Suggestions pls. for clean healthy snacks!

C

candice

Guest
Hi,
I'm trying to clean up my diet, and my major pitfalls are 1) eating at night after 7:00 pm and 2) eating when I feed the kids(1 and 2 yrs. old). Perhaps if I had healthy snacks I wouldn't eat the junk. I have tried: apple, cottage cheese,yogurt,banana. But I just end up eating the apple, and then, not being satisfied, have junk after it! There is not too much junk in the house but my kids love peanut butter so we always have it around - and I eat waaay too much of it although I did get myself the low-fat kind. I just had about 3 spoonfuls of it(bad, I know). Maybe I don't get enough protein? Thanks for any advice.

Candice
 
Hi Candice,
I have the first problem you have- nighttime eating. I'll eat pretty well during the day, but then at night, I eat junk. Also, on weekends I don't eat well at all since, again, I don't plan, and I'm not as busy.

Here are some things I've learned:
1. During the day when I go to work, I've planned what I'll be eating since I bring my meals and snacks with me. So if I plan and bring healthy snacks, I'm less likely to eat junk. Then when I get home, I have no plan, so I eat whatever (same for weekends)

2. If I'm trying to eat well, sometimes I'll eat too little. That's why an apple won't satisfy you if you're really hungry. Have you tried smearing peanut butter on an apple? Also, when I'm hungry and have no plan, I reach for the cookies and junk. If I haven't planned well and am at the mall starving, I go for the fast food since it's fast, always available and immediately satisfying- all though not at all healthy and causes some guilt.

So, try to:
1. PLAN what to eat
2. Keep a journal- you'll see all those little bites here and there- and they add up!!
3. Eat regularly and keep healthy snacks available (at work, in your car)
4. If you want sweets, like candy, eat some fruit first, and then have the sweet if you still want it. Also, try to wait 15 mins- you may just be bored and forget about it once you start doing something.

These are just some things I've learned for myself- they may not work for you. Don't feel guilty if you slip up (everyone does)- just eat better the next meal or snack. It's not all-or-nothing. And peanut butter may be high in calories/fat, but it's definately not the worst food!!!
 
LOW FAT peanut butter Candace????!!!!! DO tell us where you are getting this, and all my dreams will come true!!! Do you mean reduced fat, or is it really a low fat version. Low fat peanut butter doesn't seem like it would be too tasty. Whats the scoop??

Peanut butter is good for you, but not too much. And it really isn't considered a "diet" food if you are trying to lose weight, but I don't see anything wrong with incorporating it into a healthy diet in moderate amounts. Janice
 
Just a little tip to help you avoid evening snacking - brush your teeth when you start getting the urge. It works, honest!

A bowl of cereal wouldn't do you any harm though.
 
What do all of you think is detrimental about eating at night? I eat healthy all day, so I also eat a night time snack to keep my caloric intake up.

I know that it has been said a thousand times that you shouldn't eat at night because you are no longer moving around (and not burning any additional calories) and that the food doesn't get digested well while sleeping. But just recently, in two or three health magazines I have read that this is just a myth--one reason that I remember seeing is that your body doesn't know whether it's daytime or nighttime, and that a calorie is a calorie. Also, I don't need to lose any weight, so does that make it okay?

It's after midnight and about an hour ago I ate cottage cheese with wheat crackers, and carrots with hummus, then a small yogurt! My snacks aren't always that large, though! I had school tonight and didn't have much of a dinner.

Thank you for any input--I've been curious about this for a long time.

Denise
 
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Apr-17-02 AT 11:57PM (Est)[/font][p]Denise, I was wondering the same thing. I am a night owl to the extreme, though, and I eat a light protein shake in the a.m. for breakfast, turkey breast/lowfat string cheese, fruit and salad for lunch, protein bar or cottage cheese and veggies for snack and lean meat, whole wheat roll/pasta, steamed veggies and fruit for dinner. Then nighttime comes around and I'm eating yogurt, 1/2 protein bar, honeydew, string cheese, etc. (and some not-so-good stuff too like Mother's animal crackers with frosting and sprinkles!) until around midnight or so and I have not seen any adverse effect at all in regard to weight gain. I workout 6x a week (3x weights), cardio 5x and I'm always hungry it seems. Although I don't count calories, I'm betting I eat around 2000-2500 and it seems like I'm actually losing a little fat lately (I've been at my goal weight for about 2 years - I always used to gain weight so easily and I'm 36 now).

