Edit Your Shopping Cart, Edit Your Diet!

I admit it, there are some things that I buy at Costco. I know! I know it sounds so wrong! But with a careful eye there are actually some very good deals. It's like shopping at Marshall's or Goodwill, you have to be patient, open-minded but particular. If you go in LOOKING for inspiration then you will walk out with everything useless under the sun. Costco is a warehouse built by siren song. Or is that Walmart? Anyway.

The Costco near me sells whole organic chickens and ENORMOUS bags of organic baby spinach in addition to 5lb bags of frozen wild blueberries. I maintain hope that I will one day find some sort of free-range meat there, but until then I will settle for organic & antibiotic/hormone free. So my entire membership fee for the year supplies me with several bags of veggies, blueberries and chicken a week...thanks guys :)

However, it is not MY shopping list that is worth discussing. You hear about that often enough! What I like to do when I'm at Costco is scan through other people's shopping carts. It's a weird grocery store form of voyuerism, but I know you do it too! Or at least I recommend that you start. You can tell so much about people by what they are buying!

Then a light went on! People go to Costco and other such stores in order to get thing that they use in bulk. You don't buy 100 snack bags of fritos just for fun...usually. So the things that people put in their carts are what they primarily subsist on, or use, in their every day life. These particular items are used/eaten so often at home that it makes more sense to buy in bulk than it would be buy several times over at the grocery store. So if you are unhappy with your weight or health, then a good stern review of your grocery cart could yield an answer as to where you have gone wrong! If you are to look back at what you ate today, you may forget to list the 8 M&Ms you stole from your coworkers candy dish right? But if you look at your grocery cart with a critical eye you might catch wind of a pattern that is much worse than stealing from your coworkers candy dish!

Cart #1: HUGE multi-pack of toilet paper, 24-count bagels, 3lb cream cheese, double box of granola bars, huge shampoo pack, rack of ribs, 2lb package of sliced cheese, large quantity of deli meat, large box of frozen lasagna, double bag of white loaf bread, large box of those breakfast croissant things, triple pack of spaghetti sauce, double box of brownie mix

So you can probably guess what the person pushing this cart looked like (oh yeah, I am oddball enough to commit cart content to memory). It was being manned by a rather large (read obese) woman who was probably in her mid-40s. To be fair it is possible that this cart was being packed to prepare for a party, even though it was Tuesday afternoon.

So let's play and try to arrange thse foods to get a peak at how her family might eat in a typical day.

Breakfast: Microwaved sausage, egg, and cheese on a buttery croissant OR bagel & shmear

Lunch: White bread sandwich of deli meat and cheese (I can hope for lettuce & tomato)

Snack: Granola bar (or two)

Dinner: Pre-made meat Lasagna

Post-Dinner snack: Brownies!

Okie dokie...this would be what NOT to do. If you read my blog you probably know how I feel about this plan already. But this is SO typical for our country!!! I look at this and see sugar, sugar and sugar, with some bad fat thrown in for good measure...and a delicate smattering of protein. I am aware that I cannot see what this woman had in her crisper, but seeing as how all major meals were accounted for without stretching my imagination I feel like the above layout is probably not too far from the truth. I hope that there is a salad eaten with the lasagna and that the sandwich is piled high with cucumbers and grated carrots, dare I dream for sprouts too?! Her entire grocery cart that accounts for MANY meals tallied up a grand total of 20g of fiber (that is for both full bottles of spaghetti sauce). So you know no one is getting their daily allowance of this important component of a healthful diet.

So next time look at your grocery cart. What are you picking up? Does your cart look more like you ran into a cart at the farmer's market or in the Frito-Lay stock room? Are you looking at waxed skins or cardboard boxes? Unprocessed cuts of meat or meat with ingredients? Sometimes it's good to step back and be critical before you start wondering where it all went wrong!

[I may sound mean, but I actually do wish this woman that I am picking on (her family as well) a lifetime of good health. Let's all hope these folks see the dietary light!]