Improving Your Shopping to Improve Your Health
Here are several small changes you can try to improve your shopping habits. If you have had success with ways to improve your food shopping choices, share those ideas in the comments.
There is one recommendation I hear a lot when it comes to shopping and diet. “Do not shop for food when you are hungry!” As funny as this may sound, it is very good advice for more than the obvious reason of appetite. If you are hungry when shopping, in addition to buying more food, your food choices will be much more impulsive. If you shop for dinner on the way home from work, after skipping lunch, this is a recipe for disastrous food choices.
If you are less hungry when you food shop, it is easier to put healthy items into your cart. So, how to do it? One recommendation if you know you will be food shopping in the late afternoon, maybe on the way home from work, is to eat a late lunch. If you are going shopping in the morning, eat a good breakfast before heading out. Even if the shopping is decided on at the last minute, grab a snack to take the edge off before you get into the grocery store.
Another way to improve what goes into your cart is to shop at stores that offer healthier choices. If you are shopping at a food co-op or at least a grocery store that has a good produce and health food section, it is easier to make better choices.
You can also give a lot of thought to making your shopping list and then do your best to stick to it. Try writing a reminder message about making good choices on the top and bottom of the list.
An important thing to remember, if you are like me, anyway is this. Once food makes its way into your house, it will most likely get eaten, even if it is not a healthy choice. Most of us do not want to waste food and will finish what is in the cupboard even if we know it was a bad choice at the market and would serve us better if it went straight into the trash can.
here is another problem I sometimes call this the “Parent Food Trap”. If you shop with your kids and let them get the Fruit Loops or Spaghetti O’s, then you are more likely to eat them also. When you are hungry, even the worst of kid food can look appealing. I recently had this experience with leftover birthday cake! Yum, yum as it went down…. Yuck, yuck a few hours later as I fought the sugar blues!
However you do it, by eating before shopping, making a list and sticking to it, leaving the kids at home, if you refine your shopping habits, you will find it easier to improve your diet and your health.
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