Grocery Shopping Sucks

When you first start grocery shopping ‘clean’ (a.k.a. healthy) it feels like you’re a bunny caught in the headlights of a car; stunned and rooted to each aisle for a good ten minutes, reading labels, deciphering chemistry jargon and working out whether or not fat is good for you; fat is bad for you; what’s the difference between fat free, low fat, reduced fat, low carb/high fat vs. low fat/high carb.

After 20 minutes and completing only two aisles you throw your hands in the air grab whatever is nearby, feel a throbbing headache coming on, but you have 3 other errands to run before you go home, start dinner, do kids homework, finish off an assignment, check facebook, feed animals, check facebook, take washing in, hang washing out, check facebook, get everyone ready for tomorrow and at some point relax for the day.  Sound familiar?

Whether you are a dad, a mum, one half of a couple, an empty nester, or a 19 year old uni student; you absolutely must plan and prepare for the grocery shop, and that means you absolutely must plan your week’s dinners and lunches before you make the list; or its “bunnyville” for you.

And yes unfortunately eating clean costs more – it’s a good thing you are totally worth it!

Just about every item of food can be googled for its nutritional values – get knowledge about the food you buy and eat as you create your MASTER list of groceries.  It’s all about planning and preparing.

I “save as” my ‘MASTER’ grocery list as a ‘WEEKLY’ list, and delete and add items as required.

Okay, so you’ve planned your meals, you’ve written down the food you need to get. Remember to do this as well:

Step 1. eat a meal, then shop.  Never ever shop hungry

Step 2  stick to your list…..  I MEAN IT

Step 3  white bread, white rice, white sugar, white pasta, white flour = bad

Step 4  skim milk (you’ll get used to it I promise)

Step 5  Good quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil = good

Step 6  Fish, tinned or otherwise, lean cuts of meat, chicken breast, eggs, in season fruit and vege/salads = good

Step 7  Leave the ice cream, biscuits, chips, sweets, desserts in the grocery store. If you don’t buy it, you won’t eat it. It’s not a treat, it’s a glob of yellow lard on your ass. L

If you are unsure about food content and serving sizes please check out http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/publications/attachments/n31.pdf

Strive to be better than you were yesterday, and you will find that you are better than ever before.

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