Episode #32: Avoid the Trap! 3 Tricks Before Going to the Grocery Store

Hey y'all,

I hope you had a fabulous weekend! Personally, I am getting silly excited about the fact that College Football starts this weekend. Yes!

Enough about that, though :) Let's look at what we talk about on today's podcast:

• Nutritional issues with Americans and disease
• Tricks and traps that grocery stores use to make you spend money
• Tips to navigate your grocery store
• How to enter my FREE GIVEAWAY!

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For those that love to read, here are the Podcast show notes:

Frank: (00:00)
Hey and welcome to unconventional on this radio. I am your host frank, and I'm going to have a little fun today. We're going to talk about three tips that I can give you to go navigate your grocery store in order to watch out for all of the deceptive marketing experience that they try to create in order to buy a bunch of things that you don't really need. So stay tuned. Unconventional wellness radio, episode number 32 coming at you in a couple of moments. Hey everyone, and welcome to unconventional wellness. Radio is a powerful and inspiring podcast, such a revolutionize and disrupt healthcare. It's time to put you in the driver's seat. That'd be the force of change necessary for the lifestyle you've always wanted. Hey guys, what's up? It's frank and you're here with an episode of unconventional wellness. I'm so blessed and happy that you're here to join me today. 

Frank: (00:51)
I am going to really have some fun with this podcast because I am sick and tired of the BS. I am sick and tired of people making sciences that are, you know, just outlandish and making, like we used to jokingly say in the military, like, don't make an mos out of it. And what that really means is we don't want people to believe that it needs to be more difficult than what it actually is. One of the problems that people have when they try to start having a more healthy lifestyle is the fact that they really just get bogged down with a bunch of information and then it becomes extraordinarily difficult to sift through that and be able to understand that really it is not nearly as crazy and difficult as it should be or that it's more difficult than it actually should be. And so one of the things I want to talk about today was, you know, just how I liked to navigate in a grocery store. 

Frank: (01:47)
Um, I know it may seem stupid and you could turn this podcast off and stuff like that, but honestly, if you listen up for it, um, I can break down some of the psychology of how marketers have figured out excellent ways to be able to keep you inside of the store. That way you continue to purchase things, uh, or you can actually listen to me and learned some good tips and tricks to be able to cut through the junk and be able to go get the food that you need in order to be able to start changing your nutrition for the better. So I wanted to start off with just a couple of tidbits for you. I love tidbits because I love numbers and I love putting things on in, in understanding, uh, for us so we can really see if the types of problems that are actually being created with poor nutrition. 

Frank: (02:30)
I, uh, had the, uh, the ability of catching a quick webinar myself in which a a, a Pa was discussing some of the issues that we currently have with nutrition. Now by and far the good news is, is that we are showing a move in the positive direction and I applaud you, especially my folks that are millennials and beyond because you guys are doing a fabulous job of demanding to know your food is coming from and you're doing a great job of being able to make sure that it's sourced and it's prepared in ways that it is actually healthy for us. And so I absolutely applaud you and your efforts. Keep it up please. Because this has been one of those generations that thankfully things are turning around for the better. I mean, I've never seen so much farm to table movement. I'm not seeing so much sourcing movements, sustainable movement. 

Frank: (03:26)
It's really, really cool to see all that. But unfortunately we're still fighting a losing battle, although we are making a little bit of, you know, strides in the correct direction. Over three, let listen to this guys over three point 5 trillion, okay, not million, not billion, but trillion with a t is spent on healthcare in the United States every year, three point 5 trillion. And that's not, you know, that's not the thing that, that surprises me. The thing that really gets me is that over 80% of the three point 5 trillion is being spent on managing chronic disease. I'm going to just let that sink in for a second. So we're talking about things like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, uh, gosh, neurological problems, musculoskeletal problems and things of that nature. Okay, so three point $5 trillion every single year, okay. It is absolutely the thing that is causing preventable chronic diseases, bad nutrition over half, or actually I should say, excuse me. 

Frank: (04:36)
Nearly half of all Americans suffer from one or more preventable chronic diseases that are related to nutrition. So are you a member of that statistic? If so, we need to figure out a way to get you out of it. Okay. [inaudible] excuse me. So let's look at some other statistics because these things like these things I like to look at because of the fact that they actually wake us up a little bit. Okay. Um, $33 billion in medical costs are actually attributed to heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, diabetes. All right? 33 billion are poor nutrition. All right? So $9 billion a year is lost in productivity because of bad nutrition. So if we actually were to start collectively working on a healthier diet, did you know that we can almost save $115 billion a year in both direct and indirect medical costs and productivity and value of life? That's how much could actually be saved if we were to have better nutrition. 

