Snacking in Moderation

Ya know, Jessica , you inspired me to write this post. I hope it helps you and others, and it's a good reminder for me, because when I get depressed I wanna snack. The winter months are here and I get so bummed out this time of year. Sighs.... what to do right?

The key to weight loss and managment ( notice I say AND MANAGMENT , you want to keep it off after it's gone perminantly, right?) is changing our eating habbits.

Habbits are so hard to break especially the bad ones. They vary from all sorts of things to picking your nose in your car, to.... eh....eating to much of a really good thing.

Now, I am basing my weight loss off of two things, healthy eating habbits and exercise. We're not going to lose weight sitting on our butts and we're not going to lose weight eating alot of goodies. Note I said alot of goodies and not, eating goodies. Rule number one, NEVER DEPRIVE YOURSELF of what you like to eat, eat in moderation. What does that mean? Well, serving sizes and taking into account that you're going to eat it and how it will effect your calorie count/points for the rest of the day and is eating the whole thing worth it?

I love cupcakes! They are my all time favorite sweet in the world. If you wave a cuppy cake under my nose.... RACHEL WILL EAT IT!! What are the calories of a cupcake or if you're doing weight watchers with me, the points value? On average about 250 calories for 1 cupcake with frosting or 6 weight watchers points! WOW! I think 6 points is almost a meal for me considering I take in 22 points a day, which is about 1,400 calories. So what to do??

Well consider this the next time you go for your snackems. I am allowed X,XXX calories per day and this snack is XXX calories , how much does that leave for me to eat for the rest of the day on actual meals when I am really going to be hungry?

So here is what you do if you HAVE to have it. Eat it! Count it! And later when it's dinner time, have your serving of your main meal, only a serving but tank up on veggies ( greens especially ). Veggies are free to eat as many as you like. If you eat all of your veggies first and eat slowly you start to fill up leaving little room for the higher calories. Once you're satisfied don't eat anymore.

RULE NUMBER TWO, It is OK to waste your food!
Now, if we lived in a third world country where we were starving you should be ashamed of yourself for throwing that three left over bites of meat away, but we don't. We live in America where most of us are over weight and unhealthy and it would help us to throw it out!

Since you had your high calorie snack earlier in the day and you have just a few calories or points left for your dinner, eat all you want in your veggies and if you're tummy is happy and you have meat left over, walk away. That's less for your hips. I waste about three to four bites of my food all the time. And ya know what, those three or four bites make a differance.

BUT.... I wanna eat the cupcake and ALL of my meat!!! Well, you have to decide what you want the most. The cupcake now, or the full satisfying dinner later? Is it worth it? By reading nutrition labels and comparing the serving size to the calorie count, you start to see that that bag of chips and that candy bar and the can of soda is what is causing the gradual weight gain and you don't even realize it. These things are called empty calories. They are the foods that supply very little nutrition if any and have alot of calories packed into them compared to the serving size. That sucks!!! When you realize you really love the flavor of Hummus dip and celery sticks or hummus and baby carrots and you can eat ALOT of it compared to one candy bar.... omg....it gets addictive.

If you're weakness is sugary snacks like mine, remember this, sugar is carbohydrates. You don't have to NOT eat carbs, you just need to limit them and remember that sugar and carbs turn to fat and raise your insulin levels also making you feel hungrier sooner. So if you eat something else that fills you up and shushes your munchy monster you won't be getting the urge to eat another snack anytime time soon. After about two weeks of cutting out your sugars and such, your body doesn't crave them anymore. It's like a drug addiction. You go through withdrawl for about two weeks until you're used to not having it and you get used to eating better healthier things and you really don't miss it anymore. REALLY!

My other weakness, FRENCH FRIES! Oh, Good Lord, I could make a meal out of McDonalds French Fries alone. It took me about a month of making myself stay out of the drive through line for an order for fries as a snack. OK, those bad boys are good, but needs to be a treat. It has been 6 months since I had an order of fries from a fast food resturant. I don't miss it. I don't deprive myself either. I cook my fries at home in the oven. Less fat an grease that way and if done right, they are so crispy.

So, what I am getting at, is it takes your body some adjustment time to get used to not wanting all of the bad stuff all of the time. When I mean, eat it in moderation, I mean leave that stuff for treats and when the munchy monster nags at you keep in mind you can satisfy your snackems with things that are good for you, lower and calorie, taste great but don't take away from your dinner.

Good Snacks that I eat, that taste good and aren't so bad:

1 oz. of colby jack cheese (45 cal.) and three little smokie sausages ( 45 cal), big glass of green tea and then I find something to do to keep my hands busy. You gotta keep yourself moving. the more time you sit around the more antsy and bored you get and want a snack. ;)

Very Berry Parfait
1 cup mixed frozen berries thawed (70 Cal )
1/2 cup no fat vanilla yogurt (90 Cal )
1 tsp. granola ( 20 Cal )
makes a great parfait

Shrimp Salad
Big Bowl of Mixed Greens like, Romaine Lettuce, Fresh Spinach ( get a bag of the ready made salad greens with all the veggies )
10 Baby Carrots
5 Cherry Tomatoes
Half a cup of those tiny shrimps
1/4 cup feta cheese ( Optional )
All of the veggies you can stuff in there for the exception of potatos and corn( startchy)

Wish Bone Salad Spritzer! MMMMM Those are freebies. If you MUST have ranch dressing, go no fat dressing. Next time you're in the store pick up a bottle of both and look at the nutrition facts. Amazing differance in calories.

1 apple and 1/2 cup of vanilla no fat yogurt for the dip. Gooooood eats!!

Baby Carrots, eat as many as you want.

Sugar Free cup cake 1, alot less calories by at least 100.

My FAVORITE AND MOST FILLING:::: And can be used as a meal replacment if ya HAVE to

RACHEL'S FAMOUS PROTIEN SMOOTHIES!! I will post the recipes to those in seperate post.

AND, to help kick the munchy monster, drink LOTS of water or TEA.

I carry a glass around with me all day. I drink a galon of green tea a day. I kicked my diet soda kick after years finally for other health reasons, but also because it retains water from the sodium. But when you keep your tummy full with water or tea ( unsweetened for the exception of splenda ) then you really don't feel hungry or think much about snacking.

So drink up!