7 Steps to Shopping Smart
As part of the Vision community our clients now know how important it is to plan and eat right. At first you may find the changes to your eating habits quite significant and that's why we highly recommend you go on a shopping tour with your local Studio. Furthermore, always ask your trainer questions, there's nothing we can't help with! We have already taken the guess work out of choosing the right foods so we will save you time and money on trial and error. Below are 7 easy tips on how to buy healthier groceries and save money too!
- Plan - Make a list before you go. Plan your weekly menu or list a few main dishes that you can eat throughout the week. This will help you to not only buy the food you need yet also save you time at the grocery store and potentially decreasing your food bill. Planning your weekly menu and shop can also save you time and money throughout the week as you won't have to make little individual trips to the local store for essential ingredients.
- Shop after eating - Hitting the grocery store when you are hungry is the cardinal sin of shopping. It will put you over budget faster than you can say "junk food." Unfortunate cases will have you loading up on things you don't need and food that are not ideal for your health and fitness journey. If you run out of time to have a meal before you go to buy your groceries have a protein rich snack or some nuts to munch on while you're shopping.
- Shop alone - Shopping solo can have you concentrating on finding the best deals and having the time to read the labels to ensure you are making good choices. It will also stop those unwanted items not on your list, that aren't good for the budget or eating habits, landing in your trolley.
- Buy generic - In Australia we have very high food standards so fortunately generic brands are quite often as good as the name brand versions. For example home brand oats are *$0.35c/100gms while one of the big name brand oats is $1.61c/100gms. Add the milk at $1 per litre for the no-name vs. the big brand at $2.40/1 litre and you can see how over time you can save on your essential food items.
- Buy whole foods - Less processed food is often cheaper per serving - tomatoes vs. tomato sauce. Simply think about the original, whole foods as a product that you can eat as-is or use to make your own sauce, cereal or juice. Instead of paying food manufacturers to do it for you and by making your own food from scratch you know exactly what's in it - no nasty little surprises, like added sugar, preservatives and chemicals.
- Work from the outside in - More often than not grocery stores have the freshest, less processed foods on the outer edges of the grocery store. Stick to the perimeter of the grocery store, first picking up your fresh fruit and vegies; then your lean cuts of meat and poultry; swing past the nut and seed section for your Omegas, and finally pick up your low-fat diary, eggs or soy products. Now before you venture into the middle and fill your trolley with nutrition depleted, over processed foods look at the contents in your trolley and only add essential items.
- Buy what's in season - Thanks to the law of supply and demand, in season produce costs less. When planning your weekly menu choose recipes which use in-season fruit and vegies. Summer is great for berries, whilst winter is terrific for oranges. Cauliflower is great for the colder months for a Cauliflower Soup, whilst asparagus comes into its own in the warmer months and livens up a beautiful fresh salad. And if you have a local farmer's market don't forget to check out the specials they may have with an abundant growing season.
*Disclaimer: Individual results vary based on agreed goals. Click here for details.
