Since we left the UK on this adventure we have been typically visiting a larger supermarket once a week to stock up and then buying essentials, like bread, in between. I’ve come to realise over the last few months that shopping day fills me with both excitement and dread..!
For years I have shied away from taking our three girls to the supermarket. Instead, I’ve taken advantage of home delivery services and click-and-collect offered by my local UK supermarket, like many other mums who want to avoid dragging moaning/screaming/demanding* (delete as appropriate) children around a store!
With none of these services really available to us anymore we typically have to drive to a large supermarket - we can’t go small because we need to ensure there is parking to fit our plus-size motorhome. (Although we did walk two kilometres to a supermarket in Paris armed with backpacks!) It’s usually a different supermarket each time too as we have moved locations in between. Therefore, this event is usually preceded by much poring over Google Maps to ascertain whether there are height barriers, whether the turn-in looks wide enough and what the parking spots look like. Not something I ever thought of when popping along to Tesco in our old S-Max!
Then there is the shopping itself. I find myself excited by the many new and untried foods and yet when faced with four aisles of cheese or more fresh seafood than I know how to cook (or even name) I am also overwhelmed (and more than once have become snappy with children and husband!).
Shopping has become a tightrope balance of: ‘getting the job done’ by making snap decisions about what meals to make for the week before the children (and Andy) lose the will to live (!), and wanting to explore all the new foods on offer. We are trying to be culturally adventurous and cook new things, support local producers, eat healthily and be environmentally friendly, whilst trying to keep within our budget. There is often much use of Google translate to help decipher ingredients, and of mental arithmetic to convert euros to pounds as I’m not yet thinking in our new currency!
We both love trying new foods and are trying to gradually bring our girls on this journey too. Taking them round the supermarket with us seems to encourage this. However, we have learnt that this adventurousness needs to be balanced with also picking what they are familiar with.
It wasn’t until I stepped back from our usual shopping habits that I realised I’ve been food shopping on auto-pilot for some time; sleep-walking through making the same choices each week. I confess to having become somewhat numb to what is in our food and where it comes from. Shopping in such an unfamiliar way takes more time but also requires me to read labels more carefully. In doing so I am (hopefully) making better and more informed choices that mean we spend more wisely and eat more healthily.
(Image credit: Carrefour, via www.fruitnet.com/asiafruit/article/175672/carrefour-adopts-new-retail-approach)
One big difference I have noticed is in the fruit and vegetable aisles. I have been so used to buying whatever fruit and veg we want, no matter what the time of year, without really questioning what this means for the produce. How have strawberries been forced to grow out of season, how many food miles have our grapes travelled, how fresh really bananas when they have been flown across the world? These are questions I now find myself asking.
Across Belgium, France and Spain we’ve found that fruit and veg in the supermarket tends to be primarily in-season produce, and largely is from either the country (or even region) we are in, or neighbouring ones. It seems fresher, less pre-packaged and better value. Whilst this means some of the girls’ favourites are not available, the produce we have been buying tastes so good!
We’ve also not seen many processed foods, like ready meals, available. Instead, most supermarkets have fresh fish, meat and deli counters – even in small city supermarkets. The meat we have been buying tastes better, whilst also often being cheaper, and things like sausages and ham have a higher-meat content. Again, this is making me question what impact these differences are having on our health and well-being back in the UK.
This whole process has been a great wake-up call for us. Shopping and eating in this different way we are feeling (and seeing) the benefits. Our girls are enjoying food more and trying new things more readily. Their behaviour has also improved and we have discussed whether this is down to eating foods that are less processed. We can’t say for certain but it’s definitely something we’re pondering. I’m also finally shifting some of the post-baby weight I have been carrying far too long!
This new way of shopping is by no means easy, especially when we have our three girls in tow and it takes an hour or more. Our latest life-savers on shopping day have been both the dinky-sized trolleys offered by many supermarkets for the kids to push, as well Carrefour’s genius trolleys that combine a Little Tykes style plastic car and a trolley! These seem to buy us extra shopping time as the girls are pre-occupied (as drivers and passenger)! These, alongside a ‘live’ shopping list stored on Google Keep which means we can split up in an attempt to speed up the process, have been helping curtail stress levels! We also love the free water cooler and seating area we have found mid-Carrefour on a number of occasions!
(Image credit: www.alibaba.com/showroom/shopping-toy-car-shopping-trolley.html)
The trip typically ends with lunch in the supermarket car park, and a Tetris-style challenge to unpack and store all the purchased food! We have yet to buy more than I can stash away, although food often does end up in random cupboards, stored alongside pens and pencils or jigsaws!
I have come to accept that ‘shopping day’ will be just that – a full day out by the time we have unhooked and driven there, shopped and put things away and then driven on. I was feeling challenged by this – by the amount of stress it was causing, and also how it was taking us away from perhaps visiting other places or spending time with our girls. However, I am coming to understand that this is part of this different way of doing life. Going at a slower pace is enabling us to explore new things and make more considered purchases. Now we are taking the time to think about what we’re really putting into our bodies we’re making better choices – and are physically and mentally better for it! All in all, it’s given us more than just food for thought!
Comments