Low-Cal Snacking

Hearing your stomach rumble can be really embarrassing--especially when you're at work sitting in a meeting or in a social setting of some sort. It's not a pleasant feeling either! But when you're between meals and can't fill your tummy to capacity, how can you silence it so you can go on with life and function until that next meal comes?

If you don't know so by now, snacking is the answer...or is it? Wait a minute; doesn't snacking just add calories and cause us to gain weight?

For those of us who are overweight (likely everyone who's reading this blog), snacking can be a danger zone. For many, myself included, once I get started it can be really hard to stop. But by choosing snacks wisely, we can limit the number of calories we ingest even if we do pig out, so it seems a wise thing to do. Besides, it keeps us from eating more than we should at meals, and that's a good thing when it comes to weight loss!

In searching for healthy alternatives to high calorie snacks, I ran across a post on the About.com weight loss blog that offered these options, all of which have 100 or fewer calories each. Not only are they low in calories to help us stay on track; most of them also help satisfy a sweet tooth (see my earlier post on that subject)!

• 1/2 c. sugar-free Jello and two Tbsp. reduced-fat whipped topping
• two handfuls of chocolate raisins
• 1/2 an apple spread with 2 tsp. peanut butter
• 1/2 c. orange juice (Try it frozen!)
• 1/2 c. fat-free, sugar-free instant or packaged pudding
• whole wheat toast with 1 tsp. sugar-free spread
• non-fat yogurt (artificially sweetened)
• single serving of apple sauce
• 1 serving of many varieties of Campbell's soups
• a Fudgesicle
• 6 saltine crackers with 2 tsp. of peanut butter (My personal favorite!)
• half a turkey sandwich using reduced-calorie bread, mustard, and veggies
• mock S'more: reduced-fat Graham cracker, topped with a jumbo marshmallow and drizzled with chocolate syrup

Sounds pretty yummy, huh? Think I'll give the apple and peanut butter option a try right now. Maybe it will keep me from overdoing it at dinner...another 2 hours away!

Give some of these low-cal snacks a try and let me know what you think.