Fit Tip: If it’s not healthy…don’t buy it!

For anyone who’s interested in losing weight, eating healthy, or seriously maintaining a healthy lifestyle for the long run (or a combination of any of those three), one of the best things that you can do is to not buy ANY junk food at the grocery store.

I know how it goes. You’re walking through the aisles, feeling good about the contents of your shopping cart that’s filled with fruits and vegetables, and then you see that box of Goldfish or that carton of Ben and Jerry’s and you think, it won’t hurt just to have it in the house as a every-once-in-a-while snack. And that’s true, a not so healthy snack every once in a while isn’t such a terrible thing. But if you have those kinds of foods lying around your house, they will constantly be tempting you and it’s much more likely that ice cream for dessert will become an everyday occurrence instead of say, just a once per week indulgence.

This is why when I go to the grocery store, I rarely ever venture down any of the cereal or snack aisles and by the time I’m done my cart is filled with things mainly from the fresh produce and dairy aisles only. Plus, there are plenty of ways you can turn fruit, vegetables, and other natural foods into snacks that are good for you, like ice cream made from frozen fruit or spicy baked kale chips!

This way, you have healthy snacks available to you for when you’re hungry in between meals at home and the empty-calorie indulgences like salty cheese-flavored crackers, sugary, processed cookies, or ice cream are out of your immediate reach and saved for special occasions only.