How To Conserve Energy: Kitchen Edition #7 (unloading groceries)

Personally this is the one that I have struggled with the most as my family has grown and the amount of food we consume has exponentially increased! For the first four or so years of having kids my husband and I did not own a car. Schlepping grocery bags was part of our life. I hurt constantly so I started to develop an actual fear of lifting the bags. As time went on my husband did more and more of the lifting. Okay let's be honest, all of the lifting! Through the program at Constance Lethbridge I've learned about kinesiophobia and how our brain sometimes learns that harmless activities (if done properly), in this case carrying groceries, can cause an irrational fear of movement. Avoidance becomes a way of life and that's not very helpful either.

TIP #1: No lopsidedness.

When carrying groceries, or anything really, carrying the weight on one side is very taxing on only some of your muscles. Try to either hold the groccery bag in front of you (like pictured above) or divide your load into two and carry one in each hand. If you have to carry everything in one hand then make sure to switch the weight of the load regularly from one hand to the other.

TIP #2: Don't overdo it.

Ever see the cartoon where it's usually a dad and he refuses to do two trips to the car to get the groceries so he's balancing 14 bags, 3 boxes and the keys to the house in his two hands? Relatable, no? Maybe not to the same extent as that but we manage to convince ourselves that two trips with less weight are more work that one trip that usually ends up in overdoing it! One of the things that chronic pain has taught me is to slow down and do things properly even if it takes more time.

TIP #3: Use tools.

There's no shame in using items like carts and other tools to make your life easier. A rolling cart can help you get your groceries home and alleviates some of the heaviness of the load. Shopping bag holder carrier handles are a good way to reduce the circulation being cut off from carrying numerous plastic bags in your hands.

Tools to make transporting groceries easier:

TIP #4: Get help.

I know I keep preaching about the importance of not avoiding tasks that you've developped an irrational fear of. Avoidance isn't always the issue though. I mention it because it was an obstacle in my life but that doesn't make it true for you. Get help if you need it. Delegate grocery bag lifting to kids or a partner. Even when I used to get my groceries delivered they always seemed happy to bring them in for me. I always giae them a small tip as a thank you.

Take breaks when you need to, ask for help or practice better grocery unloading techniques to make this heavy load less of a fatiguing activity.