So I was cruising around the grocery store the other day and I couldn’t help but take a peek at other people grocery carts. I’d like to say I don’t judge but all our minds wonder once in a while don’t they? I don’t my judge like ‘what a horrible person for buying that’. It’s more like, I wonder if they know what’s in that. OR, I wonder if they know how that food is going to make them feel, and more importantly, I wonder if they know how they’d feel if they are wholesome, natural, healthy foods.
I honestly believe they don’t. Course you have people that know exactly what they’re doing to their bodies and don’t care. I mean they don’t care now but they certainly will when they’re older. I understand addiction to a degree also. I know some people try everything and can’t stop. Let’s take smoking for example, there was a time we could smoke on airplane, even hospitals; in fact I’ve seen commercials where doctors are recommending a smoking brand. Which isn’t to discredit them. We didn’t have the research back then and we didn’t have the knowledge but we definitely do now.
So you have those people that clearly know something is bad for them, I mean the cigarette back has a huge picture of a lung or heart or a pic or a whole in a throat. Course discusting but not enough to deter addicted smokers.
That’s all a different story though, the smoke example I used what’s different, they know what’s in their food. Many times at the grocery store, we don’t know what’s in our food, we don’ know what we’re putting in our bodies. Because the majority of us don’t go out of our way to do research we’re stuck with marketing and what the industry wants us to believe, which pretty much leaves us with nothing.
That’s where the root of my questions come from when I glace at other shopping carts. It’s never, WOW, that person should really make some changes. It’s more, like, I wonder if they’d eat that if they know what it did to their body”. I really do wonder that. I know some people wouldn’t change at all, all the deception and marketing has been instill deep inside for so many years there’s no hope of changing a mind set. Some people do care, some people make changes when they know but it’s the actually knowing that’s the hard part.
My mind wanders a little more as carts continue to pass by me and I think, what if our insides resemble exactly what’s in our shopping cart. This is going to sound a little crazy now. What if our heart resembles a steak, what if our blood flows with dairy milk, what if each organ is as healthy as the food we’re putting in it. Now it doesn’t sound as crazy does it. Because this is exactly what happens. Too much saturated fat, your heart definitely works overtime, what if we consume too much dairy or gluten, or toxins and chemicals, well you can bet our emotions, our mood and energy level is controlled by everyone organ and blood cell in our bodies.
Again, I wonder a little if the foods in our grocery carts resemble our body on the outside now. I wonder if we start to take shape of potato chip bag, if any part of us resembles a 2 liter bottle of pop, do we take form as a block of cheese or butter; how about the candy bar that is strategically placed at the checkout counter. Any of that resemble our bodies.
Wandering around the grocery store, I thought my initial thoughts were a little, ‘off’ lets say. Certainly something I probably shouldn’t share with anyone. But when I sit here and seriously thinking about it. It’s true isn’t it? Certain people buy a bag of potato chips, certain people buy a 2 liter jug of pop and certain people buy candy bars. I don’t think that’s discriminatory or politically incorrect.
Course you have the kids that are skinny with pimples (I didn’t have too many pimples but you can bet the candy isle was the first place I’d go), those kids are usually filled with too much energy for short bursts of time. You have people that buy unhealthy foods in general and their bodies resemble unhealthy food.
How many times do you hear about an Olympic athlete that has a horrible diet who just can’t get rid of those last 10 lbs, what do you think their cart looks like? And how many times do you see a shopping cart filled with high fat or high sugary foods pushed by someone who doesn’t need it? I’m not being critical here, let’s be serious, if we cleaned up our shopping carts we’d clean up our diet, our lives and our health.
How’s that for a goal when hitting the mean/unforgiving isles of the grocery store? First of all never go shopping hungry, fill up on fruits and veggies first and then battle with the fats and sugars that the rest of the store is consumed with. I think that’s a great goal, what if we made a constant effort to only put healthy foods in our shopping cart, how would we go home with a long list of unhealthy foods, it wouldn’t be possible.
An idea just came up that I’m going to encourage my memebers to do and I’d like to encourage you to do the same. I’d like everyone to post a pic of their next grocery shopping trip. Go ahead and post on the true form facebook page. Maybe we can help each other be accountable and shop healthier. I’m not a big fan of external rewards but if we get enough entries maybe there’ll be a prize for some good, honest, posts.
Enjoy your next shopping trip and don’t forget to post a pic!