Ultimate Clean Eating Grocery List

This list is a master copy of all the CLEAN food you can buy at the grocery store. This is a fantastic list! I found it on a website. If you wonder "what you should eat" , pick and chose it from this list and you will be doing GREAT!

3 Rules to follow at the grocery store:

 Never shop on an empty stomach

       Make a list and stick to it

            Shop the perimeter as much as possible

Whole Grains:

·         100% Whole wheat flour (we use a lot of whole wheat pastry flour – big difference!)

·         100% Whole-wheat or whole-grain bread

·         100% Whole-wheat pasta

·         100% Whole-wheat pitas or tortillas (the sprouted variety is also wonderful)

·         Amaranth

·         Barley

·         Brown rice

·         Buckwheat – hot cereal or flour

·         Bulgur

·         Quinoa (technically a seed, but treated as a grain)

·         Rye

·         Spelt

·         Steel cut oatmeal

·         Whole-grain breakfast cereal like millet or Whole Grain Buckwheat Cereal

·         Wild rice

Canned/Jarred items:


·         Canned beans with no added sugar and little to no added sodium

·         Canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

·         Light coconut milk

·         Marinara, no sugar added, low sodium

·         Olives

·         Sun-dried tomatoes

·         Tomato sauce
/paste, no sugar added and little to no added sodium

·         Tuna packed in water

·         Unsweetened fruit

·         Vegetable or chicken stock/broth
, no sugar or dextrose added, and little to no added sodium (we love the Imagine brand)

Note that acidic products like tomatoes or pineapple are better purchased in glass jars whenever possible.

Dried fruits and nuts:

·         Almonds
, pistachios
 and walnuts, to name just a few

·         Dried cranberries, fruit juice sweetened

·         Raisins
 and other dried fruits such as apricots
 with no added sugar

Condiments and spices:

·         
Balsamic vinegar

·         Herbs and spices of all varieties (not the spice mixes like taco seasoning, just the pure herbs.)

·         Mustard with no added sugar

·         Naturally sweetened ketchup (we love OrganicVille Ketchup)

·         Non-fat Greek yogurt in place of sour cream or mayo

·         Safflower oil
, grape seed oil, walnut oil and extra virgin olive oil

·         Unsweetened cocoa powder

Vegetables (fresh or frozen):

·         Artichokes

·         Asparagus

·         Avocados (technically a fruit)

·         Beets

·         Bell peppers

·         Broccoli

·         Brussels sprouts

·         Cabbage (all kinds)

·         Carrots

·         Cauliflower

·         Celery

·         Cucumbers

·         Garlic

·         Green beans

·         Greens such as spinach, chard, collard or kale

·         Leeks

·         Mushrooms

·         Onions

·         Parsnips

·         Radishes

·         Rutabagas

·         Shallots

·         Squash of all kinds (we love butternut, spaghetti squash and sugar pie pumpkins)

·         Sweet potatoes

·         Tomatoes

·         Turnips

Fruits (fresh or frozen with no added sugar):

·         Apples

·         Apricots

·         Bananas

·         Blackberries

·         Blueberries

·         Cantaloupe

·         Cherries

·         Grapefruits

·         Grapes

·         Kiwi

·         Lemons

·         Mangoes

·         Nectarines

·         Oranges

·         Peaches

·         Pineapple

·         Plums

·         Plutos

·         Pomegranates

·         Raspberries

·         Star fruit

·         Strawberries

·         Watermelon

Lean Meats (buy organic when you can)

·         Fish of all kinds

·         Chicken breasts, boneless and skinless

·         Whole chicken (more cost effective)

·         Turkey

·         Bison or venison (in place of beef)

·         Eggs

Beans & Legumes (dry or canned)

·         Adzuki beans

·         Black beans

·         Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

·         Kidney beans

·         Lentils (all types)

·         Navy beans

·         Pinto beans

·         Split peas

·         White beans

Why do we fail?

Even on maintenance, there is always room for failure. In order to stay successful, I made a plan. I stick to my plan. I don't think about it, I just do it. I have made my plan a lifestyle. Enjoy this article by John and decide where you are at, then make a plan and stick to it! You can do this.

Health Related Lifestyle Changes- Why Do so Many People Fail?

By: John Bottoms, BSPH

One of the main reason’s that people do not chose to begin on the journey to a health change is the have tried over and over again and cannot seem to be successful so they adopt the attitude of failure. This article is designed to remind you that YOU CAN DO IT! Plus, I will give you a few tips on how to be successful.

First of all, the main reasons why most people do not succeed is they set unrealistic goals they cannot obtain, they try to accomplish things that they really do not understand, and they are trying to reach a goal not focusing on a total lifestyle transformation.  Let me give a couple of examples. When people look at their diet, they know that they need to eat healthier, that’s a given! However most people start trying to maintain a diet or choose foods based on things the do not really understand. Somewhere they read on a website that they should stay away from trans-fats and partially hydrogenated oils, and then they watched a documentary on TV that was all about staying away from genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and then their friend told them that they should only eat organic veggies, and they heard on an infomercial that juicing is the way to go! Who wouldn’t be confused?! I am finishing a Master’s Degree in Public Health and already have a Bachelor’s degree in both Public Health and Human Physiology and all of that can be confusing for even me! Here is the secret. Keep it simple. As the saying says, “How do you eat an elephant.. one bite at a time!” Don’t try to swallow the elephant whole but keep it simple and keep taking small bites and before you know it you will reach your long-term goals.  Don’t overwhelm yourself!

