Patricia Burton has been competing in dragon boat racing for 15 years, a sport that pushes her to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Now she is preparing even more diligently for her national team training.

Part of the process requires benchmark testing in which she will lift 40 percent of her total body weight. To further her efforts, she is trying to lose eight pounds.

The retired 67-year-old from Northumberland County, Ont., is hoping to land a spot on one of Canada’s teams at the 17th World Dragon Boat Racing Championships in Germany next summer.

“You need training all year round to prepare for the races,” says Burton.

She works out five to six times a week year-round, combining strength training in the gym with cycling and boat paddling outdoors during the spring and summer months. In the winter, she and her team, the Brighton Dragon Boat Club, train on paddle exercise bikes, devices set up like a dragon boat in an indoor tank.

“Most athletes paddle on one side of the boat, which can lead to muscle imbalances and pain,” she explains. Strength training can help compensate for this.

All of this training requires energy, says Burton, whose primary nutritional goal is to avoid highly processed foods. At the grocery store, that means shopping in the outside aisles where the meat, dairy and fresh produce departments are located.

Burton and her husband Graham, who also competes in dragon boat racing, prefer to buy their protein from local butchers and farms and buy fresh vegetables at farmers markets. She also grows her own garden produce, which she dehydrates, pickles, and freezes to consume year-round.

When it comes to those eight pounds, Burton monitors what she eats and emphasizes high-quality protein and vegetables to keep her full and energized.

This is how Burton buys groceries.

This is how I save: In the summer I grow some of my own vegetables and herbs and freeze them for the winter. It’s a small garden, but I can grow chard, tomatoes, kale and other vegetables.

This is how I treat myself: I buy organic meat, chicken and fish from the butcher or local farms. I drive about 30 minutes to Cobourg, Ontario, to Houston’s Natural Meats, which sources its products from Mennonite communities in southern Ontario. You can taste the difference.

The hardest shopping habit to maintain: I try to eat healthy and pay attention to what is in my food. Reading and researching packaged goods is time consuming.

How I changed my eating habits recently: Being more conscious about what I put into my body and what ingredients I use is nothing new, but the amount of research I put into it is nothing new. I use an app called Yuka that allows me to scan any product label and see the health effects of foods and cosmetics.

Five items always in my shopping cart:

• Whole Organic Chicken – Grandview Pastures – $20: The chicken from this local farm is pasture-raised, and I noticed that the fat around it is a different color than the chicken I buy at the grocery store: it has a slight yellow tinge.
• Wraps – Wrap It Up Raw – $8.50: These wraps are great. The southern Ontario-based company makes the wraps from raw ingredients like flaxseed and carrots.
• Almond Flour Crackers – Simple Mills – $14.49: These are great snacks. I usually buy them in bulk.
• Star Anise – Farm Boy – $4.99: I’m using this as a seasoning for a Vietnamese soup recipe (Pho) that I recently started making. I like the rice noodles in the broth and use some leftover chicken in it for protein.
• Organic Pitted Dates – Terra Delyssa – $10.99: These are great for energy, especially as a snack when I’m working out or working out.

This interview has been edited and condensed.