Wow. Look at all that food. Aisles and aisles of everything you could desire – fruits, breads, meats, soups, cookies, ice cream. It’s all there for you to choose from – take as much as you wish. How about a free sample? If you buy one, we’ll throw another one in for “free”. Go ahead! Indulge!
Can you guess what place I’m talking about? It’s the grocery store – a mecca of temptation and a cathedral to all that is filled with fat. We walk into the grocery store and, like clockwork, we emerge an hour later our shopping cart overflowing with deli meats, processed foods and that chocolate cake we just couldn’t say no to in the bakery. Not to mention the chips, candy bars and Ho-Ho’s we managed to slide into the cart as well – after all, they were on sale!
Good grief – is it no wonder we as a nation are fat? It’s not like fattening, unhealthy food is all the grocery store sells. It’s just that we have this big shopping cart, and the displays are so tempting. I’ve always said its too bad the produce department can’t get some of the folks who market the Ding Dong’s to help them come up with an ad campaign sometime. The sale of asparagus would go through the roof!
If I’ve learned anything over the years is that when it comes to the grocery store you have to know how to play the game. We all know by now that the healthiest foods are normally found on the perimeter of the store – and that the processed, bad stuff is usually found in the middle. Of course, the grocery stores know that we know, so they have started to rearrange a few things. Notice how the bakery is now to the right of the front door? And those frozen food displays, they someone managed to go from the middle of the store to along the wall. How convenient.
The good news is you can win at this battle in the grocery store. You can not only eat right, but you can also get in a mini-workout at the same time. It’s simple – just say “no thanks” to the shopping cart and pick up a shopping basket! With this one move you’ve made it a lot harder to pile up on the bad stuff, and a lot easier to burn a few calories while shopping.
Think about it for a moment. When you go to the grocery store you usually go because you need something. Maybe you need some tomatoes, flour, some bread. The problem is when you leave you have piled your cart full of other stuff, and in the process you forgot all about the tomatoes, flour and bread! I was terrible at this – the local grocery stores used to love to see me coming because they knew their profits were going to be up the day! So that’s when I decided to ditch the cart, pick up a basket and take matters into my own hands – literally!
With a basket I tend to focus on what I came into the store for. There simply isn’t enough room in that basket to load it down with junk food or impulse purchases. Of course this means I make more shopping trips per month than most, but that is OK. I look at them as a time to get in a little mini-workout carrying my basket around, walking through the store. Who would have thought it – eating right and getting some exercise all at the same time!
My friend Randy Pickard, who has been involved in retail for many years and is what one might call an expert in shopping baskets, told me that on average shopping baskets have went from something that was an afterthought in many stores to now being scattered around the store, ready for you to grab at a moment’s notice, and they are getting bigger! I guess the stores figured if they couldn’t force us to take a cart, they might as well make the basket a bit bigger to encourage us to shop!
Give it a shot next time; skip the cart and pick up the basket. Then when you get home take a look at what you bought. I’ll guarantee your shopping mix is going to be healthier than what you would have brought home before. Instead of chips, boxed foods and the sort you’ll probably find you stuck more to the fresh foods, cooking staples and healthy meats.
So what are you waiting for? Let’s go Krogering!
practice self-control and know that these are “treats” and not everyday meals. Have a craving for a hamburger? Instead of the the calorie-rich, fat-laden Double Whopper w/ Cheese,