Now let’s talk about how to make that lasting change in your health behaviors. In order to make that lasting change it will help you to understand a couple of public health concepts that are used to guide people into long term change. The Transtheoretical  Model is a great model to look at to help you understand this. In the model, there are 5 stages and as your read the information try to determine where you are on the scale and how are can get through the next stages. The stages are precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Take a look at the graphic to the below. Before we discuss each stage understand that as you move down the chart you are progressing in the process of making that health related change but as you relapse you start moving in the other direction.

Precontemplation is the stage in which people are not intending to take action in the foreseeable future, usually measured as the next six months. People may be in this stage because they are uninformed or under-informed about the consequences of their behavior. Or they may have tried to change a number of times and become demoralized about their ability to change. Both groups tend to avoid reading, talking or thinking about their high risk behaviors. They are often characterized in other theories as resistant or unmotivated or as not ready for health promotion programs. The fact is traditional health promotion programs are often not designed for such individuals and are not matched to their needs.

Contemplation is the stage in which people are intending to change in the next six months. They are more aware of the pros of changing but are also acutely aware of the cons. This balance between the costs and benefits of changing can produce profound ambivalence that can keep people stuck in this stage for long periods of time. We often characterize this phenomenon as chronic contemplation or behavioral procrastination. These people are also not ready for traditional action oriented programs.

Preparation is the stage in which people are intending to take action in the immediate future, usually measured as the next month. They have typically taken some significant action in the past year. These individuals have a plan of action, such as joining a health education class, consulting a counselor, talking to their physician, buying a self-help book or relying on a self-change approach. These are the people that should be recruited for action- oriented smoking cessation, weight loss, or exercise programs.

Action is the stage in which people have made specific overt modifications in their life-styles within the past six months. Since action is observable, behavior change often has been equated with action.

Maintenance is the stage in which people are working to prevent relapse but they do not apply change processes as frequently as do people in action. They are less tempted to relapse and increasingly more confident that they can continue their change.

Again, the main thing here it to find out where you are and make a well organized plan to move forward. Don’t just think about it. Write it down! Share your plan with someone else so they can help you to stick to it. Be specific and for each action item write down how are you are going to measure it. You can do this!

As always if you have questions about anything here or would like help in making your change plan. I am available!

-JB

So you want to make a change

This is a very thought provoking article written by a friend of mine. Take a minute to read this and I ask you all, are you ready to make your change???

So you want to make a change? Commit!

John Bottoms, BSPH

Heart disease, Cancer, Chronic lower respiratory diseases, Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases), Accidents (unintentional injuries), Alzheimer's disease, Diabetes, Kidney Disease, Influenza and Pneumonia, Intentional self-harm (suicide)

I begin this article with a list of diseases. Diseases that may not look that important to you but statistically if you are reading this article, one of the diseases on this list will be what takes your life. This list is the top 10 causes of death in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Why is that important to our discussion of wanting to become more healthy, to lose weight, or to exercise more? Well you see, 5 out of the 10 major causes of death in the US are directly related to our lifestyle. Even more specifically to what we eat and the amount of exercise that we do over our entire life. That is an alarming fact! However even though that is alarming for you reading this, it should also be encouraging because for most of you by making the lifestyle changes that you are trying to accomplish you can totally improve and often times even reverse the pathways for these terrible diseases. Don’t let your only motivation to change be the way you look because when you are craving unhealthy food or just don’t want to do 20 more minutes of exercise, remember I will live longer and have a better quality of life long term because of the changes I am making now!

Now that we have introduced the word change, let’s talk about it! Why do most people fail in trying to make the long-term changes that you are trying to make now? If we were to complete a survey of the people who are trying to make these types of changes and failed the top couple of responses are typically, “I don’t have time”, “I can’t afford it”, or “I am too old” but those point to someone who really didn't make the upfront commitment that they should have. When it comes to making changes for your health your plan has to be to make lifestyle changes that will last for your entire lifetime not just temporary changes that will get you to a certain point like losing 30 pounds or a leaner body. Why? Because you will not maintain that and we are talking about living longer, looking, and feeling better for the rest of your life! When people chose to follow the fad diets, or chose to exercise really hard for a certain period of time, as soon as they stop then they return not only to where they were before they started but often times even worse than when they started. Before beginning you need to ask yourself, “Is what I am changing something that I can maintain for the rest of my life.” If the answer is no then don’t do it. We have to retrain our bodies to be healthy long-term! Our bodies are designed to find and maintain a place of normalcy; the scientific term for this is called homeostasis.

