6 Strategies for Healthy Grocery Shopping + It’s Goin’ Down at Whole Foods!

In my last post I touched on the importance of being a lot more cognizant of how much you’re eating during the day so you don’t end up putting on weight or sabotaging your diet. So today as a follow-up I wanted to cover what types of foods you should target when you go grocery shopping. Fact is it’s very easy to end up derailing your diet if you don’t really understand how to be a healthy shopper. So to avoid this pitfall, let’s go over six strategies for healthier grocery shopping. These are very simple and easy to remember shopping strategies I use and strategies I’d also recommend to anyone who wants to lose weight, or anyone who just wants to maintain their current state of sexy.

Strategy #1: Always have a game plan before you hit the grocery store

Basically what it all comes down to is this: When getting in shape you need to become a creature of habit and plan all your meals in advance- from breakfast, to in between snacks, to dinner. You do this because having a game plan before you hit the grocery store puts you in a position of power. You hit the grocery store, you have your agenda, you have your list of foods to buy, and you’ll be more disciplined about what you throw in your shopping cart.

Strategy #2: Hit the produce section first (and spend most of your shopping time there)

You’ve heard it since kindergarten and this fact hasn’t changed- veggies and fruit are good for you. So if you don’t already, start spending more of your shopping time in your supermarket’s produce section. The produce section is where you’re going to find a huge assortment of foods that are rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytonutrients. Plus, the produce section is where you’ll also find foods that give you the most bang for your caloric buck. *I’ll explain what I mean by caloric buck in Strategy 4.*

Strategy #3: Choose packaged foods with short ingredient lists

Whenever you pick up a food item, you want to go with quality over quantity. Meaning, if your food choice has a long list of ingredients (with tons of words you can barely even pronounce), I’d advise putting that product back on the shelf and challenging yourself to find a simpler, more natural version of the same food item. Reason being that a long list of ingredients is a pretty good sign that there are various sugars and chemical additives that have been added to enhance the look, taste, and shelf life of the product. And while most additives aren’t known to be harmful (though the health effects of some are still questionable), it’s just wiser to get your food as close to how nature intended it to be.

Strategy #4: Pay attention to serving size and not just calories

Oftentimes people will read food labels and completely fixate on the amount of calories. But when looking at calories, what you also want to pay attention to is the serving size, because it’s the serving size that will give you a clearer picture of how much of that food you can (or should) eat in one sitting. And being that the average woman should be eating between 1,500-2,000 calories a day if she wants to maintain her current weight (or between 1,200-1,500 calories if she wants to lose weight), ultimately you want foods that will fill you up and give you the most bang for your caloric buck. Here’s what I mean by caloric buck:

Let’s say you have to choose between an item that gives you 200 calories for just a ½ cup serving of food (like gummy bears) versus another item that gives you 200 calories for 4 cups worth of food (like strawberries). And let’s also say you’re in a position where you want to lose weight. Well now it becomes pretty obvious, that you should go with the strawberries because there’s way more food there to keep you nourished and satisfied- i.e.  more bang for your caloric buck. But on the flip side, let’s say you still decide to go with the gummy bears (naughty girl!). Knowing what you now know about serving size, you need to closely watch how many of those yummy gummies you eat in one sitting so you don’t overload on calories.

Strategy #5: Don’t think ‘all natural’ always means ‘Yes! I can eat a ton of that!’

One day I was chatting with a woman at the gym who was complaining about not being able to lose weight despite “eating healthier.”  I asked her what she meant by “eating healthier,” and in addition to a few suspect things, she also mentioned eating almost an entire 10 oz. bag of pistachios per day because she heard “nuts are all natural and good for you.” Needless to say, when I told her that one bag of pistachios contained almost an ENTIRE day’s worth of calories and fat that would most likely lead to weight gain instead of weight loss, she had this look on her face like she wanted breakdown and cry.

So the take-home point here is just because something is all natural doesn’t mean you should be eating truckloads of it at a time. Once again, you need to pay attention to the calories versus serving size because there are tons of all natural foods that are loaded with calories, fat, sugars, and other things that will make you put on weight if eaten in excess.  That said, there are foods that are an exception to this rule- like spinach.

Fun fact: It would take eating approximately 150 cups of spinach to consume a full day’s worth of calories (approx. 1,500 calories). So basically, your stomach would literally pop before you could even eat enough spinach to equal a whole day’s worth of calories.

Now you see why veggies are so good for losing weight!

Strategy #6: Choose whole grains over refined grains

My last shopping strategy pertains to grains- things like rice, bread and pasta. If you want to eat these types of food, opt for brands that are made of whole grain. You can figure this out by looking at it (whole grains don’t look white) and by checking the package for words like “100 percent whole grain,” “whole wheat” or “whole grain.” If you don’t see those exact words, or if you just see something like “made with wheat,” it’s highly likely that food is made with refined grains. And refined grains are something you should eat in moderation or maybe even avoid altogether, depending on your fitness goals.

Alrighty guys, that concludes my tips on how to be a healthier shopper. And now I’d like to formally close this post by giving a shout-out to one of my favorite grocery stores in the whole wide world…. Whole Foods Market!  Home of the best store bought pico de gallo in the DC area, and inspiration for one hella funny YouTube video that I just had to share. Enjoy!

What’s your favorite supermarket and why? Do you have any healthy shopping tips you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments. – Doc