Live It, Don't Diet

Smart Snacking

Although overeating between meals might have contributed to our being overweight, snacking can actually be very valuable during weight loss. Smart snacking is part of eating wisely on the TurnAround(r) program.

There are some benefits to snacking: Curbs hunger between meals, prevents subsequent overeating, and you get to enjoy your favorite foods. When snacking it's in your best weight-loss interest to identify:
- When you tend to snack
- Where you tend to snack
- What you snack on

Ask yourself those questions and determine what is and is not working out for you. Half the time we aren't even thinking about this stuff, and rather we're just doing it. Sure we try for the carrots or celery sticks, but sometimes they just don't cut it. That's why we have to think about What we snack on. What are we getting from it. When I snack on a handful of M&M's, it's because I love chocolate and need a sugar fix.

What we need to concentrate on is focusing on those snacks with low energy density. We should look to the foods that don't have a lot of calories per serving. That means for the same weight potato chips versus grapes, the grapes have the lower energy density. Ultimately they should be more satisfying. Giving snacks a nutritional priority will also help. Look to your Week1 books for those suggestions, but I bet you can think of plenty of them.

The decisions will be up to us what snacks to have, and we have to decide that we're worth it and deserve the weight loss.

posted by Snowman @ 5:54 PM