Grocery Shopping

So, one of my absolute favorite things to do is grocery shop. I just think it is so fun to push my buggy around and collect good, wholesome food to eat for the upcoming week. I usually do my grocery shopping on Sunday afternoons, which is one of the prime times for people to shop. I like it, though, because I get to be around people. Anyways while on my shopping endeavors, I've learned a few things..

1.) "Shop the Rainbow." - To keep yourself, and family, nourished you need to have a wide array of colors in your diet. Different colors have different nutritional value. You need to buy enough to fill your plate 1/2 the way full of vegetables of different colors, and 1/4 of the way of fruits. You can substitute the fruit for another vegetable, but some fruits, such as kiwi, provide 2X as much vitamin C than an orange and almost as much potassium as a banana! So, if you know your produce, you can get a lot of nutrition by taking short cuts such as the kiwi and avoid having to buy as much fruit.

2.) Frozen Vegetables are GOOD!- I always thought it was horrible to buy frozen vegetables, who knows what they put in them, right? Well, come to find out that fresh produce sometimes loses it's highest potential nutritional value due to traveling and the amount of time between being picked and eaten. Whereas, frozen vegetables are flash frozen immediately upon picking, therefore, holding much of its nutritional value until cooked. So, all you "in a hurry'' moms and college students, go ahead and get the frozen veggies, it's better for you!

3.) Buy Yourself a Treat! - I used to walk into the store with the notion of being ''healthy'' and would not buy anything that wasn't fresh or good for me. Then I would get home and feel like I had nothing to eat because I was really craving something sweet or moderately bad for me. I quickly learned to limit myself to buying one or two ''bad for me'' items when I went shopping to save the harassment of cravings, money when I gave in and went to Marble Slab and spend $4 on a milkshake, and actually bit the cravings in the butt by not depriving myself. So, go ahead and face the music, buy one or two spurge foods, and enjoy eating it!

I'm sure I'll add more as I think about it.. but these are my 3 main rules of thumb while shopping.