Healthy Food Shopping Checklist
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With practice, you’ll be safe to go to the grocery store without a healthy food shopping checklist, but until that time then it’s better to be safe than to be sorry. Take a healthy food shopping checklist with you, and if it isn’t on your list then don’t buy it (unless, of course, it’s still healthy and tasty, fits in well with your new lifestyle choice but you’ve just forgotten to put it on the list – that’s fine).
Shopping lists are a great way to save money too. If you shop without a list (especially when you’re hungry) then you’re more than likely to come home with lots of goodies which you neither wanted nor needed, but just “fancied” at the time, this can severely damage your finances, not to mention increase your waistline.
Use a list like this just to make sure that you restock your kitchen cupboards with food that is good for you, that is gonna’ be the ingredients for great food which will help you to get healthy, lose weight and gain fitness.
Grains
Make sure that the whole-wheat products you buy are actually labeled 100% whole wheat.
- Brown rice
- Whole-wheat pasta
- Whole-wheat pitta bread, tortillas and wraps
- Whole-grain breakfast cereal
- Coach’s oats (or similar)
- Sprouted wheat bread
- Brown rice cakes
Canned Or Jarred Items
- Olives – the mediterranean diet is reputed to be among the healthiest in the world – and they eat tons of ‘em.
- Black beans
- Sun-dried tomatoes – make sure that they are NOT in oil
- Tomato sauce – without added sugar
- Tomatoes – whole, diced or crushed, tomatoes are a “super food”
- Canned fruit – unsweetened
- White beans
- Vegetable stock – low salt
Dried Fruit & Nuts
- Lots of varieties of nuts – raw nuts are best, not salted or roasted, just raw, as nature intended them to be
- Almonds – I know that technically almonds are nuts, but also thought that they deserved a mention all of their own
- Dried fruits – apricots, cranberries, raisins, prunes etc
Condiments & Spices
- Balsamic vinegar
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Canola oil – spray on or regular
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Honey
- Soy sauce – low in sodium
- Mustard – including Grey Poupon
- Wine vinegar
- Pure maple syrup
- Red pepper flakes
- Curry powder or turmuric
Refrigerated Items
- Soy cheese
- low fat yogurts
- low fat soy milk
- Orange or grapefruit juice, make sure it’s 100% with pulp
Frozen Items
- Blueberries, raspberries and any other berries which are frozen and unsweetened
- Fruit sorbets – very refreshing!
- Vanilla frozen yogurt – non fat or low fat of course
Health Foods
- Flax seed
- Soy protein powder
- Chia seed
Fresh Fruits & Vegetables
There are just one or two things to remember when you are choosing your fresh fruit and vegetables. Stock up on a large variety of fruit & veggies, in lots of different colors (different colored fruits and veggies have different health benefits – it’s very clever) BUT don’t buy more than you can eat in a few days, no more than a week at least. Fresh fruits and veggies lose their nutrients just sitting around waiting to be eaten, so buy fresh as often as you can. Let’s look at some of the different color groups, just for the helluvit’.
- Blue / Purple – plums, eggplant, blackberries, blueberries
- Orange / Yellow – carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, pineapple, mangoes
- Red – tomatoes, cranberries, cherries, red apples, red peppers
- Yellow / Green – broccoli, spinach, avocados, lemons, limes, kiwi fruit
- White / Green – onions, garlic, mushrooms, banana
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- Beverages – Good Earth Caffeine Free Original Sweet & Spicy Herbal Tea