Our Best Healthy Snack Ideas!

Whoooo – the weather woman described it best when she proclaimed it “juicy” outside this morning!

It was already 72 degrees by the time my Mom and I set out for our morning walk, and boy did we work up a sweat. The humidity is making it feel about 10 degrees warmer then it actually is! The forecast for the rest of the week is more of the same too. High 80s, with today’s high being 88 degrees. Eeesh!

I tried to beat the heat with a nice, refreshing Green Protein Smoothie for breakfast!

In the mix:

1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder

Locally grown baby spinach

(You can really taste the difference between this stuff and the pre-bagged from the grocery store – so much more tender and flavorful!)

1 frozen banana
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
1 Tablespoon peanut butter

Let ‘er rip!

Amazing.

 

Creamy-cold, oh-so-refreshing and packed with nutrients!

I’ve got even MORE greens for lunch.

8 cups of ‘em! 

In the mix:

Mixed greens
Baby Spinach
Cucumber
Carrots
Cherry tomatoes
Deli turkey
Peanuts

Served with some Trader Joe’s Soy Ginger Vinaigrette that I keep at work. I ab-solutely love this dressing and highly recommend it.

Plus a Fat-free Raspberry Cheesecake Yogurt and Pink Lady Apple for the afternoon munchies!

Speaking of munchies – during our walk today, my Mom and I both confesessed…

Our clothes are shrinking.

Or rather, we’re not! Yes, somewhere in the past couple of months, we’ve both managed to pack on a few extra pounds. Our clothes aren’t fitting as well as they used to, and we can just feel the extra weight. We commiserated for a few minutes, then decided to figure out the source of our problem. It really wasn’t that hard to identify…

Snacking.

We both eat very healthfully during the day, but excessive snacking can throw anybody’s good diet for a loop. For her, the problem is usually after work, for me, it’s after dinner.

It was easy to come up with a solution for my Mom. Normally, she doesn’t have an afternoon snack which leaves her starving by the time she comes home – reaching for anything in sight while cooking dinner. We thought incorporating a 2 or 3pm, 200-300 calorie, snack into her routine might help keep the afternoon munchies at bay. Here are some of the ideas we came up with:

Sliced apple with string cheese
Homemade trailmix of almonds, raisins and popcorn
Deli turkey, sliced cheese & pickle roll up
Greek Yogurt
Cup of grapes
Sliced apple with 1 Tablespoon peanut butter
Carrot chips (which are more fun to eat than regular carrots, according to my Mom )
Fat-free yogurt
100 calorie bag of popcorn
Cottage cheese and fresh pineapple
Celery sticks with 2 Tablespoons peanut butter
Banana dunked in a fat-free yogurt
ThinBun with 1 Tablespoon peanut butter, 1 Tablespoon jelly

My issue is mostly with nighttime snacking. It’s not that I’m even neccessarily hungry, I just like something sweet after dinner. Life is too short to deny yourself dessert, so instead of choosing things like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars, we thought maybe I could try some smarter, 200-300 calorie options like:

Frozen banana custard
Chocolate Brownie PURE Bar
Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar
100 calorie bag of kettle corn
Fat-free yogurt parfait with frozen berries
Peanut butter & banana sandwich
Chocolate covered orange slices
Frozen yogurt (literally, stick a fat-free yogurt in the freezer when you start preparing dinner, and it’ll be the perfect semi-frozen consistency by 8:00!)
Chopped pear drizzled with honey
Sliced apple sprinkled with cinnamon
Slice of toast sprinkled with cinnamon sugar
Homemade Greek Fro-Yo

We’re both going to give these ideas a whirl and see if our clothes stop getting “shrunk in the dryer”…

Happy Monday!

~~~~~

Are you a snacky type of person?

What are some of your favorite, healthy (er), go-to snack and dessert options?

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