TRY IT: Stay Away From Food Temptation at the Grocery Store

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You may have heard the advice that you should “shop the perimeter” of the grocery store.

As simple as it sounds, staying away from the processed food that dominates the interior aisles can have a big effect on your diet.

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Steer Clear of Temptation

One of the easiest ways to stick to an eating plan is to avoid temptation.

That can seem difficult at parties, restaurants and even at the grocery store.

The grocery store is literally engineered by consumer behavior specialists to entice you with over-packaged foods and impulse purchases. Shopping after a long day of work or worse – when you’re hungry! – can increase your odds of ending up with cart-full of snack foods.

By walking the outer edge of the grocery, fewer of those salt and sugar-packed treats will catch your eye.

On the outer rim of the store, you will shop through the produce, meat, dairy and bakery (go easy on the bakery, ok?). These components should be the VAST majority of your diet whether your goals are health or weight-oriented.

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Tricks for Making Healthy Choices

• Make a grocery list… and stick to it.
• If you have a regular dessert or snack, buy only enough to last one week. If you eat it all in one day, no cookies for you!
• Eat a light, healthy snack before you go.
• Choose a natural foods store or the farmer’s market. There’s just less crap in there.
• Stick to once a week, or less if you can manage. The less often you go in the grocery store, the smaller your chances of buying food you don’t need.
• Look at the nutritional label…now put it back on the shelf. There are no labels on eggplants and chicken breasts. Try to stick with food that resembles how it looks in nature (minus the feathers).

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Why Your Concerns Are Unfounded

I’m also going to pre-empt your whining about the cost and difficulty of eating only fresh, whole foods.

First, I challenge you to do it for a month and compare your spending. I literally cut our grocery bills by 75% when I stopped buying processed foods. Fresh food is filling so you need less of it.

Next, find 2-5 recipes each week using whole foods. I do this in 10 mins right before I go to the store – another wonder of the internet. Write down the ingredients. Buy those ingredients, plus whatever you need for snacks and breakfast.

Make those recipes and – Blamo! – you always have something to eat and there is no asparagus rotting in your produce drawer.

Seriously, it works. Do it.

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Have you managed to stay away from the processed food aisles at the grocery store? What are your techniques for making healthy choices at the grocery store? Let me know in the comments!!!

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