Healthy snacks people recommend

daniel_b

Afternoon all,

So being someone who wants to lose a little bit of weight, and eat a bit more sensibly, I wonder if anyone can suggest some healthy snacks, either off the shelf, or ones you make at home, that really work for you instead of crisps, cakes etc etc

I'm thinking along the lines of healthy cereal bars, bananas, carrot sticks - but does anyone have any fiendishly good/tasty/easy recipes or snacks that they swear by?
Everyone loves a bit of variety huh.

I work in an office (8-4.30), and take a late lunch at 2pm - I only work 5min walk from home, so go home for lunch usually.
I generally eat some Alpen type no added sugar cereal stuff with skimmed milk in the morning for breakfast, but then always get hungry at about 10 and then midday - usually snack on a cereal bar, and a banana in the afternoon - especially if I am going for a ride straight after work.

Happy to do some cooking at the weekend, if I can make up a batch for the coming week etc,

Cheers

Dan

littledove44

dav1d1

I order a graze box and they are really good, you get 4 selections in your box a week, can order two boxes a week and on the website you can choose wether you like it/don't/love it and they send according to what you put on the website really good for snacking,

Nairnster

The problem I find with the graze boxes, is there is no option to deselect anything containing a certain food stuff.
I dont have time to go through all of their options individually, and they add new ones, which get sent, and you may not like them.

*I see they have this option for some foodstuffs now, but I still cannit deselect all raisin or sultana snacks automatically.

simon_e

Less snacking, drink more water, have more discipline and focus on meals. Cereal bars aren't a particularly good option.

Alpen is powdery stuff, so I'd add Jordan's original crunchy or the supermarket equivalent (Asda Raisin Honey & Almond 1kg), half a handful of raw porridge oats, some nuts and seeds. Premix this and keep it in a large container to save time each morning, let it soak for half and hour or more so it bulks up. Chop in some fruit such as dried apricots, apple, banana, kiwi. Sometimes I add rice krispies too. Eat it slowly.

For lunch include bulky raw veg - a whole carrot (don't cut it into poncey little sticks), spinach, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, celery or slices of bell pepper, for example. Hummus/houmous dip or similar goes well with all of these, in which case the poncey carrot sticks are OK And drink more water.

Flat wraps are a pleasant change from normal bread, which anyway should be properly baked bread, not Hovis/supermarket Chorleywood cotton wool in a plastic bag that doesn't go off for a week. Fillings like the veg above, grated raw beetroot, combine them with grated cheese (goes further than slices or chunks, cottage cheese, tuna or other fish.

If we have pasta / bean bake or similar for dinner (wholewheat pasta) or soup and bread (with real butter, not fake spread) there is often enough to have a portion for lunch the next day. Again, I add raw veg to bulk it up without too many empty calories.

Don't buy crisps, cake or biscuits so you won't be tempted. If there's a cafe or vending machine at work don't take any money with you. If you still find you need a snack mid-morning get some mixed nuts or nuts & raisins. Decide on how much is a sensible portion and have that and only that. If you get the nibbles tell yourself you are retraining or recalibrating both your stomach and your mind. And yes, it will work if you persist.

Fruit with natural yogurt is a great alternative to cakes and puddings, even though I love both of these. Don't get flavoured yogurt which has added sugar, just the plain.

Avoid fizzy drinks. They are sh1t.

A 5 minute commute means not time to burn off whatever you eat so very important - exercise more. Riding your bike lots will do more for your weight than eating so-called 'low fat' processed foods or dieting. And drink plenty of water (just in case I haven't mentioned it enough times yet).

trailflow

These are some of the best bars ive tried. They are as healthy as your gonna get for a cereal bar. Delivery is free on all orders aswell. Be warned they are quite addictive
http://www.9bar.com/

They sent me 4 extra 'breakfast' bars on my first order for free.

dilatory

Might seem like a daft question but why don't you just stop snacking? Most of it is habit. Every time you get hungry drink some water. Eat your breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The Kellyboy

I upped my training a lot about 2 years ago and in the first 8 months I'd lost about 5 or 6 pounds - big wow!
BUT...I had the idea to eat my evening meal and then have no more calories until breakfast. It was very hard at the beginning - going to bed STARVING! I lost over a stone in the next 3 months without any extra training.
Also, I reduced the size of my porridge at breakfast to about half a bowl. Again, the first day I was starving by dinner time, but after a few days I got used to it and now it's the norm. I found that my stomach coped and reacted really quickly.

