Weekly Meeting Topic : Outsmart the Supermarket

This week, I finally made it to my regular Tuesday meeting.  Its nice to be welcomed with a "here she is" when you walk in the room, nice to know you're presence is noticed/missed!

This week's topic was about the Supermarket game and how to win!  When shopping since we all love food (how else would we of gotten ourselves into the situation we're in : being overweight?) we are the ones who have to take control to avoid temptation and make wise choices.

If you don't feel like you're in control while at the grocery store, sit down and think about what you can change that you're doing right now when at the store.

• Do you shop the perimeter?  If you want to live a healthier lifestyle and eat properly this really is the key!  If you haven't thought about it or really noticed the perimeter is where all the good, fresh, healthy food is!  This is where you find the dairy, fruits and veggies, meats, breads/grains, deli.  Its in the aisles where you find a lot of the preservative filled packaged foods!  I do most of my shopping in the perimeter, I think all I buy from the aisles are things like cereals, rice, pasta, and a few snacks.
• Do you make a list and stick to it?  Sitting down and making a list, going through your fridge and cupboards to decide what good for you snacks you need to buy. While you're in the store its important to do your best to stick to that list, not to be swayed by special displays, end caps, sales, and the checkout "danger zone".  I always get what is on my list, sometimes I do veer from the list but its most of the time seeing a food I regularly have in the house on sale, or see a fruit or veggie I'd love to have.
• Don't go into the grocery store HUNGRY!  Oh boy if there's any time I find myself with treats/junky food in the house is when I've gone into the store very hungry.  That's when a lot of impulse buys happen.  If I find myself hungry while in the store I'll grab a small bag of baby carrots in the veggie aisle and start eating them while I shop.  I do always pay for them in the end... I find it just helps me manage my impulses because I'm busy eating those carrots!
• Avoid the snack/treat/candy/chip aisles at the store.  If you have a hard time staying away from that one treat that's your Achilles heel, try not to go down that aisle if you don't have to.  If you're not standing there in front of it you're not tempted to put it in your basket.
• Educate yourself!  Either take your points finder or look up the points value of your foods before heading out to the store.  If you know that full sized chocolate bar is 5pts and you only get 20 for the day, you think twice about that buy at the checkout.
• If you do give into that temptation/craving buy the smallest portion you can buy.  Sometimes its cheaper in the long run to buy the "supersize/family pack" but its not practical when you're trying to loose weight.  I almost always do this, or I'll go to the bulk food store then I control the amount of that treat I buy.  If its a pre-packaged item that doesn't come in a smaller size I make sure there's someone to share it with.

I normally do my shop on Fridays after work (I hate going into the city on the weekend, all the crazy people with their badly behaved children are out and about), I meet up with my best friend Christin and we hit the gym for about an hour first.  The location of my gym that I often go to just happens to be on the 2nd level of the grocery store.  So after working out and showering we hit the grocery store.  From the store its off to Costco, I buy most of my veggies here because I eat so many that it makes sense to buy the larger packages (oh and clothes... love getting cheap brand name clothing now that I can fit their sizes!).  Christin and I turn grocery shopping into a social event and we follow this up with dinner out.

Tuesday morning I stepped on the scale here at home, I pretty much stepped on it in dread as I am often up every 3-4 weeks and Monday I went a little out of control!  Saturday night around 8PM started craving CANDY (jujubes, twizzlers and the like), decided not to go get any.  Saturday/Sunday midnight, I'm suddenly craving CHOCOLATE worse than the candy craving.  So bad I almost ate one of Todd's 6pt tasteless yet chocolate coated protein bars!  But I didn't.  Sunday while I was out having dinner with some friends on my way home I picked up my favourite, a Chunky Kit-Kat but I waited until I got home so I could go halfsies with Todd (my other half).  Normally that's the end of the craving, then and there.  Monday I woke up craving jujubes, I mean who wakes up wanting jujubes for breakfast?  I guess this girl does.  Before my work day was out I had eaten 3 mini Hershey bars out of S's candy dish at work.  Then while at my Mum's she had some Swedish Berries, I had a good sized handful of those.  Then she had a big bag of Mini Rolos she wanted to get rid of... I was too weak to resist.  I had a couple while I was there... a number more while I drove down to the Dojang to teach Taekwon-Do, then quite a few more through the evening.  I'm sure I must of consumed about 20pts worth of chocolate and candy.

See why I wasn't looking forward to my weigh in?  I was quite surprised to find that my weight had stayed the same!  The cravings are now gone (thank goodness) my self control has been pretty darned good.

Well tomorrow is the BIG day!  People across Canada will be participating in CIBC's Run For the Cure in sites across the country!  This year is my 3rd year participating as a runner.  I have more than surpassed my fundraising goal this year!  As of this moment I'm standing at $1,385.00 raised for Breast Cancer Research!  Remember, there's still time to donate online HERE.

For tomorrow's run I bought myself a "gadget" a Nike+ sensor and little case to clip it onto my current running shoe so I don't have to buy new shoes as well!  I'll be able to totally track my runs and progress/pace/etc and see how I'm progressing as a runner.

Hopefully I'll have the ooomph to put together a post about the day tomorrow!