The WAL-MART Diet!

One of the biggest problems I have with eating a good diet is that some of the foods mentioned on here are not carried in my particular region. While some of the meatless products may be the best on the market my particular area may not have a store with a contract to carry that particular product. As I am very short on time I try to get all of my shopping done at one store and Wal-Mart is the easiest for me.

The here is the challenge: Create a clean diet on things found only at Wally World. Wal-Mart, much like a bad rash, can be found in everywhere. Their product line is kept cheap by buying in astronomically large volumes and selling essentially the same stuff at each store. Granted there will be some local influence found in the aisles, but by and large it is the same stuff. Even the stores themselves are formatted the same so you may find a product mentioned in the same aisle in your local Wal-Mart.

Here is a suggested format:
Fat Carb Protein Fiber
Detour Whey Protein Bar 160cal 4.5 16g 15g 1g
Oatmeal: Weight Control 160cal 3g 29g 7g 6g

:eat:

Stuff I buy at Wal-Mart off the top of my head:

Cottage cheese
Lean ground turkey and beef
Boneless skinless chicken tenderloins or breasts
turkey breast meat
turkey sausage or bacon
eggs
canned and bagged tuna and salmon
jerky
nuts of various kinds
Rolled oats (that weight control stuff is OK, but you can do better)
Apples
Bananas
Berries
Frozen berries
cucumbers
fresh spinach bags
carrots
sweet potatoes
onions
garlic
red and green bell peppers
various other peppers
fresh spices
canned vegetables like green beans
black beans
chili beans

Good grief, the possibilities are pretty diverse.

The main thing my Wal-Mart is lacking is fresh or frozen fish like tuna steaks or salmon fillets.

As Berardi says, stay mostly at the boarders of the grocery section. The aisles contain mostly the processed crap. :)

Don't expect people to create a diet for you, though, read the stickies. I know you can find enough healthy stuff in a Super Wal-Mart to eat very well, because I do a lot of shopping there myself.

The idea here was to garner some pearls of wisdom from others. Finding a pre-designed clean diet is not terribly hard on this site. Several posts already have very good diets detailed out. I was attempting start a dialog of foodstuffs that have a place in a clean diet at a good price. Just saying “I buy fish, chicken, oatmeal and power bars” does not convey any significant details. We all know that those foods are desirable. But what brand of oatmeal are you buying? Perhaps it has more protein and less carbs that the brand I have been buying.

I will do another search on the forum and see if this has already been done. Previously when I looked I did not find a string like this one. Granted I did not spend allot of time conducting the search so I apologize if it had.
:tu:

The idea here was to garner some pearls of wisdom from others. Finding a pre-designed clean diet is not terribly hard on this site. Several posts already have very good diets detailed out. I was attempting start a dialog of foodstuffs that have a place in a clean diet at a good price. Just saying “I buy fish, chicken, oatmeal and power bars” does not convey any significant details. We all know that those foods are desirable. But what brand of oatmeal are you buying? Perhaps it has more protein and less carbs that the brand I have been buying.

I will do another search on the forum and see if this has already been done. Previously when I looked I did not find a string like this one. Granted I did not spend allot of time conducting the search so I apologize if it had.
:tu:

So, basically, you want others to do all your work for you? :)

EDIT: Your question about brands for almost all the stuff I listed is nearly irrelevant, because it is whole, unprocessed stuff. What brand of sweet potatoes for instance? Who cares? :D I use rolled oats, which is the same thing as Quaker Old Fashioned Oats, but I generally buy the cheapest which is often a store labeled box. Same stuff.

Once you start getting into the processed stuff (like your Weight Control Quaker stuff, which isn't horrible, but still an inferior choice vs the flexibility rolled oats gives you), then brands might make a difference.

Had I asked that somebody build me a diet, or that they post their diet for me to emulate then I would agree with you. Initially I did not fear that this string would be seen as a noobie trying to “have others do the work”. If that had been the desired outcome I would simply post my current diet and ask for it to be critiqued. This is not the case at all and I am sorry you have taken this idea to be some convoluted attempt at doing so.

You are right that brands are not terribly important when it comes to some things like potatoes and such. However, things such as beef Jerky can very considerably correct? I too eat Jerky as one of my meal 2 and meal 4 foods. Good stuff. It also forces you to chew more so you are less inclined to gorging. I buy the 98% fat free. The real down side is the sodium content. But 15g protein in 1 once serving is worth it I have found.

Have you found or used the Detour bars? As mentioned above they have an ok profile. In a pinch I can eat one on the way to the O.R. when I know that I will be unable to eat again for 4-5 hours. Again, 15g protein at only 160 cal. Buy a box and give them a try.

Thanks for the replies. I hope I have alleviated your concerns.
;)

I think you'll find most protein or energy bars are full of sugar or sugar alcohols. Not exactly the best. I used to eat them frequently, but have backed away and done much better for it.

You can do worse, so in a pinch, it's better than a true candy bar. I personally wouldn't make them a staple.

As for Jerky, my favorite store bought is Jack Link's Turkey. Regular beef store bought stuff for the most part is like cardboard, although I still eat it on occasion. Home made is much better (and often much healthier).

I had no idea that Wal-Mart carried so many of the foods that we eat. That's pretty cool. :tucool:

Mannishboy, is it cheaper for certain items at Wal-mart than the supermarket?

