Healthy Snacks
 

In the cutting phase thread i saw Wynton take a lot of heat for his choices in between meals snacks. I to sometimes find myself a little hungry between meals, or at times just need to eat on the go.

Can we discuss some healthy and productive snacks here that you guys recommend?

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

beef jerky
almonds
the flesh of a virgin
fruit
veggies

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

This morning - inspired by the criticism - I picked up a bag of baby carrots, which is something I used to snack on. I assume that's unobjectionable.

And would it be awful if I added a little salt?

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

Is it really so bad if I have one of these little guys a day? They're kept in the common area of my office and hard to resist.

http://www.sugarstand.com/images/csc/csc0002b.jpg

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

wynton, its not terrible if you have a couple every week...but you are kidding yourself if you think that they are helping you out and not detracting from your weight loss goals...and i wouldn't suggest eating them alone, have some blueberries or a piece of beef jerky with them...

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

A nuance/nitpick, maybe semantic: Rather than by starting by adding more healthy food, start with trying to eliminate a bad choice and not replacing it with another.

Some folks are probably going to need to figure out how to get a bit of chocolate every day. If you are one of those people and you get to the point where you want to look at that, maybe consider all chocolate isn't created equal.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

i like shemps idea...instead of removing things that you really like, chocolate for example...don't completely remove it from your life, just become picky about it, don't eat crappy chocolate, get some good chocolates and treat yourself every couple days or whatever...become a food snob [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

[ QUOTE ]
i like shemps idea...instead of removing things that you really like, chocolate for example...don't completely remove it from your life, just become picky about it, don't eat crappy chocolate, get some good chocolates and treat yourself every couple days or whatever...become a food snob [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, this is a good way to go. I like to think to myself "this candy bar is 30 minutes of jogging" and then you decide if it's worth it. With crappy candy it's not worth it. Think of all sugar and empty calories as poison. It makes you really picky.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

[ QUOTE ]
get some good chocolates and treat yourself every couple days or whatever...become a food snob

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, don't waste calories. If you are gonna cheat a little, make sure it's worth it and get the best stuff you can find.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

Well, I stared at that little bite-size candy for too long, ate it and now I feel all dirty.

But it's so teeny, that it seems so harmless.

By the way, is low-fat or non-fat yogurt (with no sugar added) pretty unobjectionable?

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

[ QUOTE ]

By the way, is low-fat or non-fat yogurt (with no sugar added) pretty unobjectionable?

[/ QUOTE ]

fitday.com

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

been trying to compile a grocery list, here's what I've got for "work out food":

potatoes
tuna
pasta
bananas
rice cakes
chicken breast
oatmeal
protein drinks
peanuts
yogurt
beef jerky
fajita turkey burgers
nut cookies
toasted oat ceereal
orange juice
chocolate milk
wheat crackers
string cheese
grilled fish
green salad

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

rice cakes and chocolate milk dont strike me as "workout food".

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

[ QUOTE ]
been trying to compile a grocery list, here's what I've got for "work out food":

potatoes
tuna
pasta
bananas
rice cakes
chicken breast
oatmeal
protein drinks
peanuts
yogurt
beef jerky
fajita turkey burgers
nut cookies
toasted oat ceereal
orange juice
chocolate milk
wheat crackers
string cheese
grilled fish
green salad

[/ QUOTE ]

if potato = sweet potato is good...

nut cookie, i doubt any cookies are good for you, check ingredients/macros

pasta = protein enriched or wheat pasta is fine

nice cakes = no bueno

yogurt is not the flavored fruity stuff, check ingredients/macros

toasted oat cereal = likely not good, check ingredients/macros...

orange juice = eat an orange, most juices have added sugars

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

Those Naked Smoothie drinks have about as much sugar as a bottle of Coke, but the bottle says its the natural sugar from the fruit. That means it's not bad right? We sell them at my job and I get em free so I was thinkin of making them my breakfast on some days..

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

if the ingredients are all fruits and not lots of things that end with "ose" then you are probably talking only about natural sugars...but you would have to check the ingredients...

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

why are rice cakes so bad? at like 60cal they seem like a solid snack.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

its basically empty carb calories...60 calories of nothing is not the same as 60 useful calories...this is why the 100cal sweet snack pack things are such crap...

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

Rice cakes send your insulin through the roof IIRC.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

[ QUOTE ]
its basically empty carb calories...60 calories of nothing is not the same as 60 useful calories...this is why the 100cal sweet snack pack things are such crap...

[/ QUOTE ]
It is certainly much better than 200+ calories of complete junk though. It's not ideal but it's a step in the right direction for the snack food industry and people with horrible diets (myself).

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
its basically empty carb calories...60 calories of nothing is not the same as 60 useful calories...this is why the 100cal sweet snack pack things are such crap...

[/ QUOTE ]
It is certainly much better than 200+ calories of complete junk though. It's not ideal but it's a step in the right direction for the snack food industry and people with horrible diets (myself).

