“I can spend hours in a grocery store. I get so excited when I see food, I go crazy. I spend hours arranging my baskets so that everything fits in and nothing gets squashed. I’m really anal about it, actually.” –Cameron Diaz

After I went grocery shopping this weekend, I thought some grocery tips might make a good post topic, so here goes.

When it comes to strategic eating, grocery shopping is a key element in your success.  In fact, if you are preparing most of your meals at home (as you should if you are trying to get lean), then the foods that you keep on hand will make our break you.  In fact, I’d go as far as to say that grocery shopping is a skill that should be learned by anyone who is serious about sticking to their fat loss goals.  So having said all that, I’m now going to reveal a few tips on what I do when I go grocery shopping.  I start by making a healthy grocery list.

Make a healthy grocery list.

In my opinion, this is by far the most important element of grocery shopping and it happens before you even set foot in the store. 

If you wander aimlessly into the store, you are more likely to buy whatever catches your eye rather than the items you should be buying.  Grocery stores are very good at strategically placing items in certain areas where you are likely to “happen upon them” and if you don’t have your purchases planned out beforehand, you will fall right into their trap!  There is a reason why candy, gum, and magazines are always on display at the checkout aisles.

Stick to your shopping list.

Making a shopping list may be the most important part of your shopping routine, but it is pointless if you don’t stick to your list.  When I go shopping, it’s like I’m on a mission.  I try to get in and out as quickly as I can.  I enter the store, make one round trip, pick up everything that’s on my list, and checkout.  Usually, I spend no more than 15 minutes shopping.  The longer you linger in the store, the more likely you are to deviate from your shopping list.

I prefer to go shopping during times when the store is less crowded.  This way, I can actually move through the store without running into a billion people and their shopping carts.  I’m also not standing around idle waiting for the person in front of me to pick through every piece of produce and give it the five point inspection.  If you’ve read my post on the best home gym equipment, you may notice some similarities to my approach.

Buy things that are on sale, but only if they are on your list.

A concept I always fail to understand is when someone tells me they saved money by purchasing something that they weren’t planning on purchasing in the first place.  Say you need to buy a new car.  The car you intend to buy is worth $20,000 and you get it for $15,000.  That’s great!  You saved $5,000.  But if you had no need for that car in the first place and you decided to buy it because it was discounted $5,000, then you didn’t actually save any money.  In fact, you wasted $15,000.

The same concept applies to grocery shopping.  Say you’ve got your list of healthy foods: lean meats, fruits, vegetables, etc.  Then you walk in and immediately, you see the “buy one get one free” displays strategically placed right in front of you as you enter the store.  Cookies are buy one get one free, so you grab two boxes thinking you saved some money when in fact, you wasted money because you purchased something that you otherwise wouldn’t have.  Personal finance happens to be another one of my interests in addition to health and fitness, so I could go on even more about this, but it’s probably best to save that for another time (or another blog).

Bottom line is I’m all for taking advantage of sales… as long as they apply to things I was going to buy in the first place. In fact, I go out of my way to look for sales and coupons on these items.  Sometimes I’ll even stock up on a bunch of non-perishable items that are on sale and buy more than I had originally planned because I know that they are a staple of my diet and I will eat them eventually.  However, if other items happen to be on sale, I ignore them.

If you are trying to get lean or stay lean, stick to the outer aisles of the store.

I have mentioned this before, but throughout most of the week, I eat a Primal diet.  On your shopping trips, try to keep to the outer aisles of the grocery store because this is usually where you find natural foods that are your biggest allies in the war against fat. Think about it… fruits, vegetables, eggs, dairy products, and meats are all found in the outer aisles.  Once you wander into the inner aisles, you see things like cereals, cookies, chips, sugary drinks, and other processed foods.  If you don’t buy these items, then you will never be tempted with them when you open up your pantry and see them right in front of your face.  Once I quit buying bread and cereal, I noticed a big time drop in my body fat percentage.

Here is an example of my typical weekly shopping list:

Bananas, apples, frozen raspberries, lettuce, onions, green and red peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, vanilla almond milk, omega-3 eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, shredded cheese, block cheese, sliced turkey, turkey bacon, frozen grilled chicken tenderloins, lean ground beef, sliced jalapenos, minced garlic, almonds, green tea, Edy’s Dibs (little ice cream bites, I have a couple each night for dessert).

Make it a routine.

I like to go grocery shopping once a week about the same time each week.  I usually either go after work on Friday, or on Saturday morning.  Maybe this is just where I live, but I’ve noticed that the store isn’t very crowded during either of these times.  I think on Fridays, people like to go home and relax after work or hit the bar (which I also like to do, but that’s another advantage of living very close to work and walking distance from the grocery store).  On Saturday, the store starts to get more crowded after 11 am or so.  Anytime before that and I’m usually in the clear.

So to recap…

Make a healthy grocery list, stick to it, take advantage of sales if they apply to your pre-planned purchases, and stock up on good Primal foods.  If you do these things, you will be well on your way to becoming a smarter shopper.  Remember, when it comes to fat loss, grocery shopping is a valuable skill so use these grocery tips to give yourself an edge!