Food For Thought – Observations from Inside the Grocery Store

I received this note this morning from a client. One of your team members. Just the fact that it was written tells me this person gets it, and cares enough about the other members of the team to write it. It is blunt and on face value may seem even a little unkind. But look deep inside and tell me it isn’t true.

I share it because it hit home. When I was overweight and unhealthy it was almost exclusively because of this path:

grocery store shelves to grocery cart to car to house to cupboards to table to my stomach.

The results weren’t pretty. I was killing myself. Obese, high blood pressure, pre-diabetic. Nobody’s fault but mine.

You are in so much more control of your health than you understand. It starts with the choice you make every day, 3-4 times a day.

You can fuel the tank with junk or with high test -the choice really is yours.

It takes more time and effort to plan and prepare meals – I’ll give you that. I would dispute that it costs more money. Have you looked at the price of a box of cereal lately? Add in the cost of the medications you are currently taking or will be taking in the future.

How’s the math looking now?

So a big thank-you to our mystery writer.

There is much wisdom in these words.

Coach Dean

***

I have spent more years than I would like to admit working in a grocery store, but I have observed a lot of people, and food for that matter. The grocery chain that I work for brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars each week from people of all shapes, sizes and socioeconomic status. Hundreds of people throughout the day come through the lines of the checkout area. There are the regulars, first time shoppers, once in a while shoppers and the passing through, so we decided to stop here, shoppers.

With that said, I will begin by saying that there was not a formal study of anything I am about to say, no control group, no variables and certainly no scientist behind it, just some interesting observations from inside the grocery store.

A cashier’s job is monotonous, going through the every day motions of “Hi, how are you? Cash or credit and have a nice day.”

To prevent the mind from going crazy from the beep of the register for hours on end, cashiers begin to focus on the customers and their purchases. I am not saying that you are being “judged” by the staff at the grocery store, they are completely desensitized to any items that you can put on the belt, trust me, and they certainly don’t say things like “oh my god, did you see what SHE bought?”

However, most of the cashiers and baggers that have been in the industry for a while can predict what items you will be buying, just by looking at you. The converse also applies, a cart filled with groceries can easily be matched with its owner.

Looking at someone’s shape, size, behavior and how their kids are acting (if they have any) really tell you a lot about what you are going to find in their shopping cart. The next time you go to the grocery store, look at people and what’s in their carts, and you will see what I mean.

Now, I am happy to say that I only work weekends at the grocery store now-a-days. Still, I see many people that go to Get Fit NH and it makes me laugh, as they make the connection that we train at the same place. At least once a weekend, I bump into someone and they look at their groceries then at me and say “Oh it’s so and so’s birthday so we are having this stuff” or “ I don’t eat like this all the time” or “It’s not for me, I am shopping for so and so.” I couldn’t imagine what they would say if they ever bumped into you, Dean, at the grocery store.

Now I am not saying that I am in any way, shape or form a nutrition guru. In fact, I consider myself to be pretty nutrition impaired. But the
combination of matching people to the groceries they buy and bumping into other Get Fit NH bootcampers at the grocery store has led me to the following conclusions:

You really are what you eat.

and,

If you are embarrassed to have it in your grocery cart, take it out.

Chances are, it isn’t good for you.