Grocery Shopping Rules To Abide By

The grocery store can be a confusing place. It is easy to fall to temptation, go over budget, and sometimes return home with many items you had not intended to buy. The following steps will help you to properly navigate your way through the grocery store in order to support your healthy eating choices. These rules will also help you avoid diet sabotage. Also remember to never go grocery shopping if you are hungry because you are more likely to pick up temptation items or graze on available foods in bins.

STEP 1: THE SHOPPING LIST

Before heading to the grocery store prepare a comprehensive weekly shopping list.  I recommend sitting down on a Sunday to plan out your main meals for the week, from there you can create a shopping list of all the ingredients/items you will need to make your healthy meals.  You can do this on a scrap paper, in a notebook, on your iphone or even your blackberry.

Having a list will help you stay focused in the grocery store and avoid picking up “temptation items” that can be detrimental to your clean eating plan. Lastly, remember to stick to this rule: IF IT’S NOT ON THE LIST KEEP IT OUT OF THE CART! No shopping in the moment. That meals you should not fall temptation to even ond extra candy bar at the cash counter. Sticking to the list also helps you stay within your budget.

STEP 2: FINDING YOUR WAY THROUGH THE GROCERY STORE

For the majority of your food items you will only need to stick to the perimeter of the grocery store. Processed foods and foods that contain sugar and startch are what is normally found in the aisles. Along the perimeter is where the fruits, veggies, meats, dairy, and whole grains can be found. You can venture into the aisles for food items like flax seeds, oatmeal, cooking oils, spices, or whole grains.

STEP 3: READING LABELS

Reading food labels can be very confusing and most people don’t really know what to look for. Follow these rules:

- Avoid foods with: Trans fats, long ingredient lists with lots of artificial ingredients and added chemicals, unhealthy additional sugars such as sucrose, glucose, sugar, maltodextrin, corn syrup etc.

- Do not believe everything you read because occasionally food labels make claims to trick you into thinking they are the healthy choice when they truly aren’t.  Watch out for statements that include claims like “no added sugar”, “contains real fruit”, “all natural”, “fat free”, “low carb”, “high protein”.  Be aware and investigate these claims by checking nutrition labels and ingredient lists. These claims are made in order to deceive people into buying it so don’t fall into their trickery so always double check. Happy Shopping! Follow Alicia on Twitter