I love grocery shopping. Why you should too.

I love grocery shopping. I have always loved it. As a child my best friend's father owned my small town's only grocery store and I spent many hours playing in the warehouse and store. As an adult, I even got a job at a grocery store for a few years and made some great friends and won a grocery bagging competition in Philly that took me to Atlantic City and then Disney World-but that's another story....

Why should you love grocery shopping? For many reasons.

1. That's how you get the lovely food that you can cook at home to eat healthy and save money. Grocery stores have your veggies, proteins and more. Make your menu for the week, then make a grocery list and head to the store. Most stores now offer you plenty of options to buy local. This is important for me, and I always choose the local foods when I see them at the store. I am fortunate enough to buy local produce, local seafood and coffee. Being a healthy and happy person means making choices that help others, especially in these times when the small farmer and fisherman is really struggling.

2. Grocery shopping is much cheaper and healthier than eating takeout. Grocery prices have increased but just do your homework and you can still stay in your budget. I still get a newspaper (Yes, I'm old) so I look at the sale flyer that comes every Wednesday. I then make my weekly menu from the sale flyer. If shrimp is on sale-I look for a shrimp recipe. Cauliflower-same. Clementines-Great! the toddlers will get them for the week. If you don't get a newspaper delivered, stores have their sales on the web, you can even get coupons online for the store products. One sale item can sometime make two meals or more.

3. Grocery shopping is a social experience-or it should be-for you. I smile and talk to stockers, the seafood man, the butcher and other customers. It's a place to smile and be kind to others. I shop every Sunday at the same time and same place, so I know the staff and they act like they know me. As in that old Barbra Streisand song "People who need people are the luckiest people..." it's good for your mental health to engage with others.

4. Grocery shopping is movement (exercise, a workout). All of us should have a goal of movement throughout our day. Movement doesn't have to be at a gym or running til you're a sweaty mess. Grocery shopping requires you to walk to the store (park your car at the far end of the lot), then you walk up and down the aisles, then walk to your car, lift out those heavy purchases of melons, cauliflower, oranges chicken, walk to RETURN your cart, then back to the car. When you get home carry those bags in the house, load them up, do some weightlifting. You got in some exercise and didn't even notice.

Learning how to navigate a grocery store is something I can teach you in my culinary coaching. I want you all to love the grocery store. (Remember how those grocery store workers were our heroes during the pandemic?) Contact me a gumboculinarycoaching@outlook.com and I will make you a grocery store lover.