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The grocery store can be a daunting place between the latest health claims on the boxes, strategic marketing and kids screaming for junk food. A good place to start is with a grocery list. This not only helps prevent last minute impulse buys, but can also make your shopping trip and meal planning for the week more efficient.

EXERCISING MORE AND INCREASING STEPS

Turn your shopping experience into an opportunity to increase your activity level. If possible, walk or ride to the grocery store, or park in the farthest parking spot. Once there, carry a basket instead of a cart whenever possible. When you are done with your shopping either carry your groceries to your car or bring your shopping-cart back into the grocery store once you have unloaded your groceries.

KEEP IT EASY AND SIMPLE

Try to concentrate on the outer limits/perimeter of the store, which does usually contain all of your basics food like vegetables, fruits, low-fat dairy products, lean meats, and whole grains. Keeping the food catalog and choices simple assist in eliminating extra and additional unnecessary items like sugar and sodium found in processed food products.

MAKE INTELLIGENT SELECTION OR SMART CHOICES

Do not be afraid of reading tags and labels. Reading ingredients catalog and nutritional details label could be one of your biggest tools to pick-out the best food alternative/option. It might be confusing at first but more you do this, the easier it will turn out to be and more empowered you are to make healthy food choices. Try and avoid foods with trans-fats (indicated on nutrition detail label) or hydrogenated oil (as listed in the ingredient catalog). Also one should try to avoid or scale-down or limit food items containing the highly-processed high-fructose-corn-syrup. Pick foods products with whole grains listed first, limiting foods with added sugar as one of the first few ingredients. Pick a breakfast cereal with less than 10-grams of sugar and at least 3-grams of fiber content/serving. Try and keep saturated fat per portion/serving low and no more than 2-grams/serving, keeping in mind the fact that you have to consume less than 20-grams/day.