Grocery Shopping On a Diet

Today, I am welcoming a guest author to our blog! He wrote two great articles for my Healthy Cooking Event: "Grocery Shopping On a Diet," which I am featuring today and "Eating Organic On a Budget," which will come later this week. I thought those were really relevant topics to all of you, so enjoy. Thank you, Scott!!

Scott Schmaltz is the author of Get Skinny! The Six-Week Body Challenge and the co-author of The Couch Potato Diet© Family Edition with author Gregory J.E. Ladas.


Scott Schmaltz is a veteran of the fitness industry, with more than 10 years of experience. He holds a board certification as a Holistic Health Practitioner from the American Association of Drugless Practitioners (AADP), a degree in nutrition from the Global College of Natural Medicine (GCNM), and seven certifications in personal training and rehabilitation (NASM, NCSF, APEX, and 4 from NIHS in Senior Fitness and post surgery rehab). Scott is the creator of Precision Fitness and Custom Workout Videos, which produces and sells online exercise and nutrition videos (CustomWorkoutVideos.com).
Scott has run personal training departments and corporate wellness programs for companies including Gold’s Gym, Snap Fitness and Health Partners Insurance Company. Scott is passionate about helping people improve their lives by improving their self-image, spiritual self, and reshaping the limiting beliefs that prevent weight loss.


Grocery Shopping on a Diet


Healthy eating starts by choosing quality ingredients from your local grocery store. It is much easier to stick with your diet when you’re able to control what goes in your mouth, especially when you are eating top-quality ingredients. But if you are like most people, you don’t have time to grocery shop, let alone prepare a wholesome meal at home for you and the family. To help you, here are some helpful guidelines you can use the next time that you are planning a trip to the grocery store:


Plan Your Meals


Planning your meals out for the week is the single most important thing you can do to not only stick with your diet but to also save yourself time and money. You will save time by not having to run to the store for last minute items because you don’t have an ingredient, and you save money by only needing to buy the foods items that you are going to eat for the week; helping you to avoid wasting foods that may end up spoiling.


Using Organic Recipes


Cooking with organic recipes at home is easy, and it adds to the many benefits of eating healthy. When cooking with organic ingredients, you will reduce the amounts of herbicides and pesticides that you and your family are consuming, and when transitioning from dining out to cooking at home, organic recipes are the best choice for both experienced and inexperienced cooks.


Organic recipes are extremely easy to use because all you need is a willingness to cook healthy foods and the desire to experiment a little. Using these recipes to cook at home will also help you to expand your tastes in a variety of different foods, which will help to become healthier because you are eating a wider variety of nutrients.


If you need an organic recipe to help you get started, you can try this great recipe that combines fire roasted tomatoes with a special 3-bean blend, farm fresh chicken, bold pieces of fresh red and yellow peppers, onions, and a special blend of seasonings simmered to perfection to give you a homemade Santa Fe Chicken Chili that is anything but ordinary! You can find more recipes at: CustomWorkoutVideos.com


Put a Variety of Foods on Your Grocery List


There are many reasons why you will want to eat a wide variety of foods. The main reason is that it will help you to consume a well-balanced diet, which will help you to maintain a healthy weight and prevent disease.


Consuming a well-balanced diet means that you must eat a wide variety of foods, leaving nothing out. Because if you are simply eating the same foods day after day, you will start to get sick over time as your body runs low on essential nutrients. After all, every nutrient is vital and has an important role to play in your body.


Consuming a well-balanced diet will also help you to avoid going to grocery store hungry, which will help you to maintain your diet by helping you to reduce your caloric intake.


Do Not Grocery Shop When You're Hungry


Grocery shopping while you are hungry is a common mistake because it can ruin your ability to maintain your diet by causing you to make impulse decisions. When you enter the grocery store on an empty stomach, you will not only end up filling your cart with excess foods, but there is also a greater chance that you will end up choosing junk foods over health foods as well.


The best time to go to the grocery store is after you have had a chance to eat a meal. However, if you don’t get a chance to eat before you go to the grocery store, try eating a light snack on the way like a meal replacement bar, a handful of nuts, or a half of a sandwich. This will help you to stay focused at the grocery store by only buying the items on your list, which will also help you to save money by avoiding pre-packaged and processed foods.

Avoid the Processed Food Aisles


Most grocery stores devote entire aisles to processed foods like chips, cookies, and soda pop. All of these highly-processed foods are extremely costly and tend to be very low in their nutritional value.


One of the best ways to fill your cart with healthy items is to stay away from the processed food aisles. If you're shopping in a typical grocery store, the middle aisles are usually the aisles that contain all the processed foods while the outer aisles contain more of the natural foods. However, if you shop at an organic grocery store, then almost all of the aisles contain healthy, natural foods.


By remembering to follow these few simple instructions, you will not only be able to stick with your diet, but you will also be able to save money and time while living a healthier lifestyle!