3sonshavei: My new healthy eating plan and where to begin at the Grocery store

Our Sluka Team Fit 2012

Yes! I named our new fit plan, but only because my husband joined his company's Team Fit Team where he has to lose weight and get fit in 90 days and so I keep going around calling June 1st 'Team Fit' day as I told him I will do it with him. I started researching a lot online and in books and I think I have a good basic grasp now on where to start as I head to the grocery store tomorrow with my list unlike any other ones I have had. I love to coupon and I know it will be hard to shop with out so many of my coupons in hand as the Health Foods don't tend to be on the coupon lists very often.

Our Plan in a Nutshell: No Chemicals! No more frozen meals, boxed side dishes and packaged chewy bars! From all the reading I have done, I come back to the importance reading ingredient lists. I know that if you read the label and don't understand it, then it is so easy to be misled and be eating the wrong foods when you think you are doing right. Here is some facts I learned in my reading that I am keeping in mind on my new plan....

1. If your body does not recognize an ingredient (ie. preservatives/chemicals) it cannot digest it and therefor

stores it as fat!

2. Not eating fat leads to weight gain! How? What I gathered was there are the good fats and bad fats and if

you avoid fat all together (including good fats) then you drop your sugar level. When your sugar levels

drops, your body releases insulin. When your body releases insulin, your body thinks it is hungry. When

your body thinks it is hungry, you respond by eating more..it is a vicious cycle.

3. You don't have to stop eating convenience foods, just remember to read the label ingredients!

I have organized what I learned into some food groups that may help while at the Grocery store and you are staring blankly at the food label...

Breads

Look for 'Sprouted Wheat' on the ingredients.

Avoid ingredients that read: Hydrogenized Oil, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Bleached/Unrefined Flour, Wheat

Gluten, Articial flavor, Sweetners like Sucrose/Aspertane

Good brands: Ezekiel Breads, Dave's Killer Bread or Brown Rice Bread (look for brown Rice Flour as 1st ingredient)

Dairy

Look for words/ingredients that read "Raw" or "Organic".

Avoid labels that don't say: Free of Antibiotics, Free of Hormones and Cows are Organically Fed

Good Brands: Honestly FARMS. Realistically those free of what I mentioned above-or organic milks. Unless

you have an allergy, I read many sources saying Organic milk is much more beneficial that any soy products.

Meats

Find any Organically fed animal products. Buy Fresh Seafood, not wild.

Ask around then go in on a side or whole cow. We do this and the Beef we get from organic fed Cows tastes delicious and it is much cheaper in the end per pound! We pay about $600 total for meat and Butcher for half a cow and we get a chest freezer full of all cuts and ground that average to about $2.60/pound even considering roasts and NY Cut Steaks!

Oils

Throw out ANY products you have that does not REAL BUTTER! No substitutes, margarine.BAD! BAD! BAD! Remember..ingredients your body does not recognize store as fat and this is the product many peolpe eat the wrong varieties of.

Look for Coconut Oils and Extra Virgin Olive oil. The right Olive Oil will be cloudy and will be stored in

DARK bottle-cold-pressed. And look for Butter's that say Organic/Raw Butter.

Spices

Use fresh leave spices:Bay leaves, Parsley bunches, Basil Leaves whenever possible. However the bottled

spices really are not terrible.

Salts: Use Pure, un-refined salts that DO NOT have ingredients: Sugars or Aluminum Silicate. Celtic Seal

Salt is a great salt to use as seasoning and for cooking.

Sugars

Stevia and Xyletol! That's it!

*Another point: Use those Water filter systems to make sure you cook and drink the purest water so your

body has a natural refreshment.

My Shopping List to start...

*My first healthy foods shopping list I am starting off with & I plan to incorpoarte these into 6 Healthy Meals next week. Meal 7 is our cheat day-I am allowing us 1 Cheat Day a week:

Chicken

Organic Eggs

Almonds (to roll my chicken in and bake-Yum!)

Raw/Organic Butter

Onions-White and Red

Whole Garlic

Tomatoes/tomato paste

Basil Leaves

Raw Vegis-assorted

Raw Fruits-avoid sugar fruits like Oranges, Watermelons, etc...

Beef Broth-organic

Lime Juice