Tick Off the Items As You Go

I find this is a great way to ensure you pick up all the items on the list but can also prevent you from impulse buying. Simply accept that if it’s not on the list, it’s not going in your basket. Treat it like you were buying food for someone else, you wouldn’t throw in extra items they didn’t want to pay for.

Never Go Shopping When You Are Hungry

When you are hungry, your self control will suffer. You will select something convenient and tasty which in most cases will be crammed full of processed foods and be high in calories.

Preparation is the best remedy for supermarket hunger, if you can eat beforehand, or have a piece of fruit to stave off the hunger until you have completed your shopping trip you will be much happier when you next jump on the scales.

Order Your Shopping Online

Product placement is a major problem in Supermarkets when you want to get in and out without picking up too many unnecessary or unhealthy items. How often do you find you have to walk by a plethora of foods you want to avoid before finding the foodstuffs you have in your list.

Impulse buying can slow your weight loss.

By doing your grocery shopping online, you can remove the temptation by using the search function to add your shopping list items to your virtual basket. As you’re not strolling up and down aisles looking for a particular thing, you won’t pass by the foods you wish to avoid. Think of the items that are closest to the cash registers, healthy or not?

Many online stores allow you to save shopping lists or keep a list of your favourite items, after you have ordered your healthy shopping a few times, you will have a favourites list crammed with healthy, weight loss promoting foods which you can quickly select from to suit your needs.

By shopping efficiently and effectively, you can arm yourself with the ingredients to boost your weight loss and feel satisfied at meal times.

The most effective exercise for weight loss is called The Shopping List.

The food you consume is the single biggest factor in whether or not you gain or lose weight, no amount of training or physical activity can fully compensate for a poor diet. Effective weight loss begins with effective nutrition.

You are in control of the food you eat and by stocking your fridge and cupboards with healthier foods that will promote weight loss you will be in a great position to achieve your weight loss goals.

From personal experience, if the food is there, it will get eaten.

Building Your Shopping List

I’m sure there are many approaches that people will use to create build their shopping lists, my preference is to plan the meals I will have for a given period of time, perhaps the next 3 days to a week and then break down the meals into the ingredients I will require to make those meals happen.

A few points to consider would be:

• How many days’ meals are you shopping for?
• How much do you really need?
• Check your recipe book to ensure you have written all the ingredients you need.
• How fresh are your ingredients? You do not want to buy a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables for it to go off before you get the chance to use it.
• Can you buy, or make, a healthier alternative to any of the ingredients? Non-processed instead of processed.
• Can you make extra batches of food which can be stored for a quick and easy meal later?

With some preparation time, you can build a complete shopping list which will allow you to shop effectively and efficiently. You will only purchase the food you need, saving you money and time previously spent meandering through the supermarket.

Weight loss is a lifestyle choice, as is closely linked to the food you purchase and eat. Writing a shopping list is like writing your nutritional goals for the week, by writing and healthy shopping list and purchasing and utilising the foodstuff, you will lose weight, feel great and gain a confidence in your ability to control your eating and your health.