Too often we become prisoners of impulse buying at the grocery store and too often those impulse buys contribute to weight gain and out of control grocery bills. The big question is how to stop this impulse buying and how to substitute healthy eating habits.
I heard a father say not long ago that he just “popped a Little Debbie Cake into his mouth if he was running late in the morning.” Two things crossed my mind…why do you have those things in your house especially if you are trying to lose weight and eat a health life style, and secondly, why are we so willing to buy these things to have “in case we are running late in the morning?” Wouldn’t a handful of peanuts or an apple be a better “grab” in the morning?
People could reduce their girth and their grocery bill with two little motos…”If I can make it, I’m not going to buy it” and “If nature or God made it, it’s a sell!”
Right now I’m corresponding with a young woman who “never makes anything” who has some health issues and is trying to lose some weight. My first thought was, “It will never work unless you go to total fresh fruit and fresh vegetables” which she hates… so for her, changing a lifestyle is going to be a lot harder than for someone making simple impulse buying mistakes. This girl is going to have to ration things like whole baked chips, nuts, cheese and what fruits she will consume.
“I don’t have time to cook…” This statement is somewhere between crazy and nuts. What people who are “popping” unhealthy food into their mouths and people trying to find food to eat that they don’t have to make are kidding themselves. The truth is, people who don’t cook don’t want to cook. And people who don’t want to cook either don’t know how, or don’t care about their own health. They haven’t been convinced that food will either kill you or make you feel great. It’s an effort that’s not worth making, so they don’t. It’s just a simple, “NO!”
When a doctor says, “Your arteries are clogged or you have diabetes,” it’s a wake up call that has come too late. By eating meal after meal of prepared, processed, high calorie, high sugar, high carb food, high fat foods like Little Debbie Cakes, you might as well be giving your health and wealth away and all because you didn’t want to take the time to learn to prepare nutritious meals for your yourself and your family.
Here’s the rub: A household does not need “grazing foods.” Children do not need to be entertained by eating. By maintaining meal times every four hours or so, hunger is a consequence that is satisfied in good time. If there is ONE snack time in the afternoon, that snack can be easily prepared by ONE recipe. Making ONE batter of cookies, cake or brownies can be rationed off so that only SOME of the recipe is eaten a day.
Buying prepared food other than fruit and nuts in a household where people are struggling with their weight is like pouring water on a drowning man.
Snack buying like whole corn treats, nuts, fruit and whole grain breads should be weighed for cost and survivablility. If you shop once a week, and you don’t cook, then pick out seven snacks and deal out one per day. If they eat them all the first three days, then there are no snacks. In a pinch buy popcorn.
Groceries should reflect the intent of the care of the adults running a home. When the larder is filled with junk…what are we saying?