Grocery shopping

I always saw grocery shopping as just a nuisance, particularly when I was working.  Back then I had little free time as it was and going to the grocery store to push a cart with a bad, squeaky wheel (I have a knack for choosing bad carts) around the same aisles to get the same products every time, then lug them all onto the conveyor belt, put the bags in the car, then lug the bags into the house so I could put everything away was just a big, dreaded time-consuming chore. 

I always got the same exact products because it didn't take much planning or thinking so it'd expedite my time inside the store.  I knew what I liked and where things were in the store so at most I'd spend 30 minutes in there.  Many times I had no food in the house for a couple of weeks because I was too tired, too busy, or just didn't feel like going.  There were only a handful of things that always got me to the store the second I ran out though:  cat food, cat litter, toilet paper, coffee, milk for my coffee, or paper towels - and in that order, too.  Everything else could wait.  My daily diet consisted of the quick spaghetti I could boil, fast food, and/or leftovers from restaurants anyway so I didn't really need groceries.  Although I always enjoyed cooking, I rarely made anything because I was too tired or too lazy to bother.  Unless, of course, it was to bake a banana nut loaf or other cake.

That's no longer the case.  When I started this weight-loss journey, I decided that the only way I could succeed was to cook my meals because then I could control what products I consumed.  As I mentioned before, I have enough cookbooks to keep me busy for a lifetime.  I flip through my cookbooks the way most people flip through magazines or catalogues.  Whenever I watch a show or movie on TV, I'm always doing something else at the same time like paying bills, playing online, or looking through cookbooks.  I've always done that, even when I wasn't cooking at all for years.  The only difference now is I cook all the time.  When I find a recipe I want to try, I make a list of ingredients I need and so off to the store I go.  I'm always trying new dishes.

I actually enjoy grocery shopping now.  It's a good thing, too, because I find myself at the market several times a week.  Not only that, whereas before I only shopped at one store, now I visit several stores throughout the week because not one store carries everything I like/need.  I'm at the store so often, in fact, that some of the cashiers know me by now.  One of them hugged me the other day because I hadn't seen her for a few weeks since our schedules didn't coincide.  I thought it was hilarious.

 

When I first started with Weight Watchers ("WW") in late 2012, I spent hours at the market reading product labels and using my Smart phone WW scanner app to find products that would give me the most food for the least WW points per serving.  When I started working in earnest with my trainer, Flaminia ("Fla"), in late 2014, I once again found myself spending hours at the store comparing products to get the most of my daily calories allowance and using my Smart phone MyFitnessPal scanner app to find products that contain the least calories per serving.  Even now that I know pretty much what to get, I continue to compare products periodically to see if there's anything better.  And by "better," I mean lower calories and/or lower sodium per serving. 

I've heard many times before that to eat healthy you should only shop the perimeter of the market.  It turns out to be true!  If you analyze the layout of your local market, you'll notice that along the perimeter walls you'll find the vegetables and fruits, dairy, and fresh meats/poultry/fish.  Usually along one wall though you'll also find the bakery and liquor sections.  I try to stay away from this wall!  In any event, without intentionally following this advice, I soon realized that I spent most of my time along the perimeter of any market I visited.  The only time I visit the inner aisles is primarily to get frozen vegetables/fruits, water, spices, canned vegetables/fruits, oils/vinegars, nuts, grains, and rice as well as non-food items like cleansers, paper goods, cat litter, etc.     

 

The contents of my shopping carts now don't resemble at all what I purchased regularly for decades before my journey began.  You'll no longer see in my cart boxes of cereals, frozen pizza, ice cream, pastries/cakes, frozen meals, pasta, blocks of cheese, cases of sodas (I gave them up in 2010), bags of chips, or any type of fruit juice whether it comes in a carton or bottle.  Nowadays you'll find that my basket is full of fresh vegetables and fruits, fresh meats/poultry/fish, dairy products (fat free milk, unsweetened almond milk, cartons of egg whites, eggs, and fat free Greek yogurt), as well as bags of nuts.  I always get a roasted chicken from the deli department, too, particularly in the summer when it's too hot to cook.