Frank: (05:38)
And so you can imagine that it is crucially and critically important now that we really start looking at better nutrition. Okay? It should not surprise us. Um, but we still are, uh, doing OK. Um, we are decreasing the amount of, you know, added sugars and sugars, uh, beverages, uh, unprocessed red meat that is decreasing in consumption. But the things that are still alarming is people don't eat enough fruit. People don't eat enough vegetables, and we are eating a lot more whole grains than we really probably are moving in the right direction with the right grains. But I still feel that we're just eating probably a little too much because we're looking for those things that actually tastes good and are filling us up. Now, whole grains with most diets are great. Okay. So please don't misunderstand me in that. But the thing is though is that I think that the way that I read this graph that I'm looking at, which is statistics from 1999 to 2012 is that over those, you know, roughly 15 years or so, excuse me, we've started to eat more whole grain, so like 70% or more, uh, of an improvement, if you will, in the consumption of whole grains, which is good, which means that we're not eating processed grains, okay? 

Frank: (06:53)
Which means we're not eating like enrich flowers and all that kind of stuff. We actually are even showing a decrease in total carbohydrates that we're eating as well. All right? But all of those carbohydrates are essentially whole grains. And so we are trending in the correct direction by eating more nuts and seeds and by eating more whole grains. But the thing is though is that we're still lacking in terms of the vegetables, vegetables and fruits should probably be the one, one of the very first things that we should be consuming at a meal. Okay? Remember how we look at, you know, eating the rainbow on a plate and you want to be really consuming a lot of the rainbow, which should be almost 50% or more of your entire plate. All right? Those are the things that actually will get you full of vegetables, do a fantastic job with their dietary fiber at making you feel full. 

Frank: (07:40)
So therefore satiation happens better. And then the cool thing about vegetables is that with eating dietary fiber, it can actually make its way all the way down into the like last sections of your bowel. Like your small intestine, if you will, not your bowel, excuse me, your small intestine. And there are some hormones that can be released to make you feel full. And so therefore if, if my fiber around you have that bulk inside of your digestive system so your body does not perceive that it actually still needs to consume more food. Because it feels like it's full. And so then it tells your brain that you're not hungry. And so those are the tricks that we need to remember is we need to start having more of a plant forward diet and be able to eat those whole grains. If you're choosing to do that, if you want to do something like a Paleo or a Keto diet or you know, intermittent fasting along with that, totally get the fact that you want to cut out grains. 

Frank: (08:33)
But if you are going to eat grains cause you want something heart-healthy like a, like a Mediterranean diet or a dash diet or something like that, then by all means make sure they stay whole but eat a lot more plants. Okay. We should be eating plants a lot and I think that's all I'm going to say about that. But let's go ahead and transition now into, uh, our discussion about, uh, you know, navigating your grocery store. And so the way that we want to do it is we want to treat going into a grocery store. Like I jokingly referred to it as like my sport of choice. The reason why is because it really matters. Okay. And so whenever something really matters to you, you want almost make it like a competition. And so I kinda really do. I actually make it a competition like a gear up for or going to the grocery store. 

Frank: (09:16)
And it's not because I want to like elbow people away from like different foods that I want to eat or, or tackle somebody cause they're touching somebody's something that I want. Instead, I want to make sure that I walk in, get what I need to get taken care of and walk out. Okay. So let me tell you a couple of marketing tricks that are now working with a lot of these major retail grocery stores is that they are putting up fabulous looking displays. They are putting out really fantastic announcements. They're throwing up some phenomenal deals. Okay. And they give out free samples. They uh, they, they allow you to consume coffee or something like that in the store. You know, all these little things to make it more of like a shopping experience rather than going to pick up groceries at the grocery store. Right. 

Frank: (10:07)
So by selling the experience, they are able to keep you inside of the grocery store longer. And when they keep you inside of the grocery store longer, your barriers to wanting to purchase things that you may or may not need goes down. And so they'll catch you with like a buy one get one and you're like, oh, it's just X. I'm going to get it because it's on buy one get one. So even out in some places, you know you'd do the buy one get one, you only get one, you get a half for price. And those are all fabulous ways to save money. But the thing is though is that they're keeping you in the store. So I would offer to you that you could be spending more money because of that. And so you really just have to go in with a game plan. 

Frank: (10:44)
That's the best way. That is. Tip Number one is to go in with a game plan a, it makes sure that you have a list. All right? Whether you're following whatever type of nutritional plan you're following, make sure you have a list of what you need. All right, go in there with a actual strategy and that will help you from derailing and getting caught up in all the experience that a lot of grocery stores try to, um, have you have in order to keep you in there longer. And so go in there with a plan. So write it down, figure it out. Meal plan, right? So like meal planning is really, really fantastic. Go in there with an idea about what exactly you need cause these meal plans guys are getting so specific now that you can actually walk in and it'll say buy one bag of Brussel sprouts and buy two medium yellow onions. 

