It Starts at the Grocery Store
When it comes to improving our health, there is no bigger lever we can pull than our nutrition. Dialing in our nutrition is no easy feat though. We are constantly faced with temptations and daily stressors that make sticking to any diet a tall task. To get us on the right track and make dieting easier, it all starts at the grocery store.
The grocery store is where we purchase the foods that will be around us in our home and in our daily lives. Bring home a bag of potato chips and there’s no doubt you’ll be munching on them on the couch tonight. Decide to throw a few cookies in the pantry or ice cream in the freezer? Good luck saying no to that when you get home from work stressed out!
Thus it is important to make sure that our grocery shopping trips are productive and leave us with plenty of healthy, nutrient-dense, real foods that will help get us closer to our health goals. We have to set ourselves up for success.
There is no doubt that when you attend the grocery store you will be faced with temptations. Take a wrong turn down an aisle and you will be faced with a plethora of sweet and savory snacks that will make you forget all about whatever health goals you thought you had.
Remember, temptations are going to be abundant when you first start to improve your diet. If we can resist the temptation when we grocery shop, then we can set ourselves up so we don’t have to resist temptation as much in our day-to-day.
When you go grocery shopping, stick to the outside aisles of the store. This is where you will find the real, unpackaged, less processed, real foods. You should still read labels when shopping in this part of the store since more and more companies are coming out with fake “healthy” products, but regardless you will find that with this approach you are much less tempted by the foods that are designed to catch your eye and rock your taste buds into addiction.
Another great approach is to swap out your traditional grocery store for a local farmer’s market. This is what my wife and I do every Saturday morning. At the farmer’s market, you will see much fewer temptations and you will have access to higher-quality foods that support your local economy and typically our environment!
If you are not currently shopping for your own groceries, this is a great place to start. Dining out can be okay but most restaurants use pro-inflammatory oils and other cheap ingredients. If you want to dial in your nutrition you need to either find restaurants that are sourcing better food and sourcing it properly or start grocery shopping and cooking more!
Thanks for reading,
Chris Irvin
P.S. Shoutout to my friend Alex Cunningham for sparking up this topic at dinner last night!