Supermarket shopping

I have to live with a kitchen half full of higher carb food as that's what my husband chooses to buy and eat, but this very rarely tempts me at all. When he retired he took over the shopping and cooking and decided eventiually to shop online, and since I can't drive and we only have a small village shop, after I retired and no longer had access to work transport I was limited for the most part to having to eat what he chose to buy. So when I was diagnosed with T2, it was a huge relief to be able to insist on a lower carb diet for health reasons, and eventually to save arguments I decided I'd do my own online shopping and let him carry on as he wished.
Shopping this way means I can look at nutritional labelling where necessary so I can make the best choices diet wise, do my shopping any time of the day or night at my leisure - and I can also avoid some of the annoyances that @Brunneria has mentioned!

Most of what I eat I've always eaten, or preferred to, so I didn't have too much trouble (re-)adapting my shopping list for essentials (e,g, meat, fish, full fat dairy, veggies and a bit of fruit) after I was diagnosed as T2. And I've always - in the main - cooked from scratch. Originally there were some things I resented having to give up, but I've never actually craved for them, and I can now justify some previous treats as being "essentials"!

Being a long term migraine sufferer, some of which were triggered by foods, actually taught me in an extremely painful way to be very wary of any food that was "bad" for me, which helped a lot when needing to avoid any of my previous higher carb favourites.

Robbity

Our shopping usually starts with the butchers, then we move on to the fishmonger, followed by the green grocer and finally a deli for cheese, salami, olives and such like. From time to time we go into smaller chain stores for nuts and seeds. In every one, we have a short chat, holidays/weather etc., The whole trip is a pleasure. There are occasional visits to Tesco for washing up liquid, loo rolls, shampoo and things like that, but we no more walk down the cake and crisp aisles lamenting their loss than we go down the pet food aisle wishing we had a cat again. Support small, local businesses!
Sally

I only go down the aisles that are relevant, I love the smell of the bakery, but don't go near it, but I do have a young person here and she asks me for certain items, which I do get, out of love.
I like the fish section, fruit and veg, cold meats, cheese and some meat too and always trying to look out for offers and bargains.

Mel dCP said:

Husbeast went to Lidl for bread and milk, and came home with a telescope. The struggle is real

Click to expand...

I like his style, winner

Agree that now I am used to this way of eating (lcHF) the aisles of **** that make up most of the supermarket are not in my line of sight and don't trigger me anymore into wanting it.
Had a very bad experience yesterday since I was hungry enough to buy a pack of sliced cheese o my long walk home from work then after tasting it and finding it tasted of nothing, I read the packet to discover it was something called 'vegan cheese'. That was not cheese and should not have been next to the real thing! It was so plastic like I don't think it needed to be in the chiller cabinet.
But yes it is frustrating to find that our food system is so processed carb=centric.

Robinredbreast said:

I only go down the aisles that are relevant, I love the smell of the bakery, but don't go near it, but I do have a young person here and she asks me for certain items, which I do get, out of love.
I like the fish section, fruit and veg, cold meats, cheese and some meat too and always trying to look out for offers and bargains.

Click to expand...

Taking my young people out is a lot harder as they are in training for the pester power, guilt tripping Olympics !

NicoleC1971 said:

Taking my young people out is a lot harder as they are in training for the pester power, guilt tripping Olympics !

Click to expand...

My one is nearly 19, so probably a little older than yours.
ps Shopping is cheaper when I go on my own

carty said:

The problem with shopping at Lidl is my husband !! The middle aisles Why do we have to spend 10 minutes gazing at chain saws when we have one already
Carol

Click to expand...

I feel your pain here @carty
My Husband is exactly the same, every time we go to Lidl we come out with something like a chainsaw or drill bit set, or loppers
He just can't resist them.

There is a song called - I believe 'Aldi lidl' which is very funny and is making the rounds of folk clubs.
I can shoot around most supermarkets far faster than most people as there are whole aisles I don't need to go down - and although income is restricted, it seems adequate for what I need and even the occasional trip down the middle of Lidl.

We did out fortnight shopping online yesterday, it took less than ten minutes with our list we have been using since we have started doing it.

It will be delivered today in the delivery window we selected, with the driver bringing it into our kitchen for us. The cost is less than $10.00 for this service.

