Avoid the Mid-Day Munchies

Mindless snacking is one of the top ways to sabotage your weight loss efforts. If you’re not trying to lose weight, then snacking is a great way to let some extra pounds sneak up on you. Along the way I’ve picked up a few tricks to stop myself from diving into a bag of chips only to resurface when it’s empty. Most of the time it’s just a matter of tricking your brain and eating the right snacks.

A few of my favorite ways to avoid the mid-day munchies;
1) Get up and do something, get some cleaning done, read a book, jump on facebook. Just get up and change the scenery.
2) Have a cup of tea, herbal teas usually have very few or no calories and the warm liquid will make you feel full. Be sure when you do have your tea, leave the sugar, and milk behind, but a little honey is good.
3) A lot of the time we confuse hunger with thirst. Have a nice glass of water, wait 20 minutes and see if that doesn’t make your food craving go away.

While some snacking is actually good for you, keep your snacking under control. When you have to have a snack, put it in a bowl. You’re more likely to keep your snack to one serving if you’re not sitting with the whole bag of pretzels in your lap. Pick a healthy snack like some fruit, or yogurt. You can never go wrong with a snack of fruit or veggies, just beware of the high calorie and fat dips. A good snack that makes you feel like you’re eating more than you are is crackers with some peanut butter, but remember to watch your portion size.

I am someone with very little will power, if there’s junk food in the house then I’m eating it. If you’re like me, do yourself a favor and don’t even bring the junk food home. If you’re worried about the other people in your house…DON’T. Healthy eating never hurt anyone and it will do everyone good to eat a little less junk food.

In my efforts to lose the “baby weight” I picked up from having two kids I found the best website for education and motivation. SparkPeople.com taught me how to lose my unwanted weight not by some quick fix fad diet, but by changing my lifestyle and eating better. There are hundreds of articles and blogs that tell you everything you could want to know about eating healthy and exercising properly. SparkPeople also has trackers for exercise and food, you’d be surprised at how differently you’ll eat when you see how many calories are in your favorite snack. My favorite part about SparkPeople.com is that it’s FREE, and offers the same features that other websites charge hundreds of dollars a year for.