Homeostasis is an important concept that I want everyone to understand. Essentially it is the processes in your body that are designed to maintain normal levels in every process and every system in the body. For example if your blood pressure become outside of your body’s normal range, then there are systems that kick in- mainly the kidneys, that help to bring you blood pressure back to a normal level. Where we get into trouble is when our body gets confused about what normal is because after a certain period of being out of the normal rage (usually around 2-3 weeks) you body will reset what it considers to be normal and will then begin maintaining the unhealthy level as normal. However in most cases this can be changed. (Before you ask, if you are taking medicine for hypertension, I am not saying you should stop and try to control it yourself because the risks of doing that for most people are too high without a medical professional’s guidance!) Let’s make application of this to what you guys are trying to accomplish with your health change.

The number one problem for most Americans from obesity, to heart disease, to stroke, to diabetes is primarily caused by the consumption of too much sugar. The American diet is filled with either sugary foods or foods that turn to sugar like potatoes, breads, and pastas. I am not saying that your body doesn't need the sugar because it is required for every process that takes place; I am saying that you don’t need the amount of sugars that we typically consume. For most Americans simply cutting back on the amount of added sugars in the diet long term will make a major difference in your long-term health but because of that word we just mentioned, homeostasis, this is much more difficult than it sounds. You see if your body is used to being fed a certain level of sugars it is designed to want to maintain that level of sugar coming in so as soon as you cut back you will begin to start to crave more sugars. Well how do you win?! Just like with the blood pressure example, give it 3 weeks! In about 3 weeks of you cutting out that excess sugar in your diet, you body will then begin to set its level of normal and you will lose the cravings then it is easy as long as you maintain! You can take this principle and add it to salty foods, fatty foods, and many diet related things. Bottom line if your are going to commit to change for one day commit to 21 days and let your body learn its new normal. Its healthy normal! If you are not going to commit for at least 21 days then don’t waste your time with one day!

In summary make your plan to change. Write it down and work to make the changes but remember the changes that you will make are not just for the next month or the two months but for the rest of your life! Remember to ask yourself, “Is this something I can maintain for the rest of my life or is this just a fad.” Commit to at least 3 weeks and see if those tough cravings don’t go away and remember, its not just about looking good for a couple of weeks but about looking good, feeling good, and being healthy for the rest of your life!

Welcome to Fit Friends!

Over the course of the last 3 years, I have lost a significant amount of weight. 95 pounds to be exact. It was definitely a journey. Through my journey, I have had a multitude of people ask me how I did it. And as much as I would love to give them a really easy, simple solution... I can't. You have to WANT it. You have to bust your butt and DO it. You have to make a commitment to lose the weight and get healthy. Just as much as marriage is a commitment, so is weight loss. It takes a DAILY commitment. You have to get up each day, and put just as much effort into today as you did yesterday. You have to make better food choices. You have to carefully think about each and everything you put in your mouth. If you truly want this bad enough, you WILL make it happen. But just as  the smoker trying to quit smoking cigarettes... you have to BE READY. Only YOU can change yourself. You won't change until you are ready and have committed your every move to it. You can definitely start this process with small steps. You can start by eliminating one bad habit from your diet each week. You can go cold turkey also, and change it all at one time and learn to live with it! We are all unique individuals and we all have different needs. I started this group to help each other along the way. Because we are all different, I feel like we should all be able to chose our own diet/eating plans and exercise routine. No one way is better than the other. It will be about what works best for you. The most important thing to remember is YOU ARE IMPORTANT! You have to realize that your families count on you and your health! They need you! So make yourself a priority and MAKE A CHANGE!

My Journey:
By the time we decided to have baby #4 (our last little bundle of joy), I weighed 235 lbs. With each pregnancy, I would lose some weight after the baby was born and then gain twice that back. During my pregnancy with baby #4, I had a condition called Hyperemesis. This condition caused me lose a LOT of weight during my pregnancy. I started the pregnancy out at 225( I lost 10 pounds on WW before getting pregnant), and delivered at 198 pounds. After giving birth I was down to 185 pounds. I was determined this time to finish losing the weight! I suffered from anxiety attacks for years as well, and I was also determined to never take another anti-depressant pill again! With consistent exercise (running is my drug of choice) and calorie counting, I successfully lost the rest of my weight- 45 pounds. With my new lifestyle, I turn to running when I am stressed. I eat clean, the way God intended it. I avoid as many processed foods as possible and food is no longer the center of my life. For years, I lived by where I was going to eat, what event I could plan around food, and when the next meal was. Food has NO importance in my life now. I simply eat what my body needs to work properly. Food doesn't run my life anymore! Food should NOT be that important. It should not make you happy, or sad, or excited. Food is for nourishment only. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy a DQ Blizzard every now and then, but it's not something I look forward too, or need every week. I just want other people to experience the freedom I feel from no longer being addicted to food. And to experience the relief from stress and anxiety that exercise will bring you!  This group, Fit Friends, is about bringing on the freedom from weight, from stress and anxiety, and from food. It's about a group of people coming together and sharing with each other. I look forward to this journey with you!

Here are links to other weight loss posts I have made on my personal blog:

http://thehawkinsfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/weight-loss-journey.html

http://thehawkinsfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/weight-loss.html

http://thehawkinsfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/running-my-1-year-anniversary.html

Join Fit Friends here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitfriendsforlife/