Stop Buying It!

SaraTonin

I noticed that a lot of the time when someone says they have trouble resisting junk food around the house, the response I always give is stop buying it!!

But that's not so easy. You've got to be wise to the marketing. Grocery stores put the cookies and chips front, center, and first when you walk in the store. Produce is around the edges, milk is in the back, THEY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING!!!

How do you keep from setting foot in those aisles?

Some ideas:
1) Take a shopping list.
2) Never shop while hungry.
3) Take cash and only bring enough for what you need.
4) Make meal plans and shop according to those.
5) Stick to the outside of the store. Just never go in those aisles. You don't NEED anything from the chips or cookies aisle. You don't need anything in the sweets aisle. Neither does your family or your kids. You are free from it.
6) Eyes forward when you check out, the candy bars aren't calling.
7) Read the nutrition info if you feel you can't resist. Is it nutritionally bankrupt? Don't buy it.

Finally, if you seriously can't say no, have someone else do the shopping in your household.

Kirsty_UK

8. Order your supermarket shop online and get it delivered so you aren't tempted by in store displays

boehle

awesome post!

rodneyderrick

If you can't control yourself around all that sugary goodness, you definitely shouldn't be buying it.

SaraTonin

Thought of another one! Read the tabloids and magazines during checkout. Better than reading the candy bar names!

ShellyMacchi

i only have one trick now....
i finally figured out that 'i' am the one in control of every single food item in the grocery store.
no one can make me buy anything i don't want to have in the house.. except me.
So i just don't even consider it anymore *S*

chrisyoung0422

I usually go completely bombed out of my mind. That seems to help....

MisdemeanorM

my problem is the hubby buys it. He knows I like it so he gets it - then I eat it. I have to do the shopping because I won't actually buy much junk - just the occasional ice cream usually. Now, if I can just get him to stop bringing me junk!!!

eternlgladiator

I don't know about some of those. I enjoy going through the aisles and looking at things I can't have. Sometimes I'll even toss them in the cart and haul it around until I feel guilty and put it back. The other day I was really craving smores pop tarts. So I quick looked at the label and threw it back on the shelf like it was radioactive. Your rules are fine but different things work for different people.

MyNameIsNotBob

Another trick I learned to avoid the marketing is to reverse your route around the store. Most stores aim the flow of their customers from produce, through the middle aisles, then to meats / dairy / frozen. They know just where to put the Oreo displays so that your eyes hit them as you come around a corner. Also, by the time you've spent $50 and you get to meat and buy overpriced steak, and then to frozen foods, you figure, hell, what's another $10 on ice cream and pizza? They make you fork over big bucks that way.

If you reverse yourself and start with the dairy and end with the produce, you'll be walking in the opposite direction of most of the tricky advertising, and also buying some of your more expensive items (and the unhealthier foods) first instead of last when your willpower is weakened. This makes you less likely to spend $10 on ice cream (plus, it will just melt while you're in the store, right?) and pizza and more likely to spend more $$ on fresh produce.

Give it a shot. It can be annoying going against the flow of traffic, but I find that this really does work.

zeeeb

you really do have to think long and hard about sales and marketing techniques...

"they" (the big corporations) spend billions on advertising and marketing to try and sell you things you don't need and that you can't afford and that are of little or no benefit. I used to work in graphic design, a job I loved, but i hated what I was doing, I hated manipulating people in an attempt to fleece them of money.

A decade working in advertising and graphic design has cured me of my need to succumb to advertising, but i hate it when people (including my partner and my children) seem totally blind to it, they believe what advertisers tell them, and feel a need to follow blindly without questioning motive.

SaraTonin

I don't know about some of those. I enjoy going through the aisles and looking at things I can't have. Sometimes I'll even toss them in the cart and haul it around until I feel guilty and put it back. The other day I was really craving smores pop tarts. So I quick looked at the label and threw it back on the shelf like it was radioactive. Your rules are fine but different things work for different people.

They're not rules, just things to try! If you can put it back you don't need any rules.

MzBug

I buy the junk! I don't eat it though. My guy isn't in the least interested in losing weight (he doesn't need to), and he likes to have a snack bag of chips or other junk in with his lunch and break foods. There is even an open box of the peanutbutter Girl Scout cookies in the cabinet that I haven't touched. He does eat fairly healthy most of the time since I make his lunch, but he does like his little bit of junk daily too. I just don't want the stuff anymore.

calliope_music

i actually go shopping in the peak shopping hours...the store is so crowded i just want to get my stuff and get home! none of this running up and down the aisles...get what i want, pay for it, go home!

also i buy the junk and rarely eat it - my husband eats it, he's 6'1" and weighs like 142 lbs.

pandafoo

Great tips! Sometimes I still walk thru the cookie/chips aisles and am tempted by the Pepperidge Farm Milanos or Chessmen Cookies... but I don't trust myself to get a bag because I can easily polish off 1/2 of the bag in one sitting! ;P

These days I prefer to buy snacks that are individually wrapped, such as Dove's Silky Smooth Promises, or snack size bags of Veggie Chips. If I do buy snack/crackers/chips in a large bag, I try to make my choices healthy, but I use my kitchen scale to weigh out one serving size and I put away the bag before snacking. This helps me be in control but still enjoy a nice treat!

ceejay000

Another trick I learned to avoid the marketing is to reverse your route around the store. Most stores aim the flow of their customers from produce, through the middle aisles, then to meats / dairy / frozen. They know just where to put the Oreo displays so that your eyes hit them as you come around a corner. Also, by the time you've spent $50 and you get to meat and buy overpriced steak, and then to frozen foods, you figure, hell, what's another $10 on ice cream and pizza? They make you fork over big bucks that way.

