One of the best ways to practice healthy eating is to surround yourself with a variety of nutritious foods.Making smart choices in the grocery store really is the key to good nutrition, at least when eating at home.Picking up a few simple shopping tips, however, can make your trip to the market much healthier.

1. Make a Meal Plan for the Week and Shop from a List…Before heading out to the supermarket, plan ahead, and take stock of what ingredients you need to prepare healthy meals and snacks for the week. You can keep a paper shopping list or keep a running list on your phone so you know you won’t forget it.
2. Read the Ingredients…When you can’t decide on which product to buy, check out the ingredients rather than the nutrition label. A quick tip—short ingredient lists that contain familiar ingredients are usually the better option. It’s important to know exactly what’s going into your body! And that means no hydrogenated oils.
3. Choose Frozen Vegetables, Not Frozen Meals…The convenience of a frozen dinner will probably lure you in especially if you live a busy lifestyle. They attract you with words like healthy, quick and easy, ready-made that all sound attractive but dig deeper and you’ll find what it actually contains might not be the healthiest choice.Fill your cart with healthy choices and spend an afternoon making meals for the entire week that you can take out of the freezer, pop in the oven and enjoy. You will have the satisfaction and peace of mind knowing exactly what ingredients went into that meal. Make sure to pick up frozen vegetables but leave the frozen meals on the shelves where they belong.
4. Do Not Shop Hungry…Grab a quick snack such as a Rx bar before you start shopping. Going to the grocery store hungry makes it more tempting to make unhealthy choices and pick up items you may not need.
5. Make Room For A Treat…I am not a fan of deprivation, so I do think it’s ok to buy and enjoy an occasional treat. If you are buying a treat food for the family, follow the rule of ONE: bring one fun food into the house at a time. Want to splurge on ice cream? Stick to just one flavor. The more flavors you have around the house, the more you will end up eating. Stick to a portion-controlled amount and choose a splurge you love. And, there are certain foods you may not want to even bring into the house if you know you will be tempted to overeat.

Enjoy! If you have any Shopping tips to add to this list. Please leave them in the comments. 🙂