What is your go-to healthy/low-calorie snack?

Cafe Society
21

That’s really the center of the whole thing right there.

If you’re genuinely short of calories, eat real food. Perhaps in small quantities, but real food.

Snacking is much more a boredom relieving gambit than it is a feeding behavior. Which is why smokers who quit often turn into snackers. It’s something to fiddle with to reduce boredom and it involves their mouth. Just as cigs did.

If you’re fighting eating-as-boredom-relief (and I put all eating in front of a TV in that category), first off rename it. You’re not “snacking”; you’re “bored-eating”. Calling your enemy by his/her true name is an important part of understanding and conquering him/her. Bored-eating is a very different beast from grazing a table of snacky food at a party even if the menu is exactly the same.

Next redirect it. When the urge to bored-eat hits, indulge it. By getting yourself a 12oz glass of water, no-cal flavored water, no-cal fizzy water, or if you must no-cal soda/cola/whatever. Slowly drink that whole thing. The boredom is relieved, the urge to involve taste buds and mouth is relieved, and 12 floz is a pretty bulky snack that doesn’t quickly compress in the stomach. Pretty soon you’ll recognize that that’s actually more quantity than you actually wanted added to your stomach. But, critically, it isn’t carb-y snack food where each bite triggers more desire to eat even as it packs in the body-fattening carb-y calories.

After a month or two’s practice with this you’re ready for the last step: resist it. Once you naturally automatically think “Oh yeah, I’m not actually hungry, I’m just bored.” it becomes easy to say “I don’t really need the liquid; I just need to do something totally different to break the boredom.” Walk around, switch work tasks, quit 'Doping, whatever.

Rename, redirect, resist.

No one step is hard or large. Do one, it’ll lead you to the second in due course, which will lead you to the third in due course as well.

22

I am fat and lazy and single and I live alone and I don’t cook and I love carbs. I spent the past year giving in to pretty much every culinary temptation: every meal that was delivered included dessert(s), I got in the habit of always having both salty and sweet snacks in the house, etc. It was so easy to blame the stress and isolation! But after my first vaccination dose last month, when I started to see some light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, I realized that if something didn’t change I might not be physically fit enough to travel and/or see friends and family again when the time came.

Trying to eliminate snacks entirely would backfire, so I’ve pivoted to healthier options (for me, right now “healthier” = “less gratuitous sugar”). In addition to buying yogurt again for the first time in years and reminding myself that Jell-O makes a darn fine sugar-free dark chocolate pudding, I started making my own “almond and craisin” mix.

I like the Sargento Balanced Breaks packages of white cheddar cheese with almonds and dried cranberries, and recently realized that I was often more interested in the latter than the former. So the last time I went to the grocery store, I bought a bag of reduced-sugar craisins (so much sugar in the regular ones! :open_mouth: ) and some unsalted almonds, and mixed 'em in a plastic container. Not bad at all! Next time I might try using lightly salted almonds, though. I generally don’t like the taste of salt, so I tend to prefer unsalted/lower-sodium items, but sometimes a little salt is a good thing.

Also currently on my “good” list are dried pineapple and low/no-sugar mandarin oranges. And I’m trying to get back into the habit of drinking a 12-oz can of low-sodium V8 at lunchtime, because (a) it’s filling and (b) I never eat vegetables.

23

I’ve been really into clementines and those 100 calorie packs of almonds lately. My dietician, bless her patient soul, encourages snacking with the rule of “produce and a protein!” And says I should eat celery and peanut butter, or a small cheese and some cherry tomatoes, or a slice of turkey and cucumber rounds. But hopefully, the orange will do for now.

24

Not exactly “low calorie” but pistachios are my snack of choice. Apparently making them a chore to get to actually keeps you from eating too many.

25

Someone on here a while ago recommended Crio Bru brewed cacao beans. Turned out they are available here. If I am hungry and it isn’t a meal time I brew up a pot and mix it with a cup of heated, unsweetened almond milk. About 40 calories for a huge hot milky chocolate. It isn’t sweet but that is how I prefer chocolate. Sometimes, in warmer weather, I have plain Greek yogurt with unsweetened cocoa as a dessert.