I love wally world!

I prefer to shop at wally world for the majority of my foods :eat: , but it's just so crowded, I usually leave and go somewhere where i can think in piece.

Any clean, natural, unprocessed food will be just as good as any other. The brands don't matter. Raw oats. Quaker's a good brand. But any other brand that packages real raw oats with no added sweetners and crap is great as well. Fresh fruits and vegetables are fresh fruits and vegetables. Canned fish and meat is all good as long as nothing is added but preservatives. Would probably be better fresh and absent preservatives. But if you need to buy canned, it's totally fine. Olive oil is olive oil. Most anything that Mannish Boy mentioned available at Walmart is excellent regardless of the brand that it comes as. So, look for those foods and you'll be golden. :tucool:

I had no idea that Wal-Mart carried so many of the foods that we eat. That's pretty cool. :tucool:

Mannishboy, is it cheaper for certain items at Wal-mart than the supermarket?


Kroger is the big chain here, and Wal-Mart is often cheaper on stuff. For instance, I just got back from Kroger, and the tub of cottage cheese I got was $2.89 on sale. Regular price at Wal-Mart for the same brand is $2.69.

The selection isn't as broad, though.

There are tradeoffs. Really depends on my mood. I used to love to shop at Pubix here because it wasn't as crowded and didn't have the stupid cards (another advantage for Wal-Mart), but when Wal-Mart opened I think that was the last straw for that particular store and it closed. Publix was definitely more expensive, but the stores were nicer than either Wal-Mart or Kroger.

I really wish we had a Super Target near me. Those groceries aren't bad either, and they carry a bit better produce than Wal-Mart.

BTW, Wal-Mart is making a big push into organics (http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/mar2006/nf20060329_6971.htm) at reasonable prices. They've committed to increasing shelf space. I couldn't personally care less about whether organic stuff comes from a small farm or a huge industrial farm growing it under organic rules myself. All I care about is quality and nutrition, so more power to them.

Walmart... ouch.

But even they have SOME decent products if you look at the NI. I'd stay away from their fitness supplements though because its all crap.

Steve

I buy all my food and all my supplements, save why protein, from walmart. It's got a massive selection of food. Is this a joke? :)

The bars I buy from there are Met-Rx. I actually detest Detour bars now and find that Metrx bars not only taste better, but have superior ingredients in them anyway. Walmart sells both and at as cheap a price as I can buy anywhere, with the full-size metrx at $1.97/each.

Stuff I buy at Wal-Mart off the top of my head:

Cottage cheese
Lean ground turkey and beef
Boneless skinless chicken tenderloins or breasts
turkey breast meat
turkey sausage or bacon
eggs
canned and bagged tuna and salmon
jerky
nuts of various kinds
Rolled oats (that weight control stuff is OK, but you can do better)
Apples
Bananas
Berries
Frozen berries
cucumbers
fresh spinach bags
carrots
sweet potatoes
onions
garlic
red and green bell peppers
various other peppers
fresh spices
canned vegetables like green beans
black beans
chili beans



That looks suspiciously like a list of foods that are essential to a healthy diet. :shock:

While you're there next time, could you just get two of everything and have some sent here!?

:)

That looks suspiciously like a list of foods that are essential to a healthy diet. :shock:

While you're there next time, could you just get two of everything and have some sent here!?

:)


There's some stuff that others would add that I just haven't worked myself up to liking to eat yet. Brocolli for instance. I've stretched myself to learn to each spinach (only raw so far, as a salad). Brocolli I just can't quite get to, although I'm working on it and stuff like squash.

:)

At wally world today I found a box of 16 4oz Tilapia fillets, 21 g. of protein ea. Individually packacked so they are easy to pull out of the freezer, they'd probably zap fry well. 9.78US for the box.

Kroger is the big chain here, and Wal-Mart is often cheaper on stuff. For instance, I just got back from Kroger, and the tub of cottage cheese I got was $2.89 on sale. Regular price at Wal-Mart for the same brand is $2.69.

The selection isn't as broad, though.

Kroger dairy woops Walmart dairy anyways. I can't even get fat free cottage cheese half the time at Walmart and it doesn't taste half as good. I have yet to find anything close to the store brand, low carb yogurt(4g carbs) that Kroger has. I can actually have yogurt/CC/PB as a protein fat meal.

Kroger dairy woops Walmart dairy anyways. I can't even get fat free cottage cheese half the time at Walmart and it doesn't taste half as good. I have yet to find anything close to the store brand, low carb yogurt(4g carbs) that Kroger has. I can actually have yogurt/CC/PB as a protein fat meal.

That low carb yogurt from Kroger (which I'd actually argue probably isn't "yogurt" per se) is unmatched anywhere that I've found. It's got very high protein for "yogurt" and low carbs. It has added whey to get the protein IIRC. It's a good product :tu: I used to take 2 of them and mix in a scoop of nitrean to make them even more high protein.

(If you notice on the label, I don't think it says yogurt anywhere, and that's probably because it's not created like regular yogurt and probably has only low content of the bacteria that most yogurts have I suspect...it does include some, but I'm kind of suspicious due to the lack of the name).

As to the rest of Wal-Mart's dairy, they've got some stuff Kroger doesn't have, but they don't have the breadth as I said above.