Your Grocery Shopping Survive-and-Thrive Guide

By Patrick McCarthy

You’re here because you’ve committed to improving or maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle. Excellent! I’m here to show you how effective grocery shopping can help you achieve that! You’re not simply going to survive the grocery store, you’re going to smash it! 

What’s so Important About Grocery Shopping? 

As a nutrition coach, I talk about habits, and in these conversations, the term “entry point” pops up a lot. The entry to any habit is what we call the first step. 

Effective grocery shopping can be an important entry point for many healthy habits. Take the following for example: 

• Eating more home-cooked meals 

• Eating breakfast every morning 

• Bringing a prepared lunch to the station 

• Having protein-based snacks on hand at work 

Without an effective weekly grocery trip, these healthy habits wouldn’t be possible. 

Killing it at the Supermarket – 9 Proven Strategies

Every strategy needs tangible goals. Consider the following: 

• Informed shopping – knowing what you’re buying 

• Wise use of money and time. 

• Stocking up – planning enough food to keep you and your family sustained until the next shopping day

• Choosing healthy food you’ll look forward to enjoying

Top Tips For Grocery Greatness

1. Make a list

You may feel you don’t have time for this, and that it isn’t that important if you buy the same things every week. Yet, a grocery list is an important goal-setting tool. By listing the groceries you intend to buy, you’re creating an action plan, and avoiding buying things you don’t really want or need.

2. Choose Carefully: Grocery Basket, Cart, or Neither? 

You might think that choosing the smallest cart or basket will help you avoid over-shopping, but actually the opposite is true. 

How many times have you entered the grocery store, convinced yourself to use a small basket, and then forgot to buy 20 things you needed? Grabbing a basket when you really need a shopping cart will simply result in another visit to the store in a couple of days. You’ll end up buying and paying more. 

Being realistic is key when it comes to achieving a healthy lifestyle. Remember our first tip? If you have a list, you’ll be able to identify whether you need a basket or a cart. 

3. Add Color 

Picture your local supermarket, and you’ll realize the first section you and your cart will encounter is likely the produce department. Fresh produce is right up front, with meat and dairy toward the back corner of the store. 

Spend quality time here, filling up your cart with as many colorful fruits and vegetables you think you’ll cook and consume. 

Key tip: Do you have children? Pick up one new vegetable and/or fruit each time. Exposing your youngsters to new foods is a sure fire way to ensure their diet is diverse, for optimum nutrition, as adults.

4. Don’t Fear the Center Aisles 

We’ve all heard supermarkets keep the more processed, highly-desirable-but-not-so-healthy food items in the center, while the fresh foods are found around the perimeter. 

This is true in many markets, but that doesn’t mean we have to avoid the middle of the store completely. We need non-perishables, as well as some tasty treats, too, in small amounts.

Try to be mindful. If you notice you’re spending a lot of time in the center aisles, it may be because the store environment is designed that way. Make an effort to give the produce, bakery, dairy and meat sections plenty of time, too. 

5. Shop In-Season 

Different fruits and vegetables come into season at various times of the year. If you have a broad overview of what produce is ripest during each season of the year, you’ll maximize the flavor and nutritional value of your food choices. 

For example, during winter in the U.S., we have access to the following produce: 

• Apples 
• Avocados 
• Bananas
• Brussels sprouts 
• Cabbage 
• Celery 

The USDA provides a seasonal fruit and vegetable guide. Why don’t you print it and display it on your fridge?

6. When in Doubt, Check Nutrition Labels 

Some people think it’s prudent to cross-check the label of every product they pick up in the grocery store. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have three hours to spend on my grocery shopping, do you? Didn’t think so. 

Use common sense instead when it comes to certain products:

• Brown grains will generally be less processed and higher in fiber 
• Low-fat foods will generally contain fewer calories
• Reduced sodium is usually what it says  

Some products are cleverly marketed, so you’ll need to be savvy and give the label a closer look. Simply flip over the package and double-check that whatever claims are made on the front of the box are supported in the ingredients list and/or nutritional information. 

7. Don’t Lose Sleep Over Buying Organic vs. Conventional/Frozen vs. Fresh Produce

Organic labels are the subject of a lot of controversy. Why? Quite simply, growers and manufacturers must meet certain standards to qualify for the organic label; however, the rules may not be exactly what you’d expect. 

For example, you might think organic produce doesn’t come in contact with chemicals, but in reality, a variety of natural pesticides and other chemicals that meet a set of criteria for organic agriculture are used. 

Do organic foods have a vastly superior nutritional profile? There is no convincing evidence to support this. Conventionally grown fruit and vegetables are perfectly healthy, too! 

8. Don’t Shop While You’re Hungry … or Full! 

Another tip as old as time is to avoid grocery shopping when you’re hungry. When we’re hungry, we’re much more likely to grab additional food items we’d otherwise never include in our weekly shopping. 

We tend to think we can eat more than we actually need, and on a deeper, physiological level, our appetite-regulating hormones are influencing our decision-making and clouding our best judgment. Those hormones sneak up on you, and next thing you know, the bill at checkout is $250! 

Should you only go to the grocery store when you’re completely full? Definitely not! If you shop when you’re feeling full, right after a meal, chances are you’ll get less than you actually need. 

Try to hit a happy medium and do your grocery shopping when you’re neither very hungry nor filled right up. Gaining this skill can transform your relationship with food and health. 

9. Make Grocery Shopping a Mindful Experience

If preparing and eating your food is something you should give your full attention to, why shouldn’t the gathering of these ingredients be the same?

If you’re squeezing the weekly grocery trip into a tightly packed schedule, chances are the experience is going to be manic. You’ll be running from aisle to aisle, and in and out of the checkout several times, to get that “one last thing.” 

Whenever possible, use the grocery store trip as a mindful escape from the hectic world. Get a grocery cart – because a basket will be too heavy and cause you to rush towards the checkouts – and enjoy the process. 

Use your imagination while scanning the ingredients, and imagine the dishes you could make. Visual imagery is a powerful tool and can make the shopping experience much more enjoyable.  

Enjoy the experience of shopping for your food as much as possible, and remember to apply one or two of these tips each time to ensure that you’re staying in line with your health and performance goals. 

Questions? Find me [email protected]