Grocery store nightmare

Shop the periphery of the store. I do Cooksmarts meal planning, so I can just print out my grocery list and all the meals are so healthy and delicious. I don't mind food shopping as much anymore and LOVE cooking. I swear I'm not selling anything. Just wanted to share about cooksmarts because it has helped me a great deal.

Oh gosh Wegmans. LOVE their bakery/prepared food section and their selection as a whole... and their store brand is great too. I love the store on week days but it's a nightmare on week ends. Half the registers closed, not enough space for two carts in the produce section AND they restock on Saturday afternoons with their huge carts of produce... Horrible. It's farther for me too so I just don't really go there anymore, unless I need something specific (like their frozen Belgian waffles...). Their prices kinda suck too, to be honest, and there's no flyer for sales so I'd rather rely on the stores that do have a flyer for my grocery shopping. But typically I can buy the same things at Shop Rite or Acme for 30% less anyway.

Generally speaking though, grocery store during the week end sucks, unless you're there at 9am or something...

And always keep in mind that it's easier not to buy something than trying not to eat it when it's in your kitchen.

sympha01 wrote: »

[

Ugh my grocery store sort of does that in a limited way and it's infuriating. Like, they keep lemons in the seafood aisle; they sell chocolate syrup in the ice cream aisle. They sell pizza crusts and parmesan cheese in the canned tomatoes aisle.

What if you want to buy chocolate syrup because you want to make chocolate milk? You have to know they keep it with the ice cream. It's stupid.

That sounds like a total nightmare! There's a grocery store near my house and a grocery store near my work -- same company -- and they are organized totally differently, so I have the WORST time finding things. I hate both of those stores.

Acg67 wrote: »

I wegmans, it's my grocery store of choice.

Personally I never make a list or anything and go, see what proteins or produce looks good and then figure out what to make while shopping.

The Wegman's I used to go to had a couple of computers on either side of the store so you can punch in what you are looking for, and it tells you what aisle it is in.

Awesome! Wegman's is my favorite grocery store.

But I do agree with JoRocka -- there is something weird about the space in Wegman's -- it's both open and crowded at the same time.

lemurcat12 wrote: »

For some reason this made me think of how in book stores they will have those cards with some employee recommending specific books. It would be hilarious if grocery stores would do something similar. I'd browse the aisles much more.

That is an awesome idea. I vote yes for it.

Last time I went grocery shopping, I found red velvet oreos. That was a pretty awesome trip.

kristen6350 wrote: »

Basic Plan for Grocery store - stick to the outer ring. Produce, Meat, Dairy. I avoid the frozen section and visit the rice, noodles, ethic isle occasionally. Most of my cart is fresh produce. I have a large freezer at home so I stock up on meat when it's on sale. The rest is cheese, almond milk, yogurt and cottage cheese EVERY trip. I realize there will be things you will need in the inner part, but if you do 75% of your shopping on the outer ring you will find groceries are much easier.

Yup, just this

williams969 wrote: »

melimomTARDIS wrote: »

I love the grocery store! I love food!!!

Me, too And, it's the one shopping excursion I can enjoy by myself, sans children (they've no interest in coming with me). It's a lovely, peaceful 1 hour of my life every week. "Me" time. And yes, I love looking at new products and what not--some are fun or convenient things I may or may not choose to buy. Most things I purchase are ordinary, basic produce, meat, and dairy items. No one's making me do it, nor do I feel compelled or tricked into buying anything.

To the "you can't get fat eating only veggies and fruit" comment. LULZ, if I had the time or desire, and if anyone gave two hoots about lil' old me, I'd totally take the challenge--sort of a reverse "Twinkie Diet" (they guy who lost weight eating nothing but snack cakes and sweets). I would show how to GAIN weight eating solely fruits and veggies.

Mixed spinach and veggie salad: 200 calories for a big ol' bowl
Various mixed steamed and raw veggies 3-6 cups: 300 calories
10 bananas: 1,000 calories (approx.)
3 avocados: 1,000 calories
5 apples: 500 calories

That's 3,000 calories right there (estimated), and that's enough for me to gain 2 lbs/ week (1,000 cal/day surplus).

There was a thread about Banana Girl and someone mentioned that they gained weight and had crazy symptoms with the 30 bananas a day diet.

Back when I was in the vaguely-healthy-but-not-that-aware-of-calories mindset, I gained weight. But it's hard to tell if that's from too much fruit or the "bad food" binges I kept going on.

Lourdesong wrote: »

melifairy wrote: »

Btw, I wasn't blaming the grocery store for making me overweight. I was simply stating that they make it hard to resist the foods that I know, personally for me, are trigger foods. That's it. I know that ultimately it is up to me to choose what and how much to eat. The grocery store I was in however... the first thing you walk into is the bakery section. You are bombarded by cakes, cookies, chips, soda, etc. as soon as you walk in. I know it is my choice to buy those items or not. All I am saying is that I wish there was a store where I live that had a healthier mindset.

