3. Feed your body (and your grocery cart) like a caveman...

I was just recently consulted by a very close girlfriend of mine on the grueling task of grocery shopping. This particular girlfriend of mine, we'll call her J in this post, was frustrated with her inability to do what she considered to be "healthy" grocery shopping. She, like many of us, was lured into the inner aisles of the grocery store where things have a shelf life of up to ten years! If not more! GROSS! But as busy moms, sometimes perishable items are not appealing due to their propensity to go "bad" so quickly. The pantry items are just so much more convenient- AND FULL OF PRESERVATIVES.

Think like a caveman. I know you can because most of you if not all of you have a husband or a father or a brother or an ex-boyfriend that on a good day is just a notch up from a caveman. This kind of thinking will get you mentally touring through the grocery store, a virtual tour if you will. How did a caveman eat? Meats. Fruits and vegetables. Nuts. Some whole grains. Done. No Pop Tarts. No Fruit Loops. No Lunchables (no, silly, these are not good for your kids). No Goober Grape. No Vienna Sausages (seriously, I'll call CPS on you for these). Fresh, clean foods.

Let's say that together: "Fresh, clean foods." Say it out loud right now, "Fresh, clean foods."

This is probably not the first time you've heard to shop from the "outer aisles" at the grocery store. But as moms, all those lovely pre-packaged snacks look too good and too easy to resist. I get it. I've been there. But it's worth it to stop the madness now. And the good news, if you don't have it around anymore, you won't be eating it either (i.e. a few inches lost here and there).

I have had the question posed to me more than once, "Well what about breads? Good breads? Whole grain breads?" Well to be 100% honest with you, all of those breads on the bread aisle are full of so many preservatives it is disturbing. Buy them if you must, but your best bet is the "live" frozen bread in the frozen food section. It has to be frozen because it has ZERO shelf life because it has ZERO preservatives in it. Get where I'm going with this?

And if you think canned vegetables have any nutritious value at all, think again. First off, the sodium in those things is just almost criminal. The only canned anything you should be buying is beans and corn. Other than that, go either the fresh route or the frozen route. This is a good time to mention that a lot of times, frozen fruits and vegetables are actually BETTER for you because they are flash-frozen upon picking/cleaning therefore their nutrient content is intact. The longer any fresh produce sits, the more and more nutrient and anti-oxidant content it loses. Don't be afraid to buy frozen. Just make sure and read the ingredients. It should just say, "Mangoes." "Peas." No other ingredients at all. None. The only frozen item that has anything extra is peaches (ascorbic acid) which is basically just a vitamin C preservative/color preserver.

Story: I one time had a good friend of mine come to me all excited about a casserole recipe she'd found. She said, and I quote, "It is a great way to get your kids to eat vegetables." Sure, I say! Send it my way! Ingredients? ALL CANNED VEGETABLES. And then some nasty Campbell's soup that has MSG in it. Are you kidding me? That is not a good way to get your kids eating vegetables. That is an empty solution to a problem more and more American households are facing today. All your doing is getting them hooked, literally addicted, to sodium. Try pureeing a bunch of fresh or frozen vegetables and sneaking it into spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce or even chili and other stews. But her enthusiasm was sad to me. Why? Because she didn't know any different. If we're not educated, how on earth can we expect our children to be? And their children? And so the cycle goes....

Now, at this point I think it important to mention that I am NOT one of those moms whose kids NEVER get fast food or junk food. That is ridiculous, not realistic and just down-right boring. I can say, however, that my kids NEVER get sodas/soft drinks. Ever. Never. Ever. Period.

But the thing is, when your kids eat a certain way 90% of the time, who cares if they have pizza, cake, apple juice, sugar cookies and candy at ONE birthday party? Seriously? You don't want your kids to have a bad relationship with food, ESPECIALLY your girls. This will be the topic matter of an entirely separate post at a later date....

Back to the grocery cart. Back to "J." I proposed this question to J: "If someone like Jillian Michaels or Richard Simmons JUMPED OUT at you at the check-out stand to 'grade' your cart, what grade would you receive? Ask yourself that every single time you're about to check-out. Look down at your cart. Is it mostly processed or mostly fresh or frozen?" I can undoubtedly say that nine times out of ten my grade would be an A to an A+. And to me this is NOT subject to interpretation. Bring it Richard Simmons! Bring it all day long! You should be able to say that when you're checking out. I literally am sometimes ridiculously proud of my shopping cart! You should be too! If you're not, you need to start doing things differently.