Grocery Shopping is a Key Weight Loss Tool

In my own personal weight loss efforts, I found that grocery shopping is perhaps one of the best things you can do to help you lose weight.

It provides a triple benefit, in terms of education, burning calories, and keeping you busy...

1. Educate Yourself Through Grocery Shopping: If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you have to educate yourself on what foods to eat, and what foods to avoid.
   
   Just by picking up each food item and reading the nutrition label and ingredients list, will tell you so much about the foods you eat. It'll also surprise you to learn that the foods you thought were innocent were the ones making you fat, and the foods you thought were bad, are actually good for dieting.
   
   I never realized that I when poured ketchup on my french fries, I added another 200 calories, and another 2,000mg of sodium, not to forget all the sugar that's in there. And when I had always thought that pickles were bad for dieting, it turns out they have no fat, and very few calories.
   
   With foods that don't come with nutrition labels (fruits, vegetables, meats), use the USDA Nutrient Database.



2. Grocery Shopping Burns Calories: Just the fact that you're walking down each aisle of the grocery store you're getting exercise. And then carrying the groceries from your car to your house, is exercise.
   
   When you go to the store, I recommend using the hand basket, it actually provides some good resistance training for the arms. Alternate arms every once in awhile, and it's like you've done some light weightlifting.
   
   You'll burn about 300 calories in 60 minutes of grocery shopping, assuming you're using a hand basket, and assuming you weigh 150 pounds. That's been my experience. If you weigh 300 pounds, you'll burn double that, about 600 calories.



3. Grocery Shopping Prevents Snacking: You might think that going to a grocery store will encourage you to buy bad foods, just by looking at them on the shelves. But think again.
   
   I found that one of the biggest reasons why we get fat is because we get bored. Whenever we take a break from our duties, our minds almost always turns to food. You might find yourself looking in the refrigerator, the pantry, hitting the vending machine, or visiting the snack bar. Read my previous article on how "Boredom Can Create Weight Gain".
   
   By keeping yourself busy, you'll prevent boredom, and thereby keep your mind off of snacking.

In fact, when you go grocery shopping, only use a hand-basket, and only buy enough food to last two or three days. That way you'll go to the grocery store more often, and get all three of the above benefits more often.

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