Frank: (11:35)
You know, and that's what you need for the course of making five meals throughout the week. So I mean like they are Uber specific now and so you can go in with a plan and I tell you what, your food dollars will be stretched out longer and you won't be spending overall more money because you'll be going in with a plan. So that's exactly what I do. I took my meal plan in there. Whatever my wife and I discussed is that we're going to consume for the week. I go in there, we meal plan, we walk in, we purchase exactly what we need from a list and then we walk out, right? So like I'd say that most shopping trips, even on the long end, I'm only in there for maybe about 20 to 30 minutes. I'm really not in there for a very long period of time. 

Frank: (12:13)
If you have to bring your kids in there and stuff like that as well, get them occupied by making them do a craft. You know, we love to do that. That way they're not pointing at everything saying I want that. I want that. Preferably also make sure that your kids are fed. That's tip number two by the way, is be full when you go in the grocery store. All right? When we see all of these really wonderful looking displays and you hear this awesome music and you're getting involved in, in the experience, um, the social aspect of it might take over, especially if you're hungry and you might just say, well, I'm going to just grab this or grab this, and then all of a sudden you're spending five, 10 bucks more than what you really want to because you're shorter. You're, you're eating with your eyes while you're in the grocery store. 

Frank: (12:53)
And quite honestly, I've been so hungry that I've ate in the grocery store. I don't know about you guys, but I know that in years past I've done that as well. So just really be cognizant of that fact as well as that you don't want to go in hungry or I go in with a Ari like after you just ate a meal at your house, right? Go in there. That's going to be your thing that you do afterwards. Uh, so that's tip number two. Tip number three is only shop in the horseshoe of the grocery store. So what do you think? I mean by that? Well imagine if you will that [inaudible], excuse me, around the outside of the grocery store, along all of the different walls, they actually have all of the things that we really need for the vast majority of our diets. OK. 

Frank: (13:35)
Uh, they, you start off by walking in and I'm just thinking you have one grocery store in particular, but a lot of them are mapped out this way. But first thing I see when I walk in and walk to the right is all the produce. Okay. Couple tapes on produce as you shop around the outside of your grocery store is that you want to be getting, of course organic or preferably a non GMO and organic food. All right? So that's a really good thing to do. Um, watch out for the stuff that looks really pretty. And the reason why I say that is because that's the stuff that could have paint and waxes and all that kind of stuff on it that they do to make it look more appealing. You know, we eat with our eyes. I mean, I say upwards of 70 80% of our appetite, in my honest opinion, comes from what it looks like. 

Frank: (14:19)
You know, like Instagram, foodies would not be as popular as they are if they didn't make the food look amazing. I mean it literally looks amazing and so like that makes you want to eat it. And so that's what a lot of tricks that agriculturalist and economists do is that they make the food look ridiculously great. It's displayed really pretty. It's also painted, it's waxed and things like that in order to get for you to go and buy it. So what I say is go buy ugly vegetables and go buy ugly fruit. All right? Now don't get me wrong. Farmers are wonderful and they can make the stuff look fantastic, but think about that. Think about like you want natural colors, okay? You don't want artificial colors even on your produce. All right? By non-gmo, buy organic and get moving. All right? The next place that you can stop by after you pass over the bakery because the bakery is usually on the outside of the store, pass through the bakery and walk right over to the cold cut area. 

Frank: (15:16)
Like maybe the Deli. You might be able to get some pretty reasonably priced hummuses [inaudible] excuse me. And some different, uh, you know, like kind of in the packaged prepared food if you will. But it's really not processed food, if that makes sense. It's just like pre cut and things like that. If you want to get fresh, cold cuts, great. Uh, make sure that they're, you know, low in nitrates, low in sodium because those are the preservatives and those types of meats. Uh, make sure they're not processed. Make sure that they're natural. Okay. But pick up your meats from the Deli if you wish. Maybe pick up a, uh, non GMO organic chicken that you can create, uh, something wonderful with and keep moving. Okay. Next spot I like to stop by is over by the wine I drank, you know, a glass or two of wine. 

Frank: (16:02)
I'm probably about the most that I drank as three to five glasses of wine over the course of a week. All right. Very, very good for heart health. Um, the flavonoids and, and things like that are wonderful inside of the wine in order to be able to help maintain good cholesterol levels. So maybe I'll grab a little wine, make sure it's like the first press stuff. Makes sure it doesn't have a ton of sulfates in it. You know, things like that. Keep moving. If you want to get some seafood, you absolutely can do that. Make sure, of course it's wild caught. And then if you're really a geek like me, do some research and figure out where that seafood is harvested from in order to be able to make sure that we're staying low and heavy metals. Okay. So once we pick up our seafood, we just keep moving. 

