7 habits of successful snackers
Posted on Apr 28th 2008 8:00AM by Jacki Donaldson
Are you snacking today? Are chips, dips, cookies, and candies consuming you? Need to get a grip? If so, check out these seven tricks for successful snacking.1. Create your own snacks. Don't buy the ready-made ones -- they're low in vitamins, nutrients, and protein and high in calories, fat, sugar, and sodium. While sports and protein bars might be an exception, it's best to craft your own snacks. Try crunchy apple slices or celery sticks with natural peanut butter. Mix up a colorful bowl of fresh fruit. Prepare bags of nuts and seeds and grab them when you're on the go.
2. Balance your snacks. The ideal slow-burn snack has carbohydrates, protein, and surprisingly, a bit of fat. Try a pear, a chunk of cheddar cheese, and some low-fat yogurt and you'll be set for a few hours.
3. Snack to maintain weight. Snacking can help you from gaining weight because it helps control your appetite, making you less likely to overeat at meal times.
4. Keep stress in check. Keeping a handle on your stress will help you handle your hunger. We all tend to snack poorly when stress hits. Managing stress then is one key then to successful snacking. If and when your stress gets the best of you, don't go for the junk. Grab some fruit instead.
5. Once a month, let go. If you want to snack during your menstrual cycles, ladies, it's OK. Your body burns more calories during this time which is why you feel hungrier. Just make your snacks healthy and as always, don't go overboard.
6. Add calcium, cut sodium. Most of us don't come close to getting enough calcium. So choose snacks high in calcium. Avoid the salt, though. Most of us get too much of this stuff.
7. Hydrate. When you're lacking energy, feel run down, and think you want to eat, go for the water bottle instead. It might not be hunger plaguing you. It could be dehydration.
