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.

The Sweet Debate

One of my worst vices is sweets. As I've mentioned before, if my nose even gets a small whiff of something sweet--no matter where I am--I'm drawn to the source. Like other sugar addicts like me, I find it extremely hard to resist temptation, as my mouth waters in anticipation and I'll do most anything to have just a taste.

Problem is, I can't stop with just one taste. Eating just a little something sweet is enough for most people, but not me! That one morsel sends my cravings soaring, and I can easily find myself completely emptying an entire package of cookies or a large bag of M&Ms before I even know what hit me.

The more I sweets I eat, the more I want. And that means tons of wasted calories and more and more weight piled on.

In an effort to cut back on calories when I go on one of these sweets binges and just can't get enough, I've been substituting artificial sweeteners for years. My reasoning was like that of most fat people: I'll take in less calories so I won't gain weight, right?

Wrrrronggg! I just end up allowing myself to eat more than ever, partly because I make excuses and partly because I know I'm not eating high-calorie sugar, so I can pig out even more. But why I am I bigger than ever??

Scientists and nutritionists say that ingesting large amounts of lo- or no-calorie foods really does trick us into eating more. Why? Two reasons. One, as I mentioned already, we actually end up eating more because we know we're not piling on the calories. And two, eating no-calorie sweets actually causes our metabolism to slow down so we store more fat than if we ate real sugar instead. And these principles apply not only to food, but also to those diet sodas (or pop, whatever you call it) some of us enjoy daily too.

From the research, it appears we'd do better to actually imbibe once in a while and eat something sugar-laden just to get our fill. But if you're like me and have a hard time stopping with just a little--whether it's real sugar or a substitute--it's almost better not to take that very first bite. But then we feel deprived and overdo anyway.

Is there a good solution? Anyone want to take a stab at it for all the sugar addicts out there? I'm open to suggestions.....