Also, if I go to bed hungry I wake up full and if I go to bed full I wake up hungry. Strange but true.

florerider

The Kellyboy wrote:

Also, if I go to bed hungry I wake up full and if I go to bed full I wake up hungry. Strange but true.

llangwm logic there boy

sarm34

Ive been doing this for years (20 plus) , im a carpetfitter which is a physical job, because I spend most of my time bending down I get indigestion if I eat , so I don't do breakfast, or lunch, only tea and tea tends to be a big one, so basicly I go from tea to tea without having anything to eat, if I do find im really hungry during the day ill have a flapjack, now im aware that this wont suit everybody but it works for me and every Wednesday I go for a 30-40 mile ride having eaten nothing since the day before and have no problems with fatigue, im 5ft 8 and weigh 10st 8lbs.

LinkD

Simon E wrote:

Less snacking, drink more water, have more discipline and focus on meals. Cereal bars aren't a particularly good option.

Alpen is powdery stuff, so I'd add Jordan's original crunchy or the supermarket equivalent (Asda Raisin Honey & Almond 1kg), half a handful of raw porridge oats, some nuts and seeds. Premix this and keep it in a large container to save time each morning, let it soak for half and hour or more so it bulks up. Chop in some fruit such as dried apricots, apple, banana, kiwi. Sometimes I add rice krispies too. Eat it slowly.

For lunch include bulky raw veg - a whole carrot (don't cut it into poncey little sticks), spinach, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, celery or slices of bell pepper, for example. Hummus/houmous dip or similar goes well with all of these, in which case the poncey carrot sticks are OK And drink more water.

Flat wraps are a pleasant change from normal bread, which anyway should be properly baked bread, not Hovis/supermarket Chorleywood cotton wool in a plastic bag that doesn't go off for a week. Fillings like the veg above, grated raw beetroot, combine them with grated cheese (goes further than slices or chunks, cottage cheese, tuna or other fish.

If we have pasta / bean bake or similar for dinner (wholewheat pasta) or soup and bread (with real butter, not fake spread) there is often enough to have a portion for lunch the next day. Again, I add raw veg to bulk it up without too many empty calories.

Don't buy crisps, cake or biscuits so you won't be tempted. If there's a cafe or vending machine at work don't take any money with you. If you still find you need a snack mid-morning get some mixed nuts or nuts & raisins. Decide on how much is a sensible portion and have that and only that. If you get the nibbles tell yourself you are retraining or recalibrating both your stomach and your mind. And yes, it will work if you persist.

Fruit with natural yogurt is a great alternative to cakes and puddings, even though I love both of these. Don't get flavoured yogurt which has added sugar, just the plain.

Avoid fizzy drinks. They are sh1t.

A 5 minute commute means not time to burn off whatever you eat so very important - exercise more. Riding your bike lots will do more for your weight than eating so-called 'low fat' processed foods or dieting. And drink plenty of water (just in case I haven't mentioned it enough times yet).

Thank you for your post. I'm guilty of snacking (on the wrong things) and just reading this has been a sort of 'wake-up' call.

mangetout_rodney

I lost 10 kg in 3 months simply by cutting out most of the processed food and alcohol out of my diet.
I ate regular food- cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch and a meat and veg for dinner.
Snacks were nuts, fruit and some oat cakes.
Once a week I'd eat whatever I wanted.

whoof

I am currently trying to loose a bit of weight and have replaced snacks with tea. This isn't too bad as I like tea and it's working. As above spent the first week or so hungry all the time with my stomach complaining that it was not getting fed regularly enough. After a couple of weeks it has come to accept that it's not going to get anything (other than tea) until the next meal.

apreading

whoof wrote:

I am currently trying to loose a bit of weight and have replaced snacks with tea. This isn't too bad as I like tea and it's working. As above spent the first week or so hungry all the time with my stomach complaining that it was not getting fed regularly enough. After a couple of weeks it has come to accept that it's not going to get anything (other than tea) until the next meal.

I follow the same tactic regularly, with wrigleys extra to supplement the tea and between them this does help cope with alot of the cravings until the body/mind adjust and accept the reduced intake.

neeb

Bananas. Just eat 3 or 4 of them if necessary.

Or if you are genuinely hungry and need fuel, a self-sliced chunk of really good wholegrain bread, as mentioned above properly baked bread, not the fluffy rubbish, i.e. thick textured and heavy. Pretty difficult to get unfortunately. Maybe with almond butter (no margarine or butter necessary as it has oil in it already). Or I will allow myself a good quality fruit jam if I am about to go out for a ride, with olive oil in place of butter (you can freeze olive oil then transfer it to the fridge to make it spreadable).