Formosa Fitness

Try this out next time tou go to the grocery store: buy 100% of your purchases from the fruit/vegetable section, milk (note: not the whole dairy section), and the meat section.

In other words, the sections that are on the outside edges of the store. Don't buy anything from the middle!

Usually all the processed junk like cookies, sugar-filled spaghetti sauce, instant mac-n-cheese, etc. are all in the middle. Avoid all of that stuff and you've gone a loooooong way towards improving your health already.

Naturally this is easier said than done but you can do it! I did it and you can too. One change you'll have to make is shopping more fequently because the veggies take up a lot of space in your cart, but they shrink down when you cook them. You'll also go through them faster than you think.

Here's some tips to help make this happen:

1. Get some potatoes to help with the transition away from rice, bread, and pasta. All that stuff is in the middle and you'll want to cut down on it. But keeping potatoes in your diet will make it an easier transition. And NO, I don't mean french fries either. Stew, bake, or make soup out of your spuds and you'll get the benefit without adding lots of calories.

BTW, spuds are great for people who need help recovering from exercise or gout sufferers like me. Spuds are alkaline, unlike the other carbs like bread and pasta, which are acidic. The more acid in your system, the longer it takes to recover from exercise. A buildup of acid contributes to muscle soreness and being sore obviously gets in the way of making progress. Exercise produces plenty of lactic acid already. Potatoes help your body by not adding more dietary acid to the mix.

2. Get corn. Technically a grain, corn is another transition food that you'll find in the veggie section. It's sweet, especially when you steam it as corn on the cob. Kids love it and you will too. Make corn a staple of your diet and like with spuds, you'll transition out of the other carbs a lot faster.

3. Reward yourself with fruit. Get apples, strawberries, or something exotic that you don't normally buy. Use the money you save from not buying Chip Ahoy chocolate chip cookies to get mangos or something else you haven't tried like wax apples. Fruit can satiate a sweet tooth quickly. I know: I ate 3 kiwis last night.

Let me know if this helps.