Candice, I wish I could give you some helpful tips - you have gotten excellent advice by the others here though. I do know how hard it is to resist certain foods.
 
Hi Janice,

The peanut butter I am referring to is the Skippy reduced fat. I think it says 25% less fat which is not very reduced - hence the great taste (at least I think so)!

Candice
 
Hi,
I think the main reason people don't want to eat at night is because you eat healthy all day and meet your required caloric intake but then at night the snacking sets in and you add even more calories. At least for me that's true. Probably by 6 or 7:00 pm I have eaten my preferred caloric intake. And sometimes I just eat after dinner because I like munching while I watch a good show on tv - not even really hungry! So if I then start in with peanut butter and crackers, chips&salsa, or ice cream, I'm adding way too many calories and fat. I've tried "saving" some calories for nighttime but I get too hungry. I'm trying to eat at least 2 protein snacks a day - one around 3:30 to hold me over till dinner, like cottage cheese, yogurt, or banana with peanut butter(of course!) and then not eat so much at dinner, and then not eat at all after dinner unless it's fruit. We'll see how it goes! OK well tonight is Thursday, and on Thursday nights I like to have a glass of wine while I watch Will&Grace so although that's not fruit it's better than a dish of ice cream I think (or 5 spoonfuls of peanut butter!)

Candice
 
Hi Candice,

I think fit4life has it right. Don't worry about eating at night or past a random, designated hour. Losing weight boils down to a mathematical formula--you have to burn more than you consume. If you're hungry at night, chances are you haven't eaten enough. Another important thing about clean eating, always read food labels. I noticed that you eat reduced fat Skippy. Peanut butter products like Skippy and Jiff contain partially hydrogenated oils. It'd be better to stick with full fat, natural peanut butter. Remember that some oils are really good for the body, e.g., olive oil, peanut oil, safflower oil. Also, I noticed that when I switched from eating "fluff" food, e.g. white bread, to whole grains and other nutrient dense foods, I felt more satiated and therefore wanted to snack less.
 
I know, at least for me, that if I DON'T eat a small something (and I try to have something that has fiber in it)within an hour of going to bed, I will wake up in the middle of the night and have that starving feeling which makes me feel almost nauseous........then I end up eating something anyways. Also having a little something before bed (again, I try to eat someting with fiber) helps me to sleep better at night. Everybody is different though..............


P.S. I usually have a small bowl of cereal (bran flakes, raisin bran, mini wheats, kashi).
 
Well said, Kfowler.

Quite a few products that you would think are healthy aternatives because they say reduced fat are actually worse than the real thing. No fat salad dressing, for example, is loaded with sugar to give it some taste. Plus a lot of other ingredients I cannot pronounce.

I would rather have vinegar and olive oil for a salad dressing than the bottled stuff.

When buying packaged products I try to search for the brand with the least amount of ingredients that I cannot recognize.
 
Thanks for your replies on night time eating--I guess I'm not the only one!:)

If anyone wants to try a healthy snack, I'm a Kashi cereal fanatic. I go through two boxes a week! Not so much the puffy kind, but the newer seven grain and Go Lean ones--lots of protein and fiber, and just natural sweeteners. I eat it right out of the box or in yogurt. It really helps when you have a craving for something crunchy (just be careful with Kashi "Good Friends"--yikes, you could cruch your way to a broken tooth!), and no guilt--yay!

Denise
 
Hi fit4life,

Have you tried Optimum Flax? I use to eat Kashi too until I discovered this gem of a cereal. It's loaded with soy protein, has lots of fiber and is so good I can't believe it's healthy. They sell it at Trader Joe's for a really good price. Just thought I'd share that with you. :)
 
My favorite self-indulgent healthy snack is vegetarian sushi. Now I make it myself, it's kinda fun. I put avocado, carrot or cucumber in the middle.
 
Hi kfowler!

Thanks for sharing that with me--I will definitely try Optimum Flax! I'm always looking for something new and healthy to snack on that actually seems like a treat--not always an easy task, so I appreciate it!

Denise
 
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