Thanks for all of your supportive comments on my morning post! To me, cleaning up my diet means eating less of the unhealthy stuff and eating more of the nutritious stuff. I find that if I eat well-balanced snacks and meals, I actually don’t crave sweets (and other junk food) as much.
With that said, I’m going to try to incorporate more healthy snacks into my diet. At the Dole Healthy Lifestyle Blogger Summit, we learned that Dole provides free fruit and veggie snacks to their employees every day of the work week. They have fruit in the morning and veggies in the afternoon. I think this is a really neat idea and a fantastic way to add more nutrients to my diet, so I’m going to eat a couple of fruit- and veggie-based snacks each day.
Here’s the list of snack ideas that I made for myself:
- Hummus + veggies
- Fruit + cheese
- Greek yogurt + berries
- Hardboiled egg + veggies
- Banana + nut butter
- Fruit + handful of nuts
- Celery + peanut butter
- Soy milk latte
- Greek yogurt mixed with pumpkin + cinnamon
- Banana Bread Smoothie
- Gingerbread Smoothie
- Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
- Sweet Potato Pie Smoothie
- Roasted chickpeas + veggies
- Canned tuna with relish, mustard + veggies
- Apple Pear Salad
- Feta-Walnut Stuffed Cucumbers
- Honey-Roasted Root Vegetables
- Lemon-Glazed Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Bananas
- Sweet Potato Fries
I don’t really have a specific portion size in mind for my snacks””I’ll probably just base their size on my level of hunger and my activities for the day””but if you’re looking for more concrete nutritional targets, Real Simple offered these guidelines for snacking in their September issue, which I thought look helpful:
About 200 calories: This is enough to keep your metabolism humming, says Bethany Thayer, a registered dietitian in Detroit.
At least 3 grams of fiber: Fiber is digested slowly and helps sustain your energy. It also absorbs water and expands in your stomach to keep you full.
At least 5 grams of protein: “Protein releases a hormone in the body that increases satiety,” says Elisa Zied, a registered dietitian in New York City.
No more than 12 grams of fat: This will help ensure that you don’t get more than 20 to 35 percent of your daily calories from fat, which is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recommendation.
What are your favorite healthy snacks? I’d love some more ideas!
Snack
Speaking of snacks, here’s the one that I ate mid-morning: arugula with grape tomatoes, crumbled feta, and leftover balsamic-mustard dressing. Hooray for veggies!
Lunch
A couple of hours later, I made lunch: Spicy Rice Quinoa Soup.
With a side of roasted broccoli and some Kashi TLC Fire Roasted Vegetable crackers.
After lunch, I whipped up a homemade mocha with Starbucks French Roast coffee, hot chocolate, and soy milk.
Mmm”¦ the perfect sweet treat in just seconds!
Snack
CrossFit is on the agenda for this evening, so I’m fueling up with peanut butter and banana slices on a whole wheat Sandwich Thin right now.
mypressi TWIST Espresso Machine Giveaway
Hopefully, you guys aren’t sick of the giveaways on CNC because here’s another one!
Tomorrow, OpenSky is offering a deal on the mypressi TWIST Espresso Machine, so they want to drum-up excitement by giving away one on my blog this afternoon! If you’d like to enter, just click over to this post and leave a comment!
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Off to walk the pug! See ya!