Navigate the Grocery Store Like a Superhero

Does grocery shopping intimidate you?

Do you often wonder how to separate the healthy from the not-so-much?

Do you ever leave the grocery store with more than you wanted and less of what you needed?

Well guess what?

You’re not alone!

Visiting the grocery store is a necessity, but without a little preparation it can be a difficult trip!

A majority of them feel like they have been set-up by super-villains; catering to every craving and emotional twinge you might have.

It’s going to take a bit of planning to enter these lairs of temptation, filled with their sweet treats, salty snacks, boxes upon boxes of unhealthy processed products, and survive with your wallet and diet intact.

Have no doubt, powerful marketing and eye-catching advertising is a dangerous foe!

So today I am going to show you how to approach grocery shopping with meticulous planning of the world’s greatest detective, Batman (Sorry Sherlock…) and cross the cashier line with a cart full of healthy food!

These 5 tips are guaranteed to help you avoid the common grocery store traps and make your next trip to the grocery store faster, cheaper and healthier!

Always Have a Plan of Attack!

Batman doesn’t just rush into danger without any forethought or preparation.

And neither should you!

Planning your trip to the store will not only help you buy only what you need it will also help you get out of there as quickly as possible.

Do yourself a favor and get in the habit of spending 10-20 minutes before you leave your house, and decide what major meals you plan on making that week.

Then take quick stock of your refrigerator, freezer and pantry so you know what you already have on hand to make those meals; as well as whatever weekly staples you require (whole grain bread, almond/rice/coconut milk, eggs, spices, etc…)

Then write down your shopping list… and no, “It’s in my head” isn’t going to cut it.

Until you achieve a Batman-like level of precision I want you to write it all down!

Create a list divided into sections – Fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats, whole grains and legumes, and dairy. (If you want a quick cheat sheet, I’ve put one together for you right here!)

Doing it this way will help you stick to the healthiest stuff in the store. It will also help you to avoid browsing too much; which increases the probability that advertising will trick you, or your stomach will rationalize something you know you shouldn’t be eating.

And if you want to take all the guess-work out of it, sign up for a service like eMeals. They will not only give you recipes every week, but the shopping lists you need and coupons too!

Examine the Perimeter

Even after Batman plans his attack, he still cases the perimeter before diving into a situation!

So once you arrive at the grocery store, I want you to get your Batman on…

Stay along the perimeter!

The perimeter of a grocery store is where the fresh, ‘real’ food is found, while the center aisles contain mostly processed, ‘junk’ foods.

The center aisles is where all the advertising happens. So by avoiding them you not only save money by not being persuaded into buying a few packages of Sugar-Coated, Deep Fried Diabetes Bombs, but you also save a few thousand calories.

Trust me, stick to clean and unprocessed foods as much a possible!

For the most part, ‘processed‘ foods come in packaging such as a boxes, bags or cans. It also means that it’s been chemically modified through additives, processing steps or artificial flavorings.

Not all processed foods are evil; certain foods are minimally processed, simply to increase shelf-life or to aid in food safety, but a large number of ‘highly’ processed foods have had the nature of the original raw material changes drastically.

Avoid these nutrient-poor options if you can!

Fill up a majority of your shopping cart along the edges of the grocery store. Stock up on fresh cuts of lean meats, a large variety of colorful fruits and vegetables, and round it out with a little dairy and whole grain bread.

That should cover about 80% of your shopping… but there will be a few items on your list (i.e. – raw nuts, tuna fish, whole grains, frozen veggies, etc…) that reside in the center aisles.

For those items, take a tactical approach. Be military-like in your precision.

Don’t be a sucker, know what you need and then get in and out quickly! 

Always Read the $#%&ing Label!

Food packaging can be tricky.

Which is why you not only should read the packaging and labels carefully, you should do so with a Batman-like scrutiny towards detail!

First off, what is advertised on the package can be extremely misleading!

Let’s use something simple, like orange juice, as an example.

I am sure you’ve seen rows and rows of bright-colored cartons and bottles lining the refrigerators of your grocery store, regardless of what time of year it is. All of their labels proudly stating “Not From Concentrate” and often stating that they are “Pure Squeezed.”

Notice they are careful to not say “fresh squeezed” though.

Because it isn’t. It is far from it actually.

To meet the year-round demand of consumers, orange juice companies pick the oranges when they are in season, juice them, pasteurize the juice, and then store the juice in giant tanks.