If you reverse yourself and start with the dairy and end with the produce, you'll be walking in the opposite direction of most of the tricky advertising, and also buying some of your more expensive items (and the unhealthier foods) first instead of last when your willpower is weakened. This makes you less likely to spend $10 on ice cream (plus, it will just melt while you're in the store, right?) and pizza and more likely to spend more $$ on fresh produce.

Give it a shot. It can be annoying going against the flow of traffic, but I find that this really does work.

This is a great idea! I've been pretty good about not impulse-buying any unhealthy food, but why even worry about the temptation?

I also like what another person said - instead of looking at the candy in the checkout lane, grab a magazine and get your weekly fix of celebrity gossip. It may be a guilty pleasure, but it won't hurt your body!

I do sympathize with the poster who said her husband buys junk food because he knows she likes it. I moved away for school, and my mom likes to send me care packages for my birthday, Valentine's Day, etc., and she would always send me candy. Finally I asked her to stop sending me junk food because I was trying to make healthier choices for myself. It can be hard to say something like this to your loved ones, but in the end, it's what's best for you. They'll think of another way to show you they care about you. On my birthday this year, my mom sent me a little tea pot and some fun flavors of loose leaf tea. She got to show me that she was thinking of me, and I got a refreshing treat that's not loaded with sugar!

lovinmamaxo

Funny you mention this.. my grocery store does EXACTLY this!! They put all the fresh muffins, cookies, cakes in the very front so it's there as soon as you walk in.. it smelt good i am not going to lie but i walked right past it to the dairy isle... i resisted ALL temptation and didn't buy any junk which is great because it is paying off.... i just started my lifestyle change on 3/31 and i am down 16 pounds.

Lakelady48

I tell myself that all those muffins, chips, cookies etc will still be there someday in the far distant future, when I am not trying to lose weight. And, the people I see buying those foods look like they could stand to lose a few pounds too.

kdiamond

5) Stick to the outside of the store. Just never go in those aisles. You don't NEED anything from the chips or cookies aisle. You don't need anything in the sweets aisle. Neither does your family or your kids. You are free from it.

This is a big one!! I think the only things I buy from the inside aisles is coffee, oatmeal and crushed tomatoes for sauce...I always try to buy everything from the produce, meats and dairy departments so I know it is fresh stuff without preservatives.

DeBlue

Nice strategies - paying with cash is maybe the most powerful. The credit card makes it so fast and easy, and it does seem to result in buying extras not on the list.

JohnnyNull

Very good post. Very good handle.

Girlypeekaboo

my problem is the hubby buys it. He knows I like it so he gets it - then I eat it. I have to do the shopping because I won't actually buy much junk - just the occasional ice cream usually. Now, if I can just get him to stop bringing me junk!!!

That is my life!! He tries to do good, he goes but it makes u happy, i got yeah for a second then major guilt trip and exercising my butt off....just yesterday he bought 3 bags of easter candy and two new lip colors for me....now i can control myself pretty well, but sometimes i cant, i love that he loves me the way i am n that my weight isnt bothering him, but its bothering me esspecially since im in the South n its gettin HOT down here....just last week he bought me mint moosetrack ice cream...i took two bites n just couldnt, i threw it away he just laughed lolz....atleast he didnt get mad

kittyloo123

i keep a apple in my purse. It's easier to navigate, and resist temptation, while munching on a crunchy sweet snack.

PeaceMe

Good Post! I'd like to know if anyone else struggles with spouses or other family/ room mates buying junk and keeping it around. I am not at all tempted in the store, but if it's in the house and I get a craving, it's over.

PeaceMe

my problem is the hubby buys it. He knows I like it so he gets it - then I eat it. I have to do the shopping because I won't actually buy much junk - just the occasional ice cream usually. Now, if I can just get him to stop bringing me junk!!!

That is my life!! He tries to do good, he goes but it makes u happy, i got yeah for a second then major guilt trip and exercising my butt off....just yesterday he bought 3 bags of easter candy and two new lip colors for me....now i can control myself pretty well, but sometimes i cant, i love that he loves me the way i am n that my weight isnt bothering him, but its bothering me esspecially since im in the South n its gettin HOT down here....just last week he bought me mint moosetrack ice cream...i took two bites n just couldnt, i threw it away he just laughed lolz....atleast he didnt get mad

I guess that answers my question!

bmontgomery87

I'm a big number 5 shopper. Fruits, veggies, meat, cheese, eggs, cottage cheese. wheat bread.
I do occasionally go down aisles for a few things (brown rice, vitamins)

SaraTonin

^ Nice. When I was at my most poor, I didn't even buy meat. Main protein sources were milk, cheese, and beans. I gotta say, being poor sucks, but I sure don't get tempted by nutritionally bankrupt food anymore. It's a waste of my cash!