The only processed foods other than dairy that you'll often find in my cart these days are canned vegetables/fruits and low-calorie salad dressing.  Once in a great while you'll find a box of crackers, a loaf of bread, cream cheese, jam, granola (for my yogurt and fruit snacks), or processed deli meat like bologna that made their way into my cart, but these are rare purchases now.  I would venture to guess that the worst purchase I make these days on a regular basis is coffee.  It's an unnecessary food and caffeine is unhealthy, but I do love my coffee in the mornings and afternoons so I often get several flavors.  If you're suggesting decaffeinated coffee, forget it.  If I'm going to be bad, I want the caffeine fix!  Even wine, which was my weekly purchase before, is now rare.  It's just empty calories I don't need.   

I've also had to stop buying peanut butter on a regular basis.  It was never a favorite of mine and the old me often had to throw out the jars because they sat around too long and got old.  The new me, however, can eat an entire jar in one sitting if I allow myself.   There are times I can't get enough of it, particularly after a workout consisting of lots of cardio.  I thought it was my body craving protein, but Fla says it's because my body is craving fat.  Whatever the reason, at 190 calories for a mere 2 tablespoons (which is not much when you have a craving), it's not worth it.  The only way I can prevent my current insatiable craving for peanut butter is to not bring it in the house.  I still use the powdered peanut butter I mentioned under "So what do you eat?" which helps quench my cravings and at 45 calories for 2 tablespoons, it's a better choice.  I use the powder in my protein shakes or oatmeal breakfast although I don't eat oatmeal often.

 

In the past, I never paid attention to what other people were buying.  However, nowadays I can't help but look at what's inside other people's carts, especially if they're obese.  They all have the same types of products I used to buy:  cases of sodas, sweets, bottles/cartons of fruit juices, bags of chips, and tons of boxes of food - meaning processed foods like cereals and frozen meals.  Most of these people don't have any fresh fruits/ vegetables or fresh meats/poultry/fish in their carts either.  If they do, the boxed foods outnumber the fresh stuff.  I always think to myself, "Oh, man, you're killing yourself!" 

Although it makes me sad when I see someone who's obese pushing a cart filled with junk (I call these "fake foods" now) that will keep them in obesity, it makes me angry when I see parents buying these foods with their kids in tow, especially if the kids are obese, too.  Cereals and bottles/cartons of fruit juices are full of sugar.  Chips and cookies are nothing but empty calories and full of sugar.  One cookie can have as much as 240 calories, for one cookie!  Imagine if they ate a handful.  Frozen meals are full of sodium and preservatives and most aren't even that tasty anyway.  I realize that frozen meals are quick and convenient, but the consequence of that convenience is very costly in the end.

My mother cooked just about every single meal from scratch my entire life and still does today in her 80s.  Growing up, we rarely ate processed foods.  In the early 1970s I became aware of TV dinners, what we recognize today as frozen meals, and my parents bought some because I wanted to try them.  At the time, TV dinners came in an aluminum plate and you heated them in the oven because microwaves wouldn't become mainstream for another decade or so.  These dinners were anything but quick because often they took forever to heat up from being frozen solid.  The "food" didn't look very appealing and it tasted pretty awful, too, but it was something new to try.  I could count on my hands how many TV dinners we ate during my childhood.  We rarely, if ever, went to restaurants.  The reason was mostly financial, but it was also the healthiest thing to do.  Once in a great while we'd go to McDonalds (probably a few times a year) only because I wanted to go.  We didn't eat cereal because we didn't eat breakfast.  My parents didn't really keep junk food in the house like chips, chocolate, or candy either.  This is probably why I never really cared for chocolate or candy.  As for chips, I can take them or leave them.   

