Here are some of the best tasting, most nutritious fitness foods around. Some of these foods are not necessarily contest prep foods but they are nutritious, healthy, and delicious. When grocery shopping, always remember to shop the perimeter of the store and avoid the isles. The isles are where most bad foods are placed. The processed, refined flours, sugary, salty, unhealthy snacks, and tv dinners and such lie in the isles.

Remember, if you don't have junk around the house, you're less likely to eat junk. If all you have is healthy food around the house, you're forced to make smart choices. Basically, it all starts with making smart choices and avoiding temptations when you make your grocery store trip. A good strategy that you can use is to try to never go to the grocery store hungry. If you go satisfied you are less likely to purchase binge type unhealthy foods.

Each week, try to make sure you stock up with lots of varieties of fresh vegetables. Most of the time, I make sure I have plenty of vegetables like zucchini, onions, asparagus, fresh mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, and red peppers. I also like to grill some chicken or Low Calorie Chicken or Turkey Sausage and serve it over steamy brown rice.

Here are 20 excellent food suggestions to keep you healthy and looking great:

1. Frozen chicken breasts - it doesn't get much better than these. Quick and convenient and also healthy!
2. Egg Whites - one of nature's richest sources of nutrients and high quality protein.
3. Oat bran and plain oats - higher fiber than those little packs of instant oats. Often I will eat raw oats right out of the jar!
4. Tomato sauces - One of the best natural sources of lycopene. Try to avoid the products that offer selections with high fructose corn syrup and abdominal hiding body, bloating sodium.
5. Home-made salad dressing - use balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and Udo's Choice oil blend. This is much better than using store bought salad dressings which mostly are full of highly refined soybean oil. Refined soybean oil has been proven to be a prime source of inflammation-causing free radicals. Avoid this potentially dangerous health hazard and try Udo's. It combines all of the omegas together for heart healthy, great tasting oil.
6. Stevia - a natural non-caloric sweetener, which is an excellent alternative to the chemical-laden artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose.
7. Leaf lettuce and spinach along with cucumber and tomatoes- for salads with dinner.
8. Chopped walnuts, cashews, pecans, almonds are delicious and great sources of healthy fats. Make sure they are unsalted if you can.
9. Whole flax seeds - A great snack idea is to grind these in a mini coffee grinder and add to protein shakes or salads. Always grind them fresh because the omega-3 polyunsaturated fats are prone to oxidation, which can expose you to increased risk of inflammation causing free radicals from pre-ground flax.
10. Frozen fish - I like to try a couple different kinds of fish each week. Tilapia, Salmon, Orange Roughy, and Tuna are a few of my favorites. There are so many varieties out there; you never have to get bored. Plus, frozen fish is usually frozen immediately after catching, as opposed to fresh fish, which has been transported and sitting out for days.
11. Frozen veggies - frozen veggies typically have higher nutrient contents compared to the fresh produce. Fresh produce loses a lot of nutrient content during shipping.
12. Cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and yogurt - You can mix cottage or ricotta cheese and yogurt together with chopped nuts and berries for a great mid-morning or mid-afternoon meal.
13. Whole wheat or whole grain pasta - much higher fiber than normal pastas
14. Brown rice and other higher fiber rice - NEVER white rice
15. Cans of black or kidney beans - A great source of antioxidants. Very high in fiber and very nutritious!
16. Nut butters - Plain old peanut butter is a staple in my cabinet, sugar and salt free of course, but I get creative and throw, almond or even cashew butter into the mix sometimes as well. Look for low sugar and salt varieties.
17. Whole grain wraps and whole grain bread (look for wraps and bread with at least 3-4 grams of fiber per 20 grams of total carbs). Try to avoid the carbohydrate trap when consuming breads. It is easy to overdo it so limit bread to once a day max.
18. Rice bran and wheat germ - Very healthy! These actually add a nice little nutty, crunchy taste to yogurt or smoothies, or can be added when baking muffins or breads to add nutrients and fiber.
19. Dark chocolate - Dark chocolate is loaded with beneficial antioxidants. It is also very calorie dense so do not eat too much of it. Just a few small squares do the trick. Dark chocolate will satisfy your sweet tooth as well. Try to choose a brand that offers dark chocolate that lists its cocoa content at 70% or greater. Avoid milk chocolate and cheap dark chocolate varieties that have less than 70% cocoa content. Cocoa is what offers the antioxidant benefit...the rest of the chocolate is made up of just sugar and other additives. Make sure it is cocoa and not carob also! Carob is an abdominal killer.
20. Fruits - As we all know, fruits are very high in vitamins and healthy antioxidants. Even though fruit contains natural sugars, the fiber within most fruits can slow down the sugary carbohydrate absorption and glycemic response. Just try to only eat one or two servings of fruit daily. Some great fruit choices are: kiwi, oranges, pears, peaches, apples, cherries, grapes, pomegranate, strawberries, watermelon, mango, papaya, oranges, pineapple, and bananas.

When you go to the grocery store take this grocery list with you!

- Stay away from saturated fats like French fries, cookies, anything deep-fried. Peanut butter can get you in trouble as well unless it is low sugar and salt. Peanut butter is very beneficial but high in calories.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this short piece on the top fitness foods. Hopefully you can take some of these ideas and use them the next time you go grocery shopping to help you shop for healthier items.