Healthy Holiday Tip of the Day: Shop Early, Shop Fueled and Shop with a List

How do you feel when you try to squeeze in a trip to the grocery store on the way home from work?   You’re pressed for time, it’s far later than you thought it would be by the time you roll into the parking lot and your kids, who are hungry after swim practice are whining in the back seat. Not exactly the best circumstance to do an efficiently timed and planned grocery shop. Compare that to a Saturday morning when the kids are at soccer, you’ve gotten in your morning spin at the gym and have fueled properly afterwards. The same applies to holiday shopping. If you try to squeeze in a frantic trip at the last minute, not knowing what you’re getting or where you’re getting it and you’re in a unpleasant, stressed out mood, it’s not going to be pretty. What’s the solution:

• Shop early! Early in the season, and early in the day, if you can.  Less crowds and more time on your hands to make it feel less like a ‘now or never’ endeavor.
• Shop fueled!  Do not go in hungry.  Eating a balanced, Paleo meal before you go to elicit a positive mental attitude is definitely in your best interest.  Focus!
• Shop with a list!  Know what you’re getting, for whom and from where.  Sure, it’s a lot of fun to peruse the shoe sale or linger at the book store, but you’re on a mission! Save the former two for later.

Now get out there, armed and dangerous, and get that shopping done!