This morning my sweetie and I went to Super Wally World to do our weekly grocery shopping. As we were checking out, I couldn't help but gleefully noticed that our cart didn’t contain anything unhealthy. We were loaded down with tons of fresh produce, whole wheat and fiber rich grains, low-fat dairy, and lean meats.

Yes, there was one bag of Dove dark chocolate in the cart, but dark chocolate has been clinically proven to help raise HDL, which is something my sweetie needs, and it’s been proven to keep me happy and sane, which I need. We use it for medicinal purposes and it’s carefully administered at no more than two small squares a day.

I glanced around at the other shoppers checking out and noticed many like me who desperately need to lose weight, and the amount of junk food I saw was disgusting. Cases of sodas, cookies, ice-cream, processed frozen foods, and so on. Their carts are the type of carts that I used to have every week as I continued to moan about why I was so fat.

The reason I know that I will lose this weight once and for all is because I have really turned a corner when it comes to food. I love food and always will, but I no longer want that junk food in my life. Not when I can create healthy and tasty food, which my body will thank me for by dropping these unwanted pounds and improving my health.

How many of you have noticed how your weight loss is now controlled by what goes into your shopping cart? How many have converted to a completely healthy way of shopping or are you still struggling to gain that control over those prepackaged evil-doers calling your name?

My carts the same way now except it'll also have a 6 pack of soda now and then- my husband still will have soda with his lunch at work- drives me crazy but what can you do when he's at a good weight for his height?

I see the same thing- looking at mom's with 2 or 3 kids and full of candy and soda and chips and all sorts of junk. The parents are already overweight and the kids are all chubby... Maybe the youngest isn't but I think to myself that the youngest will catch up anyways...

It's a shame really

You are doing an awesome job! I on the other hand have just started my new lifestyle and I am still struggling with what to buy and what to eat. I love my fruit but I am not big on the veggies I am trying hard to make changes and to introduce veggies into my diet I am hoping that I will learn to like them I don't know if that is going to happen but I am giving it an honest try.

I am doing pretty good with cutting out the diet soda and tea I drink mostly water now but I still have some diet soda I would like to one day not drink that at all. Wish me luck.

Thanks for your post it really gives me hope and inspiration that I will get there one day. I am still trying to learn how to put my food together I guess I will learn it by trial and error. Thanks you and have a wonderful day

Congrats on your progress with the shopping cart!

After reading your post, I realize I would LOVE to be at that point! I am still haunted by the pre packaged little devils! They say "Eve! Just buy me, one little snacky cake won't hurt...or even 12 will be fine!"

Another road block is my hubby. He has always been able to eat whatever he wants and he absolutely despises vegetables. He's not so much a junk food addict, but he really likes pizza and tacos and chinese food and SODA. And he is somewhat a bit of a cook himself and he likes to keep big tubs of shortening and bleached flour and sugar around the house. And my nemesis, cheese! He tells me that I need to just have some 'self control' and not eat the things that are just for him. But It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that I don't have much self control or I wouldn't be at this unhealthy weight! Argh....I am going to sit him down tonight and try to come to some kind of compromise where I can have a 'no fail environment' at home.

To be able to go grocery shopping with my hubby and only have healthy things in our cart would be amazing. I hope to one day be at that status! Congrats again!

My cart is often similar and it makes me so happy to go shopping. I have to go because I need more fruit, I need more good food, rather than going for crap. Actually, forget that -- most of the crap was takeout!

In previous attempts to lose I would still rely on pre-packaged foods for late night work shifts but now I've even gotten rid of those for the most part (some on hand for emergencies). I find that after the first month or so, the pre-packaged stuff just doesn't taste as good as mine.

And I love what I can eat when I make it myself (pizza, burgers, etc.)!

Oh I can definitely overeat the healthy stuff. My weight loss isn't guided by what is in my cart, its guided by how much of my cart ends up in my mouth

My grocery shopping is pretty automatic. Most of my groceries consist of fruits/veggies (aka produce). What isn't produce is beans (canned and dried), grains, some frozen veggies, some frozen fruit, raw almond butter (mostly for my husband), raw almonds, sprouted grain bread (mostly for my husband), dark chocolate (mostly for my husband but I do indulge in a piece here and there), natural corn tortilla chips (for my husband), sometimes tempeh, sometimes tofu and some soy yogurt (mostly for my husband).

Most of us know how to lose weight...what to buy, eat, prepare. That knowing doesn't make it easy doing it!!

Glad you had a good trip to the market and hope it continues.

@mystical, it took me a long while to learn to love veggies. I had to learn how to cook them and how use different spices to make them yummy. I'm still learning because I know that eating lots of veggies is the best way to eat high volume with little calories. Robin taught me that.

I took myself off diet soda at home several years ago and just recently gave them up when eating out. I still sometimes crave a diet coke, but after reading so many studies on how bad it is for me, I just decided that it was something I had to let go of. Not saying I will never have a diet coke, but I aim to try.

@Eve and others who have husbands and children that aren't living the same lifestyle, I want to acknowledge how much harder you must all work to stay on plan. I'm very fortunate that my boyfriend will eat anything I cook and he is very supportive and goes out of his way not to throw me off track.

I do have a 17 year old daughter who has the worst eating habits. She is gone for the summer and that has helped me greatly to jump start myself into healthy eating. I know that once she is back home there will be junk in the house. Most of it isn't a problem for me and I will just have to exercise my new found self-control. However, I've already told her that mint Oreos are NOT allowed in this house and if she wants them she better find somewhere else to eat them.

This is one reason why I love my Sam's Club membership! I buy all my health stuff in bulk and freeze away! I make my own pre-cooked meals for on the run. I do rely on some stuff from the Schwans guy. They have this awsome mini baked potatoes and grilled chicken for fajitas. And they have these great deserts for one and they are tasty.

My girls are pretty good about eatting right, but they mostly have to eat what I give them. Fruits and veggies, granola and yogert. They do get sweet treats but we try to limit them. They get sugared up enough when they go to my mom's house. They graze all day so I just make sure that I provide healthy stuff for them to munch on, (and I don't feel so bad when I eat their left overs!)

Parents should have to take some sort of nurtion class upon feeding their kids solid food. I think that it's disgusting to see babys who can't walk eatting french fries.

I know exactly what you mean, I often catch myself leering into other people's carts to see what piles of junk they are buying. The amount of pop people go through ... quite often, I see one 24-pack but THREE of them loaded up, with tons of munchies, and stuff from the bakery .... cookies, muffins, danishes. You name it - they've got it.

Errr ... uhhh ... except for the lack of ice cream ... errr ... uhhh ... well, not anymore!

I'm proud of my carts these days. For a while, I was embarrassed to have a cart full of healthy stuff as if the checker was going to think, "who is she kidding?" But now I'm proud of it. Aside from the diet coke, which I am NOT giving up, it's all good stuff and it makes me happy.

I am very pleased that we can bipass the junk food aisles altogether now; we stick mostly to the fruits, veggies, lean meats, dairy, and whole grains, etc. I don't feel odd one bit going to the counter with healthy foods -- I am so grateful that I can now wade thru the maze of temptations and snub my nose at them. These days, I am proud of what ISN'T in my cart ...