Volume 1 — Why Wayne Changed the Way He Looks at Food

That trio always makes me smile.

But behind those three characters is a story that matters.

And there is a good chance Wayne’s story and yours are not all that different.

Like millions of Americans, Wayne watched the cost of everyday life keep climbing.

Housing costs more.

Utilities cost more.

And every trip to the grocery store seems to take a bigger bite out of the family budget.

But price was only part of what started bothering him.

One day, Wayne dug out a blood test from more than a year earlier.

There it was in black and white:

Pre-diabetic.

He had seen the words before, but this time they shook him awake.

Now, you have to understand something about Wayne.

He is 78 years old.

Vietnam didn’t kill him.

A bad truck wreck didn’t kill him.

A bull-riding wreck nearly paralyzed him, and somehow he survived that too.

Along the way there were a few other misadventures that apparently didn’t get the job done either.

So his attitude toward that blood test had pretty much been:

“What, me worry?”

Maybe not worry.

But perhaps it was time to get off the horse and come down to reality.

That was when Wayne started looking more closely at the food he was buying.

And something became obvious very quickly.

He was hardly alone.

Maybe you have been standing in the same grocery aisle asking some of the same questions.

You are trying to stretch the family food budget.

At the same time, you would like to know what you are actually feeding yourself and the people you care about.

So you pick up a package.

The front says things like:

Healthy.

Natural.

Wholesome.

Low-fat.

Then you turn it over and look at the ingredient list.

Now things get interesting.

Tiny print.

Long names.

Ingredients you may have never heard of.

And sometimes it looks less like dinner and more like something that escaped from a chemistry lab.

That led Wayne to a question he had never really considered before.

What is this food actually costing me?

Because food can have two prices.

There is the price you pay today at the checkout counter.

And there can be another price later when years of poor eating habits begin catching up with you.

That realization changed the questions Wayne started asking.

Not simply:

“How much does this cost?”

But:

“What am I actually getting for my money?”

What are these ingredients?

Is there a simpler alternative?

Could I make something like this myself?

Am I buying this because it is actually a better choice…

or because the front of the package tells me it is?

Those are fair questions.

The trouble is, grocery shopping was never supposed to require a degree in chemistry.

Have you ever tried to read one of those tiny ingredient labels while standing in a busy grocery aisle?

You practically need a ten-power magnifying glass, a folding chair, and permission from the store manager to block traffic while you figure it all out.

Wayne decided there had to be a better way to understand what he was buying.

So he started learning.

And the more he learned, the more the way he shopped began to change.

He stopped looking only at the advertising on the front of the package.

He started looking more closely at what was actually inside.

He began comparing choices.

He began questioning assumptions.

And he started looking at food as both a health decision and a financial decision.

Wayne is not a doctor.

He is not a nutritionist.

And he is certainly not interested in standing on a pedestal telling anyone what they should or should not eat.

He is simply someone who started asking questions that you may be asking too.

How do I spend less on food?

How do I understand what I am buying?

How do I make better choices without becoming obsessed with every ingredient?

And how do I make grocery shopping simpler instead of more confusing?

Wayne has already traveled a fair distance down that road.

And if some of what he has learned can help you avoid a few potholes and wrong turns along the way, then perhaps his experience can make your journey a little easier.

Because this story is not really about Wayne.

It is about you.

Your food.

Your family.

Your money.

And your choices.

In the next part, we are going to look at an idea that changed the way Wayne thinks about grocery shopping:

Food has two prices.

Stand by for part 2!