I love shopping at Wegmans’ Grocery Stores and Trader Joes but I find that I’m continuously triggered by their displays and choices. Even with a list, impulse buying and grabbing unhealthy food is hard for me to control.

My goal for the next 40 days is to stop eating refined sugar and flour and at Wegmans’ the baking aisle which leads to the deli aisle which leads eventually to the snack aisle is too much temptation. So I’ve started shopping at the local Coop which is set up with healthier options. Local produce, nuts, seeds, protein powders, dried fruit, whole wheat sour dough bread baked on the premises, organic dairy and eggs from free range chickens are available along with local dairy options. The meat counter is like an old fashioned butcher’s shop where grass fed beef and free range chicken along with pork from humanely treated hogs is handed over by an actual person. There is one snack aisle which I can avoid.

Based on past experience I decided that shopping at the Coop versus a mainstream store would be too expensive. To test that decision I went to the Coop with a list and a budgeted amount that I would normally use for Wegmans’. I was surprised to see that I spent the same amount on healthier options. So for me, the local health food store is a better place to buy food. At least for the next 40 days and then I think it will become a new habit.