Our Introductory Level 1 Grocery Shopping Tour on Saturday was a huge success.  We all learned some valuable insight, including myself; to just tell someone “eat meat, fish, fowl, vegetables, some fruit, little starch and no sugar” seems very cut and dried to me.  After walking through the first aisle of the grocery store and the questions/comments I received it was obvious it is not.

Our Level 1 Tour took place at a local Publix.

We put those back on the shelf, exactly where processed foods belong.  Don’t worry, they won’t spoil.

Better than animal crackers

I explained to Alli that animal crackers, even organic ones were a refined and processed “food” that was very unhealthy for children.  “If I don’t give them to him, he’ll cry”, he’s hungry”.  Let him cry, I replied, he’s young and will learn to like healthy foods.  If he’s hungry, he’ll eat.  Sound cruel?  It worked beautifully, as soon as they were out of sight he forgot about them and was very content with the banana and peanuts.  Love your child, just say no to diabetes.

You are joking?

 She was.  But an example of one of the unhealthiest “foods” in the market.  You hit the jackpot with this one; refined sugar, refined flour, refined vegetable oils and trans fats.  Heart disease anyone?

After we dispensed with the Aisles, we got to the good parts. . . the Parameters

Vegetables

Fruits

Fish, fowl and meat

We purchased seafood, chicken and beef.  We bought the wild vs farm raised shrimp.  We splurged on the hormone and antibiotic free ground beef but went with the commercial chicken due to price constraints.  Ideal? No, but much better than a diet that previously consisted of primarily refined carbohydrates and an occasional boneless, skinless chicken breast.  By buying the whole chicken we saved money, will have leftovers and get more nutrients by consuming the whole animal.  A great beginning and steps in the right direction.  We certainly don’t want to be like the belly in the background.

We will be having Grocery Store Tours in the future.  Level 1 is a basic beginning tour at Publix and Level 2 will take place at Nutrition Smart where we will focus on organic vegetables and fruits, properly raised fish, fowl and animal foods and taking your nutrition and health to the next level.  Please follow the WOD and schedule pages for updates.