Saturday, January 31, 2015

Easy life hack - shopping healthier

We all know our tribal lizard brains don't work very well.   We are creatures of habit, and have built-in predilections to indulge in all sorts of things that aren't good for us.

You know how when you go to Whole Foods and buy the organic veggies and other stuff, and you struggle whether to buy the frozen pizza, bottles of juice, or even the marginally-healthier (maybe) cookies and such?  Your lizard brain REALLY wants the salty, fatty, sugary good stuff. 

Rather than giving in to full indulgence, or redirecting to the regular store (where you're already conditioned to buy the big bag of Doritos, a pack of hot dogs, a bag of mini-Snickers, Oreos, and a frozen lasagna), only buy healthy stuff when you're at the healthy store, but as you finish buy ONE small goodie, and eat it as you leave.  You build a habit to reward your lizard brain with what it wants, but only if it behaves.  Teach yourself to NEVER buy snack food at the convenience store -- just don't go inside, or steel your will before your do.

For me, my routine treat is dark chocolate.  Chocolate is really not bad for you, and doesn't have too much sugar, but I really like it.  Now, when I'm paying $100 for my two modest bags of veggies and some organic milk and cheese, my brain is happily relishing a $1.50 worth of chocolate, rather than telling me we should be saving money at Walmart (where, by chance, there are Oreos).  My wife likes a little baggie of roasted nuts from the bulk aisle, which works too.

Try it.  Tell me if it works for you.

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