it’s flash frozen much closer to harvest as opposed to the “fresh” veggies which traveled who knows how long on a truck to get to your local market. So, this one is really up to you. Just make sure that if you’re buying frozen green beans (or canned), that green beans is the only thing on the label.
Tip 5:
Don’t shop when you’re hungry. This one goes without saying. Shopping when you’re hungry always leads to you spending more than you need. And when you’re trying to get your weight down, you’ll usually buy stuff that is counterproductive to your goals.
Tip 6:
Make sure you actually have a list! This kind of ties into Tip 5. If you go with a shopping list, you’re likely to spend less than if you go without one.
This may require some planning on your part, prior to preparing your grocery shopping list. For example, if you’re shopping on a weekly basis, what will you be eating that week? Planning your meals leaves a much smaller chance to eating on the run and doing a fast food drive though thing. Most people I know are okay with having the same thing for breakfast on a daily basis but need variety for lunch and dinner. Perhaps plan 1-2 breakfast options and 2-3 options for lunch and dinner.
It might feel strange and awkward at first, but you’ll get the hang of it. And you’ll find that being conscious of what you’re shopping for and ultimately feeding yourself will help you reach your goals that much faster.