[/ QUOTE ]

yes, 60cal of crap is less bad then 200cal of crap [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

I used to be into the whole rice cake snack type of thing until I had like an epiphany. Just eat something useful for a snack. That means protein & vegetables or whatever. Hell, have half a sandwich. Yes, this might make your snack higher calorie. But that is not the problem with your diet. Probably you are eating too many empty calories at one of your meals. If you are just eating whole, useful, healthy foods, when you are hungry, you cannot get fat.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

In fact, I consider this whole idea of finding "healthy snacks" to be part of the whole "diet trick" mentality which is the whole wrong way to go about it. Successful long term dieting is not about tricks or low-calorie snacks to tide you over. You shouldn't really be going through semi-starvation hungry periods even when dieting. You should be eating good foods spread out throughout the day, and if you want to lose weight just make sure the total is a calorie negative.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

[ QUOTE ]
I used to be into the whole rice cake snack type of thing until I had like an epiphany. Just eat something useful for a snack. That means protein & vegetables or whatever. Hell, have half a sandwich. Yes, this might make your snack higher calorie. But that is not the problem with your diet. Probably you are eating too many empty calories at one of your meals. If you are just eating whole, useful, healthy foods, when you are hungry, you cannot get fat.

[/ QUOTE ]

Until two days ago when I got criticized here for it, I subsisted on rice cakes for my late night snack. I'm persuaded rice cakes are bad, but I'm not yet convinced it's ok to eat something more nutritious, if that means more calories.

I suppose the idea is that, with a proper number of meals throughout the day, I can actually reduce the total number of calories? That would be great if it actually works out that way.

And it makes kind of an intuitive sense. Certainly, my body seems naturally to want more food every 2-3 hours, regardless of whether I eat a huge amount or small amount.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

I hate to keep coming back here asking about foods, but what about Clif Bars? I look on ingredients and keep seeing "organic" for stuff. A few "-ates" and some protein, carbs, and sugar. Are these just ok, great, or bad? Oh yeah and the juice was pretty much all fruit, and definately no Higl Fructose Corn Syrup, which is the killer. I looked for that specifically.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

[ QUOTE ]
I hate to keep coming back here asking about foods, but what about Clif Bars? I look on ingredients and keep seeing "organic" for stuff. A few "-ates" and some protein, carbs, and sugar. Are these just ok, great, or bad? Oh yeah and the juice was pretty much all fruit, and definately no Higl Fructose Corn Syrup, which is the killer. I looked for that specifically.

[/ QUOTE ]

recently the word "organic" was legally redefined to mean that it contains at least 10% or 5% or whatever organic ingredient. that's what I heard anyway, in any case the label "organic" has been incredibly watered down.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/sos.cfm

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

Some snacks that were especially helpful to me losing 20 pounds earlier this year, and by augmenting portion sizes and protien level have continued to be beneficial in gaining size and strength:

Fat-free cottage cheese + any fruit (pear and apple my favorite)
Whole wheat pita, toasted + low-fat hummus and/or taboulli (sp?)
Sweet-potato
Low-fat beef jerky
Obv. protien shakes, vanilla is good enough to me to call it a snack
FRUIT, FRUIT, FRUIT, FRUIT!!!!!!!!

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

what are people's thoughts on:

canned veggies
canned tuna

also, please explain what goes into a a protein shake and/or postworkout shake. im a 'tard.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

i have totally been digging on these lately.

http://www.protos-inc.com/

taste great, low cal (80), hi protein.

better than plain jerky all the time which gets boring.
try the pepper flavor.

who would have known i would like to eat ostrich???

later. J.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

[ QUOTE ]
what are people's thoughts on:

canned veggies
canned tuna

also, please explain what goes into a a protein shake and/or postworkout shake. im a 'tard.

[/ QUOTE ]

i would go with frozen veggies over canned
canned tuna/chicken is great
canned beans are great

i think people use protein shake as a placeholder for any shake that contains protein powder, no matter what else it contains...the only time i have a shake with just water and protein is workout time...all other times it has flax, olive oil, fruits, peanut butter or whatever...

post workout shake is usually protein or a mixture of protein/sugar...

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

[ QUOTE ]
if potato = sweet potato is good...

[/ QUOTE ]Why are sweet potatoes ok and regular ones not ok? They have the same macros according to calorieking.com.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

sweet potatoes have the lowest glycemic index for a potato, although they are all relatively close...there might be other reasons, not too sure...

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

I just want you all to know that, as my office-mates munch on a bunch of cupcakes, with delicious-looking frosting, I'm chewing on some baby carrots.

I hope you're all happy.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
if potato = sweet potato is good...

[/ QUOTE ]Why are sweet potatoes ok and regular ones not ok? They have the same macros according to calorieking.com.

[/ QUOTE ]

They have a lot more vitamins and minerals, they have antioxidants, they also have a lot more fiber. Yeah, they're still basically just simple carbs but they're not just empty carbs like a potato is.

Potato = white bread
Sweet potato = wheat bread

(sort of)

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

[ QUOTE ]

I just want you all to know that, as my office-mates munch on a bunch of cupcakes, with delicious-looking frosting, I'm chewing on some baby carrots.

I hope you're all happy.

[/ QUOTE ]

when my professor passed around cookies for the class to enjoy for finishing our first law school paper, i looked at the cookie and reached my hand towards it, stopping inches before and saying "i don't need a cookie" and then handing it to my adjacent classmate.

they had m&ms on them.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

[ QUOTE ]
I just want you all to know that, as my office-mates munch on a bunch of cupcakes, with delicious-looking frosting, I'm chewing on some baby carrots.

I hope you're all happy.

[/ QUOTE ]
lol, I know where you're coming from. The first few days (of diet adjustment) were especially hard for me.

Re: Healthy Snacks
 

I'm weird. I love carrots. Crunching is fun!