by Steve Robinson

Created on: January 02, 2010

Grocery shopping can make or break your efforts to lose weight because stores are laid out so that you are induced to put more of their product in your cart. Coupled with products equally designed to get you to pick them up, grocery shopping can become quite a struggle when you are trying to lose weight. When you go shopping, you are in a battle because the average consumer is interested in weight loss and in living a healthy life, yet the store and the products in them seem to be in league to get you to buy things that you don’t really want and in many cases don’t need.

SMART SHOPPERS MAKE A PLAN

Grocery stores target people who are stopping by to pick up a small number of items. Notice that the things you often run out of before your next big shopping trip are the very things you have to cross most of the store to get. You are filtered through most of the store when all you really want are bread, milk, or eggs. On the way you are inundated with every sort of enticing item up to and including someone giving out free samples.

Grocery stores love people that walk every aisle because they know that when they do, they will pick up things not on their list. By making a list and sticking to it you can outsmart the store and the labels by not getting suckered into NEW, HEALTHY, LOW FAT, WHEAT, and other buzz words that are everywhere.

BUY LOW GLYCEMIC INDEX FOODS

The key to weight loss is in understanding the glycemic index. The glycemic index was created to help those with diabetes control their blood sugar levels. When foods high on the glycemic index scale are ingested your body reacts by producing insulin. Insulin’s job is to mop up the extra sugar in your blood. Do you know what insulin does with the excess sugar? It stores it as body fat so that your body has back up energy when it needs it.

Keep your blood sugar stable buy purchasing foods in as natural a state as possible. Fresh or frozen vegetables and fresh fruit are a no brainer.

Buy grain and cereal products that contain whole wheat. Don’t get tricked by misleading labels that claim to be whole wheat. Read the label and make certain that it has 3g or more of fiber per serving.

Ditch the soda and fruit “drinks” in favor of 100% juice or better, make a habit of drinking water.

Many items today are labeled with a glycemic index number, remember that the lower number the better.  Shoot for foods below 55 whenever possible.

Grocery stores and the products in them are designed to get you to buy things that you neither want nor need. Shopping can assist you in weight loss however, if you create a shopping list made up of low glycemic foods and stick to it.

Additional information on the glycemic index can be found here http://www.glycemicindex.com/

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