To Snack Or Not to Snack?
Breaking the snacking habit is not impossible with a little tweaking. There are many little things you can do to prevent yourself from grabbing those wrong kind of snacks throughout the day. Believe it or not, snacking is not a bad thing, if you change what you snack on. Sometimes snacking is more out of routine or boredom, but in most cases important to eat healthy snack so you won’t over eat at lunch or dinner and to keep your metabolism going. Here are some strategies for avoiding getting caught up in the wrong “snack trap”:
- Do you want to learn how to keep all tempting goodies in the back? Store the goodies in the back of the cabinets, in the back of the refrigerator, freezer and pantry. It is harder to get to the goodies in the back and harder to reach, perhaps you may give up before actually reaching them.
- Out of reach or out of sight, results sometimes out of mind. Be sure the candy jar at work and the cookie jar at home are not visible. Remove the candy jar off your desk. If you can’t see it, you will forget there is a candy jar around.
- What can you use for substitutes? Pre-chopped and bag hard and crunchy veggies and mixed nuts, so they are ready to grab instead of a bag of chips, or candy. Store fresh, whole fruit readily available for your sweet cravings.
- Ask yourself if you are actually hungry before reaching for a snack.
- Before you start snacking, distract yourself for 5 minutes with a task unrelated to food such as a phone call or empty your dishwasher. Snack when you’re done.
- When dinner is done shut down your kitchen, and kitchen closed.
Is breaking the snack habit easy? Not really, but it is not impossible. I do think snacking smart is essential to maintaining your weight. If you do want a snack in the evening, drink a low sugar protein drink mixed with water.
Wendy Caamano, MS, CN, dietetic intern, and Debra A. Boutin, MS, RD,
chair and dietetic internship director, Department of Nutrition and Exercise Science at Bastyr University
