Food to Live By: Snack Your Way to Health

Natural Peanut Butter...it's better for you!

It's mid-January and some people are already starting to fall off the wagon with their New Year's resolutions to eat healthy and/or lose weight. How are you doing? Are you eating healthy meals only to ruin your efforts with junk food from the vending machine? Why not make "snacking" your friend instead of your enemy? That's what I do.


People are often surprised to see how often I eat... not a LOT of food, just FREQUENT meals/snacks. I do that not only because it feels good, but also because it's good science. If our bodies go longer than 2-3 hours without food, they start to worry about the next meal and begin to store fat. That is why I try to eat 5-6 times per day. Since I am busy and don't have time to create gourmet snacks at work or when on the run, I have developed a few "go to" snacks. Here are a few you might enjoy:


1 small apple and 2-3 Baby Bel light cheese rounds
1 oz beef jerkey and 1 oz air-popped potato chips or popcorn
1 container greek yogurt (plain) and 1 small banana (if it's big, eat half... share with a friend)
handful of celery sticks and about 28 raw almonds
1 instand Maple Brown Sugar instant oatmeal and 1 Tbsp natural peanut butter


By the way, don't knock the oatmeal idea until you try it. A triathlete and triathalon trainer I know gave me this idea and I now LOVE it! The PB doesn't work so well in other flavors, though...


Try some of these ideas or share some of your own. With a little effort--and planning--we can snack our way to health!