Taming Your Snack Attack
Outside of a growing teenager, I feel as if I have one of the hungriest tummies around! I am ready to eat right when I wake up and I could go on grazing all day long, right up to bedtime. And if I allow myself to get truly “nourishment-deprived”, my ability to consume large amounts of food easily rivals that of my husband, who is about 100 pounds heavier than I am!
What I’ve had to do, in order to keep my body weight in check—and my tummy from grumbling 24-7—is devise an eating method to balance my body’s limited caloric requirements and my desire to feel satisfied/well fed. This eating plan, while, of course, addressing the proportions and type of food I consume at mealtime, really gave me success in both maintaining a healthy body weight (BMI) and feeling “gastric satisfaction” because I found a beneficial way to snack in between meals, cuz snack, I must!
Our bodies are fueled by three main groups of food: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Carbs are often the easiest to grab as they are most readily available, but if you want to tame your snack attack, I would advise that you steer clear of snacking on pure carbs (pretzels, berries, carrot sticks, etc). Concentrate your eating efforts on lean proteins and healthy fats. These will digest most slowly, prevent blood sugar spikes, and give you the feeling of being satisfied right up until your next meal, so much so, that you will not sit down to your next meal in a state of extreme hunger. This added bonus allows you to “eat responsibly”.
Need a few snack ideas to stock up on? Here’s a short list of my favorites. If they’re not yours, follow the principle of snacking on healthy proteins and fats and you will be able to tame your own snack attacks.
- Greek yogurt (low sugar variety) with sliced almonds
- Half an avocado with a tsp of blue cheese dressing
- Half a banana or apple smeared with nut butter
- A few ounces of cold, cooked poultry meat
- Berries and whipped cream
If you must eat carbs, pair them with a healthy fat or protein, such as carrot sticks with peanut butter, strawberries and almonds, whole grain pretzels with a cube of cheese.