Then they suck all the oxygen out of the tanks… a process called ‘deaeration’ that keeps the juice from spoiling for up to a year. You know what else gets sucked out due to this process though?

All the flavor.

In order to give it back the color and flavor you have come to associate with this classic morning beverage, the juice companies then use ‘flavor packs’ (which in most cases are designed by companies who special is designer fragrances) to add back, and enhance, the flavor they stripped in the first place!

The best part of this trick? None of this needs to be listed on the ingredient list, because technically they are derived from orange essence and oils. Dig deep enough though, and you will find testimonies that the flavor packs, whether made for reconstituted or pasteurized orange juice, resemble nothing found in nature.

Fun Fact: Different cultures have different palates, so juices slated for each country get flavored differently. Packs added to juice earmarked for North America tend to contain higher amounts of ethyl butyrate while shipments slated for Mexico or Brazil highlight different chemicals like terpene compounds such as valencine.

Before we move on, to those people who just found that information on orange juice useful I have to ask…

“Why are you drinking juice anyway?!?”

What makes fruit healthy is the fiber, pectin, etc… most of which is absent when the fruit is juiced anyway. Even if it is really “fresh squeezed“.

It isn’t that juice is necessarily evil but, for example, it takes 6-8 apples to make just 1 cup of apple juice. There is no way you’d eat that many apples at one sitting, but I’ll bet dollars to donuts that you don’t give tossing back a glass of apple juice a second thought and very well might fill it back up for a second go. Juice makes it far too easy to consume far too much sugar.

Save yourself some money and stop buying jugs of fruit juice, and let’s move on!

Secondly, make sure you read the nutrition and ingredient labels to see what you are really buying.

I go into great depth explaining the ins-n-outs of nutritional labels in the Heroes’ Transformation Guide, but here’s the gist of it:

• Look carefully at serving size and percent of daily value
• Remember that the nutritional information on the rest of the label applies to only one serving
• Serving sizes are only measurements, not recommendations
• Can you pronounce all of the ingredients? If not, maybe rethink it
• Try to stick with products that have less than six ingredients

Reading is one of the de facto superpower for almost all nerds. We love books!

So use your talents to your advantage…

Don’t Be Afraid to Substitute

In a perfect world, Batman will always have the right gadget for the job.

Just like in a perfect world, everything you eat would be fresh from the farm.

Neither you, nor Batman, live in a perfect world though… sometimes he is going to have to improvise on the spot; and sometimes the availability of certain foods (or the availability of cash) will be a bit of a hurdle for you to overcome.

Don’t be afraid to take a shortcuts or make substitutions as necessary!

Fresh fruits and vegetables are the way to go if at all possible, but they can be pricey when not in season. Don’t be afraid to choose frozen vegetables (sauce-free though!)

The golden rule of veggies = Fresh > Frozen > Canned

When local fruits and vegetables are in season, stores will often have sales to help move the inventory as quickly as possible. So watch for sales and experiment substituting those ingredients into your favorite recipes.

Oh, and while most recipes call for fresh herbs if you are on a budget just buy them dried. They will have longer shelf lives and be a fraction of the cost. Not to mention, you don’t have to spend time chopping dried herbs!

Oh, and one last really simple tip…

Don’t Shop Hungry!

Obvious tip is obvious.

I joke because, while it should be common-sense, I screw this part up all the time too!

Even has busy schedules, and I know a lot of people that fit grocery shopping in whenever they can. Which in a lot of cases means people are shopping while their stomach’s are yelling at them “Feed me!”

If you’re hungry you A) will probably end up buying more than you expected to and B) probably pickup unhealthy items laden with salt, sugar and fat.

Batman wouldn’t go out on a mission with his stomach growling, so neither should you. Have a quick, sensible snack before shopping. A piece of fruit, a handful of nuts, or a piece of whole grain bread with some almond butter on it ought to do it!

One final thought…

Please don’t think that I am coming down on grocery stores… they provide a valuable service, and they deserve to make all the money they can. I don’t begrudge them for it.

Grocery stores are one of the lowest profit margin businesses in the U.S (Only 1.3% according to Jeff Cohen of IBIS World), but I want you to spend a majority of your hard-earned cash on the healthy foods they sell; the ones that keep you on track with your fitness goals!

So how do you approach your grocery shopping? Do you plan it out? Do you just wing it? Have any tips for our readers?!? Speak up in the comments below!

(Photo #4 credit,Photo #5 credit,Photo #6 credit)

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