Easy Grocery Shopping Tips

This month we are dedicating our discussions to grocery shopping! Grocery shopping can be very intimidating to some and with good reason. Everything is marketed to catch the eye, have flashy colors and prints on their labels to make consumers want to purchase their item whether it is healthy for them or not. I compiled a list of a few, easy tips to help when grocery shopping so that you are not swayed to make wrong decisions and hurt your progress!

1. The first easy tip to remember is to NEVER go to the grocery store when you are hungry! Everything is going to look 10X better at the store when you are hungry and, the hunger can make you purchase spur of the moment foods that are not productive to your health goals! Try to go shopping after you have eaten or, be sure to have a snack on hand before you go to help control any spikes in cravings, hunger or tempting foods. 
2. The second easy tip to remember is to make a grocery list! Be prepared and have a plan of what meals you are going to prepare over the next few days and try to shop for those meals in particular. This will make knowing what food items you need and don't need much easier. This will also help with not have any surprises jump out at you while you are shopping that end up in your cart that shouldn't be.
3. The third easy tip to remember is to out the perimeter of the store! That's right, skip the middle aisles at the stores when they are not needed! All meats, fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, and more are all along the outside perimeter of the store. The inside aisles will have plastic ware, trash bags, cleaning supplies, detergents, toiletries and basic household needs but, the middle aisles are also filled with PRE PACKAGED FOODS! Food
4. Another easy tip is to take a general inventory of what you already have at home. It’s fine to stock up on extras of the essentials at the grocery store you use most often but, we tend to typically overbuy food. But buying more than you need can take up precious fridge space and lead to more waste — especially if it’s a perishable items. This makes it easier to use the foods you already have at home and, when you go to the grocery store, allows you to create your meals for the week using the base foods at home. Then, you can build your grocery list from the items you don’t have to complete your meals! So, before you go grocery shopping, do an inventory check of your fridge, freezer, and pantry!
5. The next tip is to always check up on the weekly ad's for the supermarkets! It is so very easy to simply look at what could be coming up on sale and planning your meals around it, while saving money! I personally LOVE The Fresh Market here in Vero Beach because they have daily specials! For instance, on Tuesday's Fresh Markets special is Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast & Ground Chuck  that is $2.99 a pound, Thursdays you can get a whole chicken for only $5! Winn-Dixie, Publix and Walmart all have daily and weekly specials so it never hurts to check!
6. The last tip is to CALL BRITTNEY! If you are not sure about certain food products you find in the store, email me a picture of the products or the name brand so I can search online for it and we can go over it together to see if it is a healthy, acceptable option. I am always available to help!

There's a great article about grocery shopping HERE!