Part Three of this week’s series dedicated to controlling your environment ends today with replenishment.

Once you’ve taken all the Frank-N’Foods out of your kitchen, it’s time to replenish it with foods that will set you up for success. Think of your body as a luxury vehicle. Would you fill it with the cheapest fuel? Feed your body high-quality food. As Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”

Clean eating means sticking to the perimeter

The Perimeter:

Foods located within the perimeter of the grocery store–produce, dairy, meat, and grains–are the foods most conducive to healthy eating. These are the foods that are the least processed. Foods that mold are natural. Foods that have a shelf life of years are full of chemicals, additives, and preservatives. We call these foods frank-N-foods. It comes down to this: if it grows in the soil or has a face, eat it!

Choose high fiber vegetables over “salad vegetables”

Produce:

The produce section is the place to fill up your cart. Many of our clients stick with easy-to-eat raw vegetables usually found in salads such as cucumbers, tomatoes, and lettuce. Every week try a new vegetable–a superstar vegetable like cabbage, turnips, squash, cauliflower, broccoli, eggplant, mushrooms, beets, artichokes, and kale. Start using our five vegetable rule for all your stir-fries, salads, casseroles, curries, and stews.

High protein Greek yogurt

Dairy:

Stock up on organic milk, high protein cottage cheese and yogurt. For cheeses, stick with mozzarella or feta over brie and blue cheeses. Spend the extra money on organic dairy products. Remember that cows  injected with heavy doses of antibiotics and hormones means you are consuming those icky things as well. Organic dairy products will be chemical and hormone free and hopefully grass-fed.

Grass fed cows are happy cows

Meat & Seafood:

Cows are born to eat grass. Factory farmed cattle are raised on grains. When a creature survives on a diet opposite of what they require, the nutritional profile of the meat is completely offset. Spend the extra money and buy organic grass-fed beef even if it means eating meat less often. Any lamb or bison is automatically grass-fed because they are not factory farmed in the USA. Even farm raised salmon and other fish are fattened with grain. When possible buy wild caught seafood, organic chicken, organic pork, and organic veal.

No WHITE FLOUR!!

Grains:

When choosing whole grains, try new ones like buckwheat, amaranth, millet, and quinoa. Make sure the package says 100% whole wheat make sure there is no added sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup. Select products with less than 5 grams of sugar.

Frozen berries are versatile and inexpensive

Frozen:

Skip everything in the frozen food aisle except for frozen berries and some frozen vegetables such as spinach. Most food in this aisle is highly processed and empty calories. Throw frozen berries into smoothies or thaw in the fridge overnight and puree for a sugar-free addition to yogurt, oatmeal, or in place of high-sugar jelly.

Yes, it says maple and bacon-flavored beer…

Beer & Wine:

If you are losing weight, remember that alcohol slows down the process of fat burn. Use red and white wine periodically to add flavor to stews and as a poaching or sautee liquid. Don’t drink your calories so avoid this aisle as much as possible.

Sundries:

The only time you need to venture into the center grocery store aisles is to buy raw almonds, cashews, or walnuts, nut butters, tomato sauce, canned tuna, sardines, coffee, tea, and of course, natural calorie-free Stevia or honey as your sweetener.

Look at your grocery store with new eyes and shake your head at all the dangerous frank-N’-foods we feed our children everyday. The chicken nuggets, the sugary cereals, the Kool-aid, the twinkies, the chips, the boxed Mac N’ Cheese, the barbecue sauce–I could go on and on.

Need a more in-depth grocery store tour? Double Eagle Fitness will give you a personalized tour of your local grocery store. See www.doubleaglefitness.com for details.