Weight Loss Starts With Your Grocery Trip. 5 Tips to Shop, Cook, and Snack Healthier:

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Losing weight, keeping it off, and staying sane in the process, is no easy feat. It IS do-able and pretty simple, though. I’ve helped a lot of people with this stuff as a nutrition coach, and each person’s “formula” looks different based on their goals, starting point, taste buds, etc…

Trust me, if there were one “way” that worked perfectly for everyone, you’d have heard about it by now. It’d be expensive, but you’d have heard about it. Allow me to shed some light on one of the common themes I see in people from all walks of life who are losing weight long-term:

Cooking for yourself more often.

This all starts with having a plan when you go to the grocery store. That's what we're gonna talk about today for #NutritionTipTuesday:

Every day you’re getting hammered over the head with food temptation in the form of billions of marketing dollars, delicious smells, and social norms. If you wanna try and walk through your whole life with your will-power on HIGH ALERT like that, good f’ing luck!! Sounds stressful and unsustainable if you ask me.

It is way easier to make sure the stuff you have at home is healthy stuff. But also make sure it’s actually stuff that you ENJOY eating and leaves you feeling GREAT. Then you’ll just naturally wanna continue eating that way. This often consists of a lot of fruits, vegetables, proteins, and smart carbs.

The cool part about eating this way is you just gotta get yourself through ONE trip to the store. Write down your 3 favorite sources of those food groups above and now you’ve got a list for your trip. You’ve also got the internet for a gazillion different recipes of ways to prepare those things!

When you buy and prepare your own food, you don’t have to worry about the hidden calories, chemicals, and additives that are lurking ALL OVER 2019 America. I’m not saying avoid those things. That actually sounds like a losing, miserable proposition. I’m saying it’s more FUN, healthy, and affordable to cook for yourself.

Instead of trying to resist all the delicious unhealthy stuff out there, focus instead on getting more of the delicious healthy stuff you love. It all starts with your shopping trip.  Here’s a couple tips to keep in mind:

  • Most of the nutritious foods are on the perimeter of the grocery store, not in the middle aisles.
  • Get your snacking fruits and veggies rinsed, cut up, in Tupperware, and prominently placed in your fridge ASAP. Now they’re snacks that are as convenient as the bag of chips. If they’re chores sitting in a bag in the bottom drawer, the chips win every time.
  • Read the back of the labels, not just the front where there's often misleading marketing making "health" claims. (Pay attention to the serving size!)
  • Seasoning can give you tons of variety when cooking veggies and meat. Look up recipes ahead of time if your seasoning cabinet is a little bare. It’ll fill up quick the more you cook for yourself.
  • Keep the Big 4 Staples of salt, pepper, garlic, and olive oil on-hand. Most recipes call for some combination of them and they’re a delicious combo by themselves for most veggies and meat.

So there’s a bunch of stuff for you to experiment with if you are trying to lose weight. Instead of a bunch of strict rules I made up, it’s some simple suggestions for you to make your own. This way you’re losing weight on your terms. For the long haul.

Down With The Fitness is here to give you simple, actionable tips that will improve your health. If you found this helpful, feel free to check out the archives for more. I'm pretty proud of the rabbit hole this thing has become.
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Have fun and do your best,

Matt Koch

Certified Personal Trainer and Nutrition Coach (American Council on Exercise; Precision Nutrition)