It did kind of sound like you were blaming the grocery store and advertising for society's weight problems. Your finger seemed to be pointing outward and not inward.

And though you're saying now your finger is pointing inward, it still seems like you're focused on externals. You are not 'bombarded' by cakes and cookies any more than you are bombarded by lettuce and tomatoes.
Your problem with cakes and cookies is your problem, not your grocers problem.

Yes, sorry to pile on, but it really does sound like you need a healthy dose of some constructive criticism. In all your posts in this thread what I'm seeing is an unwillingness to address your issues by working on yourself, and a strong desire to find people to agree with you that grocery retailers should change their behavior because YOU have a problem with self-control.

Also, while it's true that "different things work for different people" and it's great to find "like-minded people" on MFP when they cheer you on to make healthier changes or help you brainstorm how to take charge and deal with shared challenges in your lives, it's utterly useless to simply surround yourself with people who will enable you by validating your unwillingness to make changes for yourself. Because one thing that doesn't work for anyone is shifting responsibility away from yourself.

I see a lot of comments in the forums from people whose response to advice that they need to practice moderation is "I can't do that, moderation might work for you but it doesn't work for me. I can't control myself around junk food." Here's another hard truth: for those of us it does work for, do you think it was easy when we started? Do you think it's easy now? Because speaking for myself, no, it was not easy and it continues to be a challenge.

After my first couple of months successfully losing weight by avoiding my kryptonite foods, I realized that I wasn't going to be successful in the long term by denying myself something particularly delicious like, say, pizza. Never have pizza again? Forever? No, realistically I knew I couldn't avoid pizza forever, and I had to learn to control myself around it or plan on failing. I remember posting worried comments on my own feed about my plan to try to eat pizza and make it fit into my calorie plan for the day. I remember that I did make it work. I also remember that it made me a little sad (okay, actually very sad) to stop eating when my planned piece of pizza was gone. But I did it. And I put myself to work trying to find better ways to make it work. Save more calories earlier in the day so I could have a larger serving? Roast a ton of delicious veggies to eat with my pizza and keep my mouth happy even when it wasn't actually full of pizza? Have a 4 oz glass of wine (85 calories) instead of a 12 oz beer (150 calories) to make it all work a little better? Check, check and check.

That was over a year ago. Now? It's easier, but it's not without effort. During the holidays, I enjoyed a social gathering centered on pizza, and I budgeted myself two slices for the night. I ate my first slice. It was delicious. I resisted the urge to eat my second slice right away because I knew it was going to be a long night and was trying to pace myself. I felt like a dog with a biscuit balanced on its nose until I finally let myself have that second slice. But am I scared of pizza now? No. Can I control myself around pizza? Yes ... with effort. It's an effort that only I am responsible for, no one else. It's not the job of grocery stores, my friends and family, or the universe to hide pizza from me. It's my job to control myself around it. Mostly I win. Sometimes I don't, entirely and eat a little over my goal. But I always try, and I'm not going to throw myself -- or you -- a pity party because it's hard. That's not going to help either of us get better.

Final caveat: I honestly doubt this is really the case, but if you're seriously tried moderation -- really put in an effort and accepted that you may feel "teh sadz" when there's delicious food around and you're going to choose not to put it in your mouth -- and failed over and over again, maybe you've got an eating disorder. In which case what you need to do is 1) admit you have a problem and 2) get professional help dealing with it. What's not going to help is surrounding yourself with "like-minded people" who will validate your belief that out-of-control eating is not only inevitable but normal and the job of others to prevent for you. If it's at a level where you actually try hard to control yourself and you fail repeatedly, it's a disorder that needs professional attention.

tl;dr Comment on my own post above:

Today's thought on people who say "moderation doesn't work for me": if a dog can balance a biscuit on his nose and not eat it, you can master moderation. That dog can control his urges when he makes an effort, and he is willing to eat his own poop the rest of the time. All you need to do is try.

sympha01 wrote: »

Final caveat: I honestly doubt this is really the case, but if you're seriously tried moderation -- really put in an effort and accepted that you may feel "teh sadz" when there's delicious food around and you're going to choose not to put it in your mouth -- and failed over and over again, maybe you've got an eating disorder. In which case what you need to do is 1) admit you have a problem and 2) get professional help dealing with it. What's not going to help is surrounding yourself with "like-minded people" who will validate your belief that out-of-control eating is not only inevitable but normal and the job of others to prevent for you. If it's at a level where you actually try hard to control yourself and you fail repeatedly, it's a disorder that needs professional attention.

Your whole post is absolutely perfect. Love it.

I love MFP's take-no-prisoners posts. No excuses, no whining, no blaming your decisions on "them" and "they".

Nothing jumps in your shopping cart by itself. Everything you buy takes several actions on your part--you glance at it, take a second look, reach for it, pick it up, read the label (!), put it in the cart, put it on the conveyor and pay for it. At any point, you can stop yourself. I've retraced my steps in the store putting things back on the shelf; I've also told the cashier I changed my mind about certain items.

And I've eaten a whole bag of Milano's on the way home. Small steps.