Snack Healthy to Lose Weight
Welcome to another of my highly useful Top 100 weight loss tips. This tip comprises article number 17 in the series that helps you to lose weigh in 100 different ways.
This post looks at how to incorporate healthy snacks into your diet that won't bust your daily calorie intake but actually help the pounds roll off as well as looking at the business of snacking.
By that I mean it is big business worth billions of dollars annually and companies spend a fortune on advertising their wares. Is it any wonder then, that so many people get suckered into buying all these cleverly advertised snacks that are helping to increase the nation's obesity figures? But you can break free and here's how.
If You Must Snack, Snack Healthy!
If you're what's known as a stress eater, you don't have to grab for that high calorie, sweet or savory snack that's lurking in your drawer or cupboard. There are lots of alternatives that are not only better for you and less prone to making you gain weight, but they are a whole load cheaper too.
It's normal to walk round the supermarket and pile your trolley with multi-packs of candy snacks that are well advertised, because you've likely been brainwashed into wanting them by clever advertising on the TV and in glossy magazines. The first step to breaking free is obvious, but also a hard one when it has become ingrained into your psyche.
That is to watch less TV or even to reserve that idle brainwashing device for only watching selected programs that you really like.
Stop sitting there staring into its depths when the commercials come on like a mesmerized rabbit. Get up and do something else, because you don't have to sit there and watch them. You will not miss anything important, I swear!
And stop reading pointless magazines filled with stories about famous people that are also crammed full of ads! Once you have cut down on all the ads, you will feel less need to load up on unhealthy snacks, but if you like to snack on stuff, there is a healthy and tasty alternative.
The Choice is There
In fact there are lots of them and you can even lose weight by snacking between meals when those snacks are healthy, natural ones.
Try snacking on unsalted sunflower or pumpkin seeds. They provide you with lots of chewing but not many calories. Or try cutting up a carrot or two into small wedges and put in a plastic bag to take to work to snack on while at your desk.
Carrot slices are sweet tasting and make a great snack. Similarly, a stick or two of celery makes a crunchy snack with very few calories! If you like nuts, then buy unsalted almonds or walnuts. They do contain more calories but also a lot of health benefits and you'll find you won't want to eat so many of them.
Weight for weight, you'll get a lot more benefit from unsalted nuts (and yes, even peanuts), than comparable weight of candy bars or even the so-called health bars.
Health Bars
A quick note on health bars. They may be advertised as being healthy (there's that "advertise" word again) but they still contain a lot of added salt and sugar, preservatives and other unwholesome stuff while packing a lot more calories per bar than you think. Read the labels if you don't believe me.
The absolute best snack of all is a healthy apple. Yep, a real one and not one covered in caramel! An apple contains a healthy boost of vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants (more in red apples) that boost heath and helps with your weight loss diet because it is low in calories while tasting great. It's also good for your teeth!
Here's another old saying that really does hold true: "An apple a day keeps the doctor away"
PS: You can also enjoy a pear, a peach, a nectarine, an orange or tangerine, some plums, apricots, cherries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries... the list of fresh fruits and berries that make the perfect snacks is a very long and tasty one!
100 Weight Loss Tips number 16 follows in the next post!
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Posted on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 in Top 100 Weight Loss Tips | 2 Comments
2 thoughts on "Snack Healthy to Lose Weight"
Brenda says:
Hi, I'm a compulsive snacker and was getting too overweight not to notice. So I recently changed the things I snack on to more healthy stuff like fresh fruit and dried apricots, figs and prunes. The change over just two weeks was quite amazing and I lost four pounds without doing anything else different. So when I read your post, I knew I wasn't alone in this, so thanks for reinforcing my belief that you are what you snack on!
Brenda
Wayne says:
Isn’t a good health really about what you eat, or about what you do as a form or exercise? If you really get those two things right, it may begin the end of unnecessary and uncomfortable weight or happiness, and the beginning of having to “work hard” to keep that good health and weight. Am I wrong? I believe this article here answers my quest for info on fast weight loss tips very well as it is informative and to the point!
Wayne