We only have a couple of butchers in our town (7 miles away) and a couple of supermarkets - well 3, but one is on the main street and there is no parking there. I can't walk around any shops so when I do go shopping it is in a wheelchair with my son pushing. We have a list (which, as mentioned in a previous post we keep in a prominent position in the kitchen to add items as they come to mind) and I arrange it according to the aisles in the supermarket we usually use (Tesco's aisles are narrow and difficult to manoeuvre around so we don't often go there). My son then shoots me around the shop at a rate of knots which I wouldn't be capable of, even when I could walk. What's on the list, we pick up. What's not - we don't. Even if I do think of, or see, something I want, I usually wave my arm in a futile effort to attract his attention or reach out for it. I used to take an hour to go around the supermarket, now we take about 20 - 25 minutes and we are usually home within the hour, unless I go to a butcher's shop (the one with a car park so that I can actually walk into it).

It's very efficient. Everyone having difficulty with still wanting to buy all those bad-for-you things, needs a son like mine!

I’m type 1 and only found out back in July this year. I also find it hard to do shopping now, trying to avoid fruit and yogurts like mad and still buying the normal items for my husband. I do get bored of having the same sort of meals everyday.

I try to do most shopping online, Waitrose is wonderful as the delivery men always ask if they can put it all away for me (I'm almost a full time wheelchair user) and I usually say yes please. Then I have a vegetable box delivered most weeks, local fresh fruit and vegetables that are in season. I'm looking forward to M&S deliveries.
Should my beloved want something different he gets it whilst he's at work. He also does most of the cooking bless him so it can be some days or even weeks before I look in the refrigerator or larder. Can't remember last time I actually physically shopped for food. It does get easier the longer you are low carbohydrate and also getting in the habit of muting the television when the advertising comes on so you don't get sucked into advertising hype.
However my beloved when he goes South to see his daughter seems drawn to Lidl/Aldi/B&M and comes home with garish coloured sweeties and peculiar tools that we don't need.
Don't despair everything gets easier in time and you'll find your new normal shopping list bears no resemblance to your old one.

Resurgam said:

There is a song called - I believe 'Aldi lidl' which is very funny and is making the rounds of folk clubs.

Click to expand...

Edited by moderator to remove link to video which contains expletives.

A later post that included the same link has been deleted.

Mr_Pot said:

Make a list of what you want, preferably in the order of the aisles, don't wander about, just get the things on the list. Or shop on line.

Click to expand...

My local Supermarket move things around so much in their bid to push certain foods Sometimes even their own staff do not know where they are!

Annb said:

We only have a couple of butchers in our town (7 miles away) and a couple of supermarkets - well 3, but one is on the main street and there is no parking there. I can't walk around any shops so when I do go shopping it is in a wheelchair with my son pushing. We have a list (which, as mentioned in a previous post we keep in a prominent position in the kitchen to add items as they come to mind) and I arrange it according to the aisles in the supermarket we usually use (Tesco's aisles are narrow and difficult to manoeuvre around so we don't often go there). My son then shoots me around the shop at a rate of knots which I wouldn't be capable of, even when I could walk. What's on the list, we pick up. What's not - we don't. Even if I do think of, or see, something I want, I usually wave my arm in a futile effort to attract his attention or reach out for it. I used to take an hour to go around the supermarket, now we take about 20 - 25 minutes and we are usually home within the hour, unless I go to a butcher's shop (the one with a car park so that I can actually walk into it).

It's very efficient. Everyone having difficulty with still wanting to buy all those bad-for-you things, needs a son like mine!

Click to expand...

My beloved is like that whatever shop we are in except book shops, then he leaves me in the craft section or the cafe with a coffee and comes back with a huge pile of books that he "needs"!

Robbity said:

I can look at nutritional labelling where necessary so I can make the best choices diet wise

Click to expand...

I am a compulsive label reader, both online and instore. I am hugely grateful that these days we have such informative labels. Eating low carb only a few years ago would have been so much harder.

Tend to agree with the online view for simplicity. Not for avoiding temptation in my case as my food likes have shrunk drastically with 4 years of LC. Wouldn't trust online for picking my meat or fish but meat has lost its appeal - seems I liked the gravy or apple sauce etc as much as the meat. Shopping is relatively simple for my likes - salad, salad and salad, avocados and tinned mackerel oh and eggs now the fox has eaten our hens. Sometimes go mad and buy cheese but that needs me to try first.

ianpspurs said:

Wouldn't trust online for picking my meat or fish but meat has lost its appeal

Click to expand...

We order our meat over the phone mainly from from the butchers we go to, we do buy some meat and fish from our online store.

Never had a problem so far.

Tipetoo said:

We order our meat over the phone mainly from from the butchers we go to, we do buy some meat and fish from our online store.

Never had a problem so far.

Click to expand...

I might if there was a butcher within 20 miles or if I was in Aus like you.