Shopping Your Way to Weight Loss

While shopping may not qualify as an aerobic activity, it can
certainly help you to shed the pounds, if you follow the right
formula. What you buy largely determines what you will eat.
Therefore, if you want to maintain a healthy diet at home,
you’ll need to do some advanced planning before heading out to
the supermarket.

The secret to weight loss may begin with your shopping list.
You need to take some time before going to the store to assess
what your nutritional needs are. For instance, a healthy diet
might very well include breads and cereals, dairy products,
vegetables and fruits, along with meat, fish and poultry.
However, you’ll need to decide on exactly which products to buy
within each food category.

For instance, rather than purchasing white bread or cereals
with little fiber, consider whole wheat bread and whole wheat
cereals. Pass up the whole milk and whole milk yogurt and buy
non-fat milk and yogurt instead. You should avoid iceberg
lettuce and opt for Romaine; select fresh fruit rather than
fruit in heavy syrup. You may be tempted to buy fried chicken,
bacon or spareribs, but choose low-fat options such as baked
chicken, lean hamburger, and grilled fish.

It’s a good idea to go grocery shopping after you have eaten a
full meal. Otherwise, your hunger could drive you to buy junk
food and other unhealthy snacks. If you are operating on a full
stomach, you’ll think more clearly and you will be less likely
to buy food impulsively. Also, it is critically important that
you do not buy more food than you need. Otherwise, you will have
a powerful incentive to overeat.

Before you go shopping, you might want to check out the layout
of the supermarket. Find out where you can find those items that
are likely to appear on your list. Otherwise, you could find
yourself browsing the shelves, looking for food that appears
interesting–but could also be quite fattening. Certainly, it
may take some extra time to “scope out” the supermarket, but it
will be well worth the effort, if it results in weight loss.

Whenever possible, you should buy individually packaged food.
These single servings allow you to maintain proper portion
control. For instance, if you feel you must indulge in potato
chips, you will be far better off if you buy a single-serving
bag rather than the family pack. Remember, large portions equal
weight gain.

You might actually want to avoid shopping with coupons. Coupons
can tempt you to buy high-calorie items that you might otherwise
pass up. While everyone wants a good bargain, you don’t want to
end up paying for that deal by gaining additional pounds. It’s a
sad fact that you will rarely find a coupon for fresh fruit and
vegetables. But you might think of the situation this way: You
will end up saving money if you eat “fresh” because you will not
have to invest in additional clothes.

Also, when you’re considering which foods to buy, concentrate
on the product labels. There, you’ll find a great deal of
nutritional information, indicating fat content, calorie
content, portion size, and vitamin and mineral content. If you
end up bringing the product home, you should serve the item
according to the suggested portion size. In other words, if a
portion equals one-half cup, don’t opt for two cups. In essence,
you should be treating food as if it’s a medication that must be
used as directed. In this way, you should avoid the weight loss
that comes with overeating.

It is interesting to note that the American Institute for
Cancer Research determined that only 12 percent of shoppers
determined portion size by using the label. As a result, paying
attention to nutrition labels is a counter-cultural thing to do.
But it is certainly a good habit to get into. Otherwise, at the
end of the day, you could end up with far more fat than you
bargained for.

You may be amazed at the amount of weight you can lose just by
diligent shopping. A little advanced planning can go a long way
to ensuring weight loss. And you might actually save yourself
some money, since you will no longer be buying expensive snacks.

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