As an ‘anti-diet’ fitness instructor, my grocery trips are guided by intuitive eating

Welcome to The Globe’s series, What’s In My Cart?, where we’re asking Canadians how they stock their kitchens. If you’d like to tell us your story, fill out this form or e-mail reporter Daniel Reale-Chin at: realechin@gmail.com

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Before Daniela Luchetta became a personal trainer in early 2020, she had always enjoyed keeping active. She felt healthy and physically capable, but she was overweight – food was always a significant part of her Italian-Canadian family life growing up in Toronto’s Little Italy.

“It felt like a dichotomy, seeing and wanting the skinny bodies I saw on TV in the nineties, and yet growing up in a culture that promoted food as a connector,” says Luchetta.

Later in life, she began to drop the diet of pasta, cutlets and meat she grew up on as she tried different approaches to eating, such as the low-carbohydrate Atkins Diet, Weight Watchers and the heavily restrictive Dr. Poon Metabolic Diet, to no avail.

A few years ago, Luchetta, now 40, came across HAES – Healthy at Every Size – an approach that promotes body positivity and health care for bodies of all body types and rejects diet- and weight-management culture. The principles of HAES are ones that inform her work with Fit Plus, as an “anti-diet” trainer that offers classes meant to inspire people to be active no matter what their weight is.

“There are no goal posts and no measurements,” says Luchetta, whose benchmarks for herself and her clients include strength, endurance, power, mobility and flexibility rather than a number on a scale.

She has embraced intuitive eating (IE), a practice that promotes paying attention to internal body signals of hunger and satiety. For Luchetta, who says she no longer demonizes any particular food, the practice has reduced the shame she’s carried about her body and weight.

As for her meals, she follows what her body craves, prioritizing fresh produce and cooking with whole foods.

How I save money on groceries: I use the Flipp app to compare grocery prices at different stores around me. I can use it to see what’s on sale. I watched my mom flipping through flyers growing up. This is the modern-day version of that.

How I splurge on groceries: I splurge on cheeses that I like and a fancy sourdough seeded bread from a boutique market near me. I usually eat it toasted with olive oil and tomato.

The hardest shopping habit to keep up: Sticking with a shopping list is difficult. Once you’re in the store, it’s easy to get tempted. On Sunday mornings, I usually collect my ingredient list for the week, see what I already have in stock and what I need.

How I’ve changed my eating habits recently: I recently began batch cooking. I make more portion sizes in the meals I prepare so that I’m only cooking three times a week versus seven. I take a look at my schedule and see what days are less busy so that I can cook on those days.

Five items always in my cart:

• Minced garlic – Derlea – $3.99: I buy jars of minced garlic and minced ginger. I make a lot of Asian-style recipes like stir fries, and garlic and ginger are the base of a lot of what I cook. I save so much time by buying them preprepped and minced.
• Vermicelli noodles – Rooster Longkou – $2.70: I love these noodles. They’re easy to throw into some ramen broth and make a basic soup. I also stir fry them with a protein and a lot of vegetables like Brussels sprouts or bok choi.
• Frozen dark sweet cherries – President’s Choice – $4.49: I have a smoothie almost daily. I use any combination of frozen fruit, but I love these in a smoothie because they’re sweet and almost taste like a dessert.
• Sourdough Bird Pan Loaf – Brodflour – $7: This bread is expensive, but it’s worth it for the taste. I’ll have it on the side of a soup, especially tomato soup, and I even use it to make my own croutons for a salad.
• Whole chicken – President’s Choice – $17.25: My mom makes homemade bone broth using the leftovers of a whole chicken. We usually have one for a family dinner and she uses the bones to make a broth, which I’ll take home afterward. It’s great as soup base, or even to add to sauces.

This interview has been edited and condensed.