Shopping Guide!

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2010

6:30pm

NOTE: There will be class this Friday (tomorrow) at 6:30!!! But there will be no class this Saturday.

One of the many hang-ups that athletes tend to encounter when getting into the recommended diet is how to shop! In fact, I got this shopping confusion from 3 different people this week so me thinks it is probably an important subject to hit on for this post.

Let me first pose this question...do you know what foods fall under the categories that constitute "Meats and Vegetables, Nuts and Seeds, Fruits, Tubers (root vegetables like yams and sweet potatoes) and Whole Milk"? If not we're putting the cart before the horse here. So let's quickly cover this by revisiting an old post that will give you the basics of what you need..."Foundations Of Good Nutrition".

Alright, now that we're all on the same page I will admit that I can somewhat understand if there is a bit of confusion as to what foods fit into each of these categories. I mean peanuts are actually a bean for God's sake and beans certainly aren't on the list. And corn is actually a grain! I thought corn was a vegetable for most of my life.

To further this, Robb Wolf, author of The Paleo Solution, has published a Shopping Guide (click for details). A big benefit that you will find with Robb's Shopping Guide that I omitted from my previous post (above) is the "Odds & Ends" section. This will help add variety and zest to your meals so you don't get bored.

As for how much of each item to get during a single shopping trip is up to you and how long you will leave the stuff sitting in your fridge before you eat it. For meat I load up and cram what I won't use in the next few days in the freezer. Pre-packaged vegetables are great for this too as are frozen fruits. I do recommend however that you do your best to eat fresh fruits and vegetables as often as possible. The amounts you buy at a single given time are dependent on how much you will be consuming and that is different for each individual. A little trial and error may be in order here but you should be able to dial it in pretty quickly as the amounts of foods you eat each day shouldn't vary too drastically. Also, load up on seasonings and spices as well as healthy oils and nuts during that initial shopping trip. Takes a long time for any of those to spoil. So really, after your first big shopping trip, you should only need to buy fruits and vegetables (and whole milk) during the next few shopping trips. For whole milk (only for mass gain) I typically buy 3-4 gallons at a time since I'll be consuming them all in the next 3-4 days (G-O-M-A-D = Gallon Of Milk A Day).

Still having a tough time? Let me know.

Coach-Shop-'Til-Ya'-Drop-Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com