Frank: (16:44)
Again, if you want to pick up something from the butcher, you know, some grass fed, I'm not given any Orbay organic are, excuse me, not given any antibiotic meat. Uh, watch out for growth hormones and stuff like that. And then just keep moving as well as add on that. Watch out for those process meats that they like to put inside the, the butcher area. OK. Um, obviously frozen food, same rules apply. If you're going to be eating meat, make sure that it's grass fed. Make sure that it's uh, you know, not given any type of antibiotics or growth hormones or something like that. Grown as naturally on pasture as it possibly can cause that's going to be the best for you. Okay. Um, as I keep moving, if I'm doing dairy, it's nice to move into that section. Next. You know, I love, I love hard cheeses. 

Frank: (17:28)
I love Parmesan. I love ACIAR ago. I love Pecorino. I mean like, I love hard cheese. Uh, and I love cream cheese though as a snack. So that's usually what I'll pick up in the dairy section. I love coconut milk. Um, you've got coconut milk mixed with almond milk. They make, they make creamers. Now if you're drinking coffee with that stuff and it's fantastic. Okay. Same thing. Make sure that it doesn't have any of the synthetic products. I mean like, you know, just look for just basic ingredients, right? It should literally say coconut milk, almond milk, that's about it. All right? Make sure it's super good for you. Non GM organic is preferential from a really good source. Okay. Um, next you can get some bread that also so happens to be on the outside of my particular shopping, um, or my particular grocery store that I go to. 

Frank: (18:21)
And so if you need to do that, then make sure it's whole grain and make sure that it is, you know, not with any type of enriched flour and watch out for the preservatives. Okay. There's some really phenomenal breadmakers out there. Excuse me, that have some really great, uh, thin cut stuff. You know, in case you want to do a sandwich or something like that and you might get some grains and things like that. These grocery stores usually have the nuts or the lagoons or any of that kind of stuff also on the outside of the store. So that's it. Usually if I'm at it or going into the middle of the store whatsoever, it might just be to pick up. Some of these are like really great Quito pizzas that I know of. Um, I might get some frozen vegetables just to make things a little on the easier side. 

Frank: (19:03)
That way I'm not having a cut a whole head of Broccoli. Every once in a while it's really nice to grab a bag of like say like vegetables that you can steam in the bag or whatnot, you know, add some salt and pepper and a little bit of olive oil to them. That is a really nice faster way to do it. I just steam them right there on my cooktop. I usually don't even microwave them. I usually just steam them and to me, um, if they're frozen fresh, it's a really good way to save a little bit of time, you know? But if I can get fresh, I'm going to buy and eat fresh. But if I am pressed for time or I know that I've got a busy week or something like that, it's nice to be able to have those really quick prepped vegetables. But that's usually about the inside of the store that I do. 

Frank: (19:40)
Um, condiments might be one aisle that I go down from occasion, you know, and things like that cause I need some more olive oil or I need salt and pepper and things like that. But I absolutely stay away from all of those aisles that have all of those like premade, you know, boxed foods. I stay away from that stuff. Um, I stay away from uh, the rest of the frozen food section. Then of course I stay away from the snack aisles. Right? Cause those, those are usually gonna have those high sugar, high carbohydrate, um, you know, bad carbohydrate kind of things and they're not fresh. Right? So that's still horseshoe. So that's tip number three is shop in the horseshoe. So those are my three tips of being able to navigate a grocery store really, really well. And, uh, if you join my Facebook page, I would love to show you this stuff. 

Frank: (20:25)
I'm going to actually do a live here at the grocery store here in the next couple of weeks in order to show you exactly what I'm talking about and how I navigate where I grocery store. So that's all I got for you today. Make sure you leave me a rating and review next week. I am absolutely giving away something and so the benefits you greatly to give me a rating and review, share the podcast with somebody else. Okay. And then email me and let you know that you've done the same. That's the best way to answer. All right. That is the way to enter and I promise it will be worth somebody wild for the giveaway that I'm doing next week. So until then, this is unconventional wellness radio. I am frank, always a pleasure to talk to you. I hope you guys have a wonderful week and that this provided some value for you. Let me know. Alright, message me. Email me if you need to get in touch with me. It's frank at Ritz essentials. Go join my Facebook group. You w all right with frank on Facebook. So y'all take care now and we will come and get you coming at you again very, very soon. Have a wonderful week. Everybody.