Back then there was never a discussion about calories or portion control.  Although my mother made a variety of dishes, we always also had pasta (including homemade pizza periodically), pastries/cakes, ice cream, fried foods, and breads.  This might explain why I still love these foods to this day.  There were always fresh vegetables and fruits in the house, too, but I didn't like any of these so I never touched them.  My mother used to offer me fruit for dessert all the time, and I could never understand why she was so delusional to think that something boring like fruit could be considered a dessert.  Dessert to me meant something doughy, sweet, and tasty. 

Another thing we always had in the house after I turned 10 were sodas (and nothing diet either) because I liked them.  I don't remember my parents drinking sodas often, but I sure did.  My grandmother used to tell me I had to drink water and I thought she was crazy.  Water is tasteless, who'd be crazy enough to drink that?!  She'd be proud of me today considering I drink nothing but water, as much as 12 glasses a day sometimes.

Whatever I ate as a kid, I know it wasn't the junk that kids eat today.  Growing up I don't remember vending machines filled with junk food being everywhere either like they are today.  The school lunches at the time weren't the healthiest (and usually were kind of gross, like food often is when made quickly in great quantities), but they were better than what kids eat now in school.  My mother used to pack my lunch every day, but I preferred to eat the school lunch food probably to be like the other kids, not for the taste that's for sure.  I was appalled to learn that most schools now serve fast foods like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, etc.  I'm so glad the foods available to kids today were not available to me in my day because only God knows how much more I would have weighed if they had been.     

Although I became overweight after the age of 10, it wasn't until I was on my own in my mid 20s that the weight started to climb and I started to head into obesity and eventually into morbid obesity.  That's when I first hit the 200s and kept going.  On my own, suddenly I was going out to eat and drink with friends regularly, my home cooked meals were infrequent (I cooked now and then in those days), and I started buying junk food and processed foods.  At the time I was going to night school and working full time so processed foods were convenient to my busy schedule.

Of course, I had no idea what I was doing to myself at the time and, sadly, it took me decades to figure it out.  Like I've said many times throughout my blog, the information was always out there, I just wasn't listening and I didn't know how to apply it to my own life.
 

I'm no expert on how to eat healthy, far from it, but the few changes I've made the last few years allowed me to lose more than 1/3 my body size while improving my all-around health (medically, spiritually, and emotionally).   I recently saw one of my doctors whose reaction to my weight loss was priceless.  She was so happy for me, and she kept saying, "You have no idea how much you've improved your health.  No idea!  No idea at all!"  I told her that actually, yes, I'm realizing now how detrimental it is to be overweight, never mind morbidly obese.  Although I'm not naïve enough to think I'll never get sick with some disease in the future, I've lowered my risk considerably just by losing weight, let alone eating better.    

When I see obese people at the market making bad food choices, part of me wants to pull each of them aside and explain to them how badly they're eating (particularly if they have obese kids) and how easily they can make the switch to be healthier, but, of course, it wouldn't be appropriate to give such uninvited advice especially to strangers.  Can you imagine their reactions if I did?  If someone had done that to the old me, I would have been embarrassed and absolutely furious and indignant.  I wasn't ready to understand that someone approaching me and explaining things to me would have changed my life for the better.  As it was, it took me three months of working with Fla before I started listening to her, I certainly wouldn't have accepted that from a stranger.   I now wonder how many times someone passed the old me at the store and felt sad about my purchases, too.

I realize that when I say "the few changes I've made" that allowed me to lose the weight sounds like it was an easy thing to do, like choosing this outfit over that one every day, as if these changes took no effort at all once I put my mind to it.  In actuality, changing my lifestyle as it pertains to food has been one of the hardest things I've ever done.  It's been a daily struggle and it'll remain a daily struggle for the rest of my life.  Addiction, no matter what form it takes, is always there.  The only thing we can do to save ourselves is learn to control it and deal with it in a healthy manner.