So you’ve decided to mix up your grocery list, huh?
Maybe you’re tired of eating the same things or you’ve gone through a fundamental shift in your beliefs which affects your food choices. Perhaps you want to avoid Trans Fats or you’re simply trying a new Weight Watchers diet. Heck, you may just want to avoid a hot button ingredient like High Fructose Corn Syrup.
No matter your reasons for changing your diet, researching food before you fill your cart can be fulfilling and fun. Keep in mind; good grocery shopping is an art. And like any art, it needs practice and nurturing before you’re the Picasso of the market basket.
Make a Goal
Goal oriented shopping helps everyone make better choices.
Before you shop, think about what you want to get out of your shopping experience. A goal as simple “Buy food” lacks structure and can be easily become derailed. By created and accepting a goal, you’re not only giving your food purchases focus through implied guidelines, but you’re also giving meaning to your quest.
Research Your Goal
How many times have you gone to the store hoping to change your diet, only to fall flat on your face?
I know I have.
This year, for example, my fiancée and I decided to cut the meat and dairy out of our diet for a month. We wanted to experiment with new flavors, cut dairy fats like cheese, and try to eat more vegetables and non animal proteins.
Like most dietary changes, it was hard to implement such a radical change at first. I had never worked with tofu or tempeh before and wasn’t sure how to use them or flavors worked best with them.
Of course, lack of knowledge didn’t stop me from just charging ahead to the store without researching my goal. I ended up getting things that were, yes, vegetarian or vegan, but not very good for me. Part of my goal had been to buy foods that not only were Vegetarian and Vegan but healthy, too.
Now I research products before diving in. It’s much more fun than wandering the grocery store lost, confused and getting crowded by tons of individuals more lost than me!
I reconnected with my goal through research. By discovering blogs and people with the same goals as me. Usually bloggers are the experts on the topic. I used Google Blog Search, but I also recommend using Food Buzz to discover new food blogs.
Blogs are very approachable; search engines love them, and often contain fantastic, practical advice on a variety of niche topics. By immersing yourself in the topic online, you can help understand why others have made the choice you’re making and keep your hand on the pulse of the community. If you find a particular blog interesting, be sure to check out the links in their blog roll. Usually bloggers take careful consideration choosing the sites they link to in their blog roll, by exploring these links you may find a pathway to a larger food community.
Ask Yourself Important Questions
So you’ve read all about your new Low Carb diet, but have you asked yourself the important questions?
Diet Blog recommends asking 10 important questions before diving into a drastic shift in diet. Before announcing to the world you’ve turned a new leaf, you should research your own eating habits – questions to ask yourself include how and when you eat, how much can you afford to spend on your new diet (Vegans, Vegetarians and Green eaters will tell you Whole Foods and specialty diets don’t come cheap) and if you will be able to make better choices while eating out with friends.
Make a list of foods that will be hard for you to give up when making a diet shift and which foods will be easy to give up. Try to discover new foods that could potentially fill the void where your old foods left. If you eat cheese and crackers after work or late in the afternoon, would you be happy switching it to hummus and pita chips?
Knowing your weaknesses and food strengths will help you not only find new products you will love, but will help you learn what food cues keep you locked into your diet so you can break the cycle.
Find New Recipes You Will Love
Blogs are an excellent gateway to fantastic recipes, but you can also use sites like Recipezaar and Epicurious to find recipes that you will love.
If you’re trying to eat healthier, try not to replace food you love with “healthier versions” right away. You’ll probably have better luck trying to make something new. For example, when I started making vegetarian recipes, I tried to make more curries since I rarely ate curries with meat anyway; this was a great gateway food to trying new things in that food category. Replacement foods like “Veggie” Burgers or Veggie Sausage, Low Carb Chocolate or Low Fat Cookies are great transitional foods, but they’re only a success story if you keep yourself from comparing them to their more endowed cousins. So, stop comparing! Instead of trying to replace the foods in your diet that you’re going to miss, discover new foods that satisfy your taste buds and get you excited about your new journey.
The first week of your diet, plan ahead and memorize 3 recipes that are quick, easy, and use a minimal amount of products that are usually in your home. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been hungry, tired from work and start going straight toward the phone to call in a pepperoni pizza. By having an arsenal of quick and easy meals tucked away in your brain, you’ll be less likely to resorting back to your old ways.
Another quick tip is to Google a series of ingredients you have in your house, usually the first few hits will always be from recipes that meet the basic requirements. You can also use a tool like Recipe Matcher to discover recipes you can make with your delicious new finds.
Research Food and Food Costs
Knowledge is not only power, it’s profitable, too.
Take for instance the cost of changing your diet. When you don’t know what products you love, the change can be costly. Take for instance my goal to eat Vegetarian a few days out of the week. I bought about $120 worth of groceries and it turns out ¼ of the groceries I purchased, I didn’t like or completely use before they perished.
When you buy a product you don’t know anything about, you’re taking a financial gamble. Especially with perishables, you have a limited period of time to use the product and just imagine the disappointment when you end up not enjoying the product you purchased.
Fortunately, food review blogs like I Ate A Pie and user reviews on Zeer are helping me research products before I shop. That’s how I discovered my favorite (and low fat) afternoon snack – Sabra Roasted Pine Nut Hummus and Zeer is the entire reason that I started using Silk Vanilla Soy Milk with my granola. These might seem like small steps, but they opened up a whole new world of healthier, happier goal oriented and research fueled eating.
