Grocery Wars and the Art of Consciousness: Making Good (and Bad) Food Choices

I'm not the healthiest person by any stretch of the imagination, but damn it, I try! When I go to the grocery store, I like to fill my cart with nutritious, healthy foods. It makes me feel good about myself to know that I made decent food choices in a world dominated by preservatives-riddled, sugary junk foods. I felt that sense of accomplishment today at the store when I went to the checkout lane. Here were my groceries:




I probably could do without the processed meats: the beef jerky, the turkey bacon. But, I mostly stuck to the essentials: that's a big ass bag of kale in the upper right hand corner. I got a tub of baby spinach, some carrots, radishes, onions, avocados, lots of tomatoes, a head of cabbage.

It's funny, as I was waiting to be rung up, I happened to glance over at what the people behind me were buying. And, yes, I took a picture (discreetly, of course). I know, I know... It's none of my damn business what people are buying, but I couldn't help it, honestly.




Now, I'm not trying to take the moral high ground here. Trust me, I can get down and dirty with the best of them: chocolate, cheesecake, ice cream... I love it all. But, I think it's good to reflect on our food choices every now and then. We should absolutely take pride in our wise decisions about food and learn from our misguided ones. But, we can't do that - we can't finally get real about what we're putting in our bellies - unless we open up our eyes to the reality of things. In this regard, consciousness is the art of staying alert. I, for one, intend to be a lot more mindful.