snacks

I had an awesome visit with a longtime friend this past weekend. We had a great time catching up, as friends do. I drank a lot of beer with her. We hiked up a mountain together. We split meals and laughed a lot. What we didn't do, the whole time she was here, was eat any snacks. Honestly, our meals were fairly substantial, even the ones we split, and I just wasn't hungry between meals. Noted.

Typically I do find myself a bit hungry between meals, and many days me and Mr. Scandinavian Mullet eat dinner late due to afternoon workouts. Those times, I need something lighter than a full meal to hold me over or fuel a workout, so, SNACKS to the rescue! When I need a snack, I aim to make it as healthy as possible. Here are some of my go-tos:

• 1/2 oz. of nuts (usually walnuts or almonds, but I love all kinds - cashews, pistachios, macadamias, pecans)
• cottage cheese with fruit (and possibly add cinnamon and ground flax)
• beef jerky
• lean sliced deli ham (or turkey, but I prefer ham)
• pickles - actually, try a slice of turkey wrapped around a pickle, it's delicious!
• olives
• sauerkraut
• cut raw veggies (carrot slices, cucumber slices, bell peppers, etc) and a Wholly Guacamole pack. You can also make a ranch dip out of Greek yogurt and a ranch seasoning packet - add seasoning to the yogurt until you like the taste!
• banana and a Tbsp of peanut butter
• protein bars or shakes. I like the WW brand Chocolate Fudge Protein Bars, and for pre-made shakes I like the Orgain Creamy Chocolate Fudge and the Fairlife Chocolate milk protein drinks (both available at Costco). For powders, Optimum Nutrition makes great whey protein powders, we have both the Vanilla Ice Cream and Extreme Milk Chocolate flavors (also available at Costco). They dissolve really well in just a shaker bottle with water and have great flavor! You can also make healthy-type milkshakes with them, I mix the vanilla with frozen fruit in a blender, or the chocolate with some ice cubes and some PB2 powdered peanut butter... awesome!
• string cheese
• 1 oz. of Cabot cheddar cheese, or brie
• A square of REALLY GOOD dark chocolate. It doesn't have to be expensive, one of my favorites is from Trader Joe's, their 72% Belgian Dark Chocolate bar. 
• 100-calorie packs of pretzels (really great snack before a hot afternoon workout)

Enjoying our celebratory beer snack after a nice
5-mile hike up and down Ptarmigan Peak

If you look at my food tracker, you'll see I usually enter wine, beer, and whiskey as Snacks. I do this because these are not part of the nutrition of a meal, they are optional add-ons... not healthy ones, but hey, wine is an antioxidant, and sometimes you want to enjoy a beer snack with a friend, right? You'll also see that I don't really snack on chips, ice cream, cookies, candy etc. I don't keep that stuff in the house, so it's pretty easy to avoid. Doesn't mean I won't have chips and guac, or a couple cookies someone made or brought to a party, or an occasional ice cream cone... but keeping this stuff out of my house makes consuming it a much less frequent event. And finally, I love pretzels but portion control there is a BIG challenge for me, so when I keep those in the house, they are in individual serving bags. Know thyself and be sure to set YOU up so your snack options don't derail your best healthy efforts.

This coming week I want to experiment with making my meals a little larger and decreasing the snacks. I'm no longer training heavily, so I'm guessing I'll get less hunger signals, which makes me think this is a great time to try it. And with my friend's visit, I already started the experiment! Stay tuned...

And have a great healthy week! Hope you are setting yourself up for success. :)