Nutrition: Sweet Tooth

I have a terrible sweet tooth. I know it is my downfall. I love sweets, fruits, and most of the time I just don't feel my dinner is complete until I eat something sweet.

There are foods that are sweet and yet pack a healthy punch. I'm trying to utilize more of these and fewer less healthy ones.

It has taken time to adjust to not having chocolate at the end of the day, not even in fun size.

While unhealthy snacks are still treats on occasion, I am trying to eat them in considerable moderation. If I feel like ice cream, I get the '1/2 the fat' kind, and have one scoop with peaches to fill the rest of my bowl. I may divide cookies in half and share with others. I choose fun size candy over a full size bar. Again, this is sparingly.

Instead, I have found a few sweet, but healthy snacks.

• Dried berries
• Plain animal crackers
• Fruit
• Some granola bars, even with chocolate (I look for ones with a good amount of protein)
• Hot cocoa
• Fruit smoothie with low fat vanilla yogurt (I like to freeze it and eat it with a spoon, making scrapings) (what?) (Yeah, okay, it's a sensory thing.)
• String cheese and frozen grapes
• Yogurt and banana
• Peanut butter and apples
• Warm pear half and cinnamon 

Just watch your serving sizes.

This blog post from Daily Hiit on Ways to Crush Your Sweet Tooth is helpful. It highlights that many times when your body craves sugar, it is saying it needs energy or water.

Many times lack of protein in your diet can contribute to sugar cravings as the body looks for a quick energy source. Adding protein to every meal ensures that the body always has fuel to access and maintains a steady blood sugar level, preventing any spikes and crashes.

Steady blood sugar helps your moods, not just your cravings. Bonus!

Rule of thumb for snacks that keep you going and keep your metabolism up: 10g of protein and 5g of fiber.

Using MyFitnessPal is one way to keep track of your protein, calories, and sugar intake. It is not very accurate, but at least it is something to keep you thinking about what you put in your body. If you can journal, keep a dairy of your food, what time you ate it, what you crave and when, and how many calories, fat, protein, fiber, and sugars per serving. This is not something I have done. I like that MyFitnessPal will keep the data for me, even if it is not entirely accurate. Just thinking about it helps keep your diet goals in mind.

The easiest thing to do is to simply not buy the sweet snacks. If they aren't in your cupboards, you can't eat them. There will not be temptation. We give ourselves and the kids crackers, pretzels, animal crackers, fruits, string cheese, and peanut butter on whole wheat bread. I am in love with hummus and pita chips, in case I haven't mentioned that before. :) I switched to Kashi bars instead of Chewy bars. They cost more, but I am investing in my body.

I have been instilling that thought into my husband's brain.. that groceries may cost more, if they are better for us. Investing in ourselves is worth it!

33 more snack ideas (less healthy and more chocolatey than mine) Some other snacks under 50 calories if you like applesauce or jello

Nutrition: Snack Time!

Oh, how I love to snack!

As a child, I would snack on simple things that we had lying around. Carrots, cheese, apples, peanut butter, sometimes chips, popcorn, maybe a piece of candy.

Then I grew up.

I nearly starved one semester in college, eating peanut butter sandwiches, corn, pop tarts, and spaghetti. I didn't have money for treats that semester. I walked to class a lot that year. I was underweight. Fortunately, I took a daily vitamin.

After I got a job money was still an issue and what to cook and pack in lunches was top priority. Dollar microwave meals full of sodium, granola bars high in sugar, and bottled drinks full of high fructose corn syrup were the cheapest route. Snacks came in convenient packages, or boxes of crackers that could be divvied up into sandwich baggies.

Snacks can be my downfall. I find myself eating the most snacks as I watch TV right before bed. I get "the munchies" and want to fill up my stomach for the night's hibernation.

What is a healthy snack?

Here is what to look for in a good healthy snack:

• Under 200 calories
• 10 grams of protein
• 5 grams of fiber

Examples:

• Apple and glass of milk
• Pita chips and hummus
• dried berries and nuts
• crackers and tuna
• toast with chopped pears, cottage cheese, and crushed walnuts in a spread (haven't tried this)

(See Snacks that burn fat or 28 best healthy snacks)

I like to eat apples with peanut butter, carrots with hummus, and a banana with a cheese stick.

These snacks remind me of what I ate as a child. Why did I stop eating like this? 

I guess, I learned how to find the cheap food, the sweet, fattening, pre-packaged things that grocery stores put right out there at eye-level. It was cheaper, easier. They then made 100 calorie packs, to make me feel better about packing my lunch.

But they are still unhealthy.

I got married and times were still tough. Food that was not as healthy was cheaper. Flavorings, corn syrups, preservatives, things that make food processing fast and bulky also made it cheaper to produce and sell. We tried all kinds of microwave meals, pre-packaged foods, and things that would keep for a long time so we could buy in bulk. My husband and I had limited knowledge of recipes to cook from. We had to expand our cooking repertoire. We had to learn to read labels, study, and find out the hard way that we were not eating the things our bodies needed.

Then we had kids. 

The time is ripe to teach them good eating and healthy snacking skills. If we don't buy it, they can't eat it.

So I am going back to snacking like a kid. For myself, for my kids, and for the future. No kool-aid for them, no cookies, no artificially flavored juices, no sugary fruit snacks, no pop tarts, no snack cakes, no microwave meals. Rarely, we do buy some of these things, but the goal is to teach them to eat the good things more than the bad.

The foods I ate as a kid are good enough for my own kids and they continue to be the best choices for me.