Lifestyle: My First Trip to Supermarket Heaven

December 01, 2014

When it comes to shopping organically, some people get defrayed because of the cost and location of stores. There's supermarkets around every corner, but not Whole Foods to Trader Joes. Some people have certain items that they always buy organically - produce, milk, cheese, whatever - and some items they just pick up at the supermarket. It's great to make an effort to buy some foods organically, however that means making two trips: one to an organic food store, and one to a basic supermarket.

What are some other reasons you (or maybe just me) love Whole Foods? The hot bar, say what? Yes! A pre-made buffet of delicious, wholesome food awaits in the pre-made food section, along with prepackaged sandwiches and salads not far from the bakery. What if all of the wonders (including toiletries) of a regular supermarket, the organic variety of a Whole Foods, the hot buffet bar, the baristas of a Starbucks, and the sandwich makers of a Subway? Well, just go to Wegmans!

Wegmans is a family-owned super-duper-market chain located in Chestnut Hill, Burlington, and Northborough, Massachusetts. I haven't been paid or compensated to do this post, after I took my first visit to the one in Burlington I felt inclined to write about its wonder.

I spent about two hours total there. Yes, most of it was me in awe just standing with my mouth gaping, but the rest of the time was spent checking off my to-do list: my Nutrition & Physical Performance "grocery store" analysis assignment for class, shopping for food for my dorm, and picking out dinner for that night. Being in Wegmans helped with my assignment because the new environment made it more fun, and having the assignment made me realize how much a variety the store had.

The assignment was to make graphs comparing how much fat, calories, sodium, types of fat, ingredients, etc of different types of milk (2%, skim, whole), cereals (high fiber, low fiber), peanut butter (natural, reduced fat), etc. Wegmans is a bit like Forever 21 in the sense that there's not one place for everything. In Forever 21, you can't just find a white cardigan, you can find a clean-cut one in the preppy section, a lace and fringy one in the boho section, and one with a varsity letter one in the sporty section. At Wegmans, you can't just find pepperoni pizza. You can find multigrain crust and vegan cheese pizza in the organic section, square or circle shapes of pepperoni pizza of the brands you love in the supermarket section, or you can find a fresh-baked artisan crust with pepperoni or whatever topping you want in the made-to-order buffet section.

What does this all have to do with healthy eating? One of the principles of heathy eating is variety. If you eat PB&J three meals a day, you'll get sick. I know none of my readers love PB&J THAT much, however variety keeps eating healthy interesting and rewarding. Just meandering the halls of a new grocery store will inspire you. I saw kale and turkey sausage soup that inspired me to make a kale and chicken sausage frittata.

Some people are afraid of trying to buckle down and eat right because they're afraid that it'll be bland. If they took one trip to Wegmans, Trader Joes, Whole Foods, or any place of the sort they'd be proven wrong. Yes, eating your fruits and veggies is important, however there's a new slough of superfoods out there just waiting to be experimented with. Kale, quinoa, pumpkin seeds, chia, flax hemp, spinach, cranberries, almond, acai, are just some. For example, look at these delectable kale and quinoa cakes I gobbled right up when I got home: