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Insurance and Wellness Blog

Health Coach Corner - Healthy Snacking

Posted by kapnick on Apr 12, 2012 11:33:28 AM

Healthy Snacking by Maria Hicks

Do you find it hard to think of what snacks to bring with you everyday? It’s ideal to eat small meals throughout the day. Breakfast, snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack and dinner, and you can add another evening snack (healthy & low calorie) if you are still hungry. You don’t want to go to bed hungry because you may wake up at 3:00am with a growling stomach and have a hard time falling back to sleep.

Why do you want to eat small, frequent meals throughout the day? It helps keep your metabolism humming along and burning fat & calories, it also keeps you satisfied, so you never get to the point of “ravenous” and want to eat everything in your eye-sight. Research shows that small meals also add up to fewer calories per day, than just eating 3 meals. And you really want to stay away from eating only 1-2 large meals a day.

Here are my favorite healthy snack ideas:

  • High fiber (and portable) fruits: apples, oranges, bananas, peaches, pears
  • Homemade trail mix: almonds, walnuts, dried cranberries or raisins (unsweetened) with a cup of high fiber/low calorie cereal
  • Hummus – with whole grain crackers, pretzels and veggies
  • Low fat yogurt or soy yogurt
  • Veggies – a variety bag of carrots, celery, broccoli, sugar snap peas, etc
  • Brown rice cakes with all-natural peanut butter or almond butter (optional: top with a half sliced banana)
  • Brown rice cakes – cinnamon, sesame, caramel or plain
  • Low fat corn tortilla chips (baked) and low sodium salsa
  • Handful of almonds or walnuts or sunflower seeds
  • Small handful of salt-free, dry roasted peanuts and raisins
  • Apple slices with all-natural peanut butter
  • Whole-wheat pretzels with roasted red pepper dip or hummus or almond butter or guacamole
  • Natural, organic food bars (example: Larabars, Bora Bora bars)
  • 1 cup of high fiber, low calorie Fiber cereal with a half cup milk and handful of blueberries
  • Packet of Oatmeal (low sugar and add flaxseed and fruit)
  • 1 cup of blueberries with a tablespoon of ground flaxseed
  • Baggie of high fiber dry cereal (high fiber, low fat and low sugar)
  • Dried Granny-Smith green apples (plain dried apple chips with no sugar or oils added) mixed with silvered almonds (1/2 cup apples & 1-2 tbsp of almonds)

Topics: Health and Wellness - Health Coach Corner, Featured Posts