Snacking at work

One of the easiest ways to mess up any diet is to snack on the wrong things.  Maybe you've done a great job of planning your meals but all of a sudden, between meals you get hungry.  It's still two hours until your next "planned" meal but you are starving.  So you start thinking about the Snickers bar in the snack machine.  Or maybe it's the donuts sitting in the break room.  All of these sound good but are a nightmare for a diet.  So how do I deal with this problem?  Have good snacks available!!

When making my lunch for work, I always include extra food for snacks.  In a minute I will share some of my favorite snack ideas but first, there are going to be times when I forget to bring a snack with my lunch.  Because I know these times will happen, I have "backup" snacks in my desk or cabinet at work.  These snacks need to be things easily stored for long periods of time.

Basic snacks with a decent shelf life:

• chips (homemade: cut corn tortillas into 6ths and then bake on 400 for about 15-18 min, put them in a ziploc bag and you're good to go!)
• crackers (I like Trader Joe's Corn Tortilla Flat Breads-Salted Sesame, Edward & Sons Brown Rice Snaps-Tamari Sesame or Toasted Onion)
• raisins or other dried fruit
• Red Mill granola
• tea (I love Good Earth's caffeine free Sweet & Spicy Herbal Tea, for whatever reason a cup of this helps satisfy my appetite!)

If you have access to a microwave, there are even more options:

• oatmeal (I can't eat it straight, I keep a little brown sugar in a ziploc to put over the top)
• Dry soups (Dr. McDougall Big Cup of Soup but they are pretty high in sodium, for those in Bakersfield, CA the bulk section of Lassens has a soup called Curry Lentil Soup, put it in a cup, cover it with water and microwave it for about 1 1/2 minutes.  I also like to put a little hot sauce on it to give it some pep)
• popcorn (no butter or salt, I like Bearitos Organic Microwave popcorn)

Now for snacks I bring with me:

• fruit ( banana, grapes, whatever is in season)
• whole wheat pita bread and hummus or other dipping sauce, BBQ sauce, etc)
• Happy Herbivore Apple Crisp muffins
• Banana Bread
• fig newtons (Marin Brand Whole Wheat Fig Bar, Barbara's Bakery but be careful, many of their varieties have oil)
• carrot sticks, sliced bell pepper, celery, etc.
• Trader Joe's Indian Lavash Flat Bread
• small green salad w/oil free dressing (yep, I'll use a small salad as a snack between meals....another cool way to get some veggies!)

I'm sure you can think of many other snacks that would work but these are some of my favorites.  I hope this helps and feel free to share your favorites in the Comments section for this post.