26

Gonna have to try. Thanks!

27

A hard-boiled egg or a half-cup of cottage cheese is pretty filling without being too caloric. I also genuinely like vegetables, so sometimes cut up some broccoli or asparagus, and steam it in the microwave with a dab of olive oil or butter and some seasoning (sumac, bacon salt, pepper, whatever is handy).

As a health matter I try to eat a small bowl of plain yogurt everyday with mixed berries and almonds. Unless I’m hungry, I usually don’t want to add that to my breakfast (I have oatmeal most days, or eggs or avocado toast), so it ends up being a snack later in the day. I don’t actually like it that well, but it’s harmless and filling.

On the less healthy side, I’ll often eat a few olives as a snack. I’m lucky enough to have fairly low blood pressure so the extra salt isn’t a huge deal. And they really hit the spot - after two or three large olives I can make it until dinner time without feeling super hungry.

28

Healthy snack? A banana. Sometimes an apple or an orange.

Usual snack? Chips, chocolate, or cheese.

29

I keep a bowl of bombay mix and spiced peas on my desk while I work. I don’t think they’re particularly low-calorie - haven’t checked, but I know there’s frying involved in their preparation - but the thing is, because they’re strongly flavoured, they’re satisfying with just a tiny handful.

And, because they’re in a bowl, you have to eat them in tiny handfuls, rather than scoffing a whole bag of crisps. So I think the way you eat the snack helps, as well as the actual thing you’re eating.

I also occasionally snack on nuts, which are high-calorie but, because they’re mostly protein, stop your need for other foods for longer than carbs. For the same reason I’d second carnut in the recommendation of olives.

One thing I’d consider lunch but some people eat as a snack is a sort of British version of caprese salad - cubes of cheddar cheese with chopped tomato and, if I can be bothered, some fresh basil leaves and balsamic vinegar. They’re things I always have around at home anyway. It’s really satisfying, especially if you call it caprese and feel posh while you’re eating it.

30

Spicy pickles are a great snack, tasty and almost zero calorie. The extra sodium is no big deal if you drink more water and are healthy. Easy to make from scratch. But also easy to add a few chopped jalapeños or habaneros to any jar of pickles (though also adding a bit of salt and vinegar will hasten the uptake of capsaicins).

31

I like to make iced coffee with decaf, or real coffee with like 40% 3.25% milk, and the rest water, ice, ingredients, and a dash of maple syrup. Honey works, but I say maple syrup wins. It’s easier to stir in since it’s not such a sticky consistency, n I feel nice off it, better than sugar defz. Healthy low calorie snack, probably fruits doge. That, yogurt, or just maybe a bit of meat based stuff in general that’s like in it’s whole form, not processed. I like to eat chickpea salad with vinaigrette. It’s really quite amazin. You can make it with simple ingredients, n it’s kinda a bit more satisfying compared vs regular vegetable salad since the beans is more comfort food belly filling style with calories. It’s good to get into smoothying to. It gives you something to do with your vegetables so they won’t go rotten n that kind of shite. They can be quite energizing. Feel like you could run across Amorica. In the field of greens, I would say to give up the spinach, and if you do use at most like a bit of baby spinach in a mix. Spinach has a lot of oxalates, which are anti nutrients that can cause problems in older people. Kale, arugula, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, shit like that is ideal, ofc lettuce is nice to. The basic iceberg kinda stuff kinda eh though. The leaf lettuce, and romaine is what ur lookin fer. You can buy bagged already chopped carrots, and purple cabbage. Try putting them in some tuna samwiches chopped really fine with onions.

32

Or a few nuts. I find protein more filling and that it has the power to keep me from feeling hungry again quickly. If the snack is carbs, it’s going to be (pre-popped, un buttered) popcorn, quick and with fiber. As much as I like veggies dipped in hummus, it requires more preparation, so it’s not a go-to.

33

Buy a bag of baby carrots or celery sticks and a tub of prefab hummus. Prep time is approximately 4 seconds to get out them both of the fridge. Dip the one in the other and devour. Good stuff and stupid-quick. Works for me.

34

IMO, prefab baby carrots suck. My worst problem is that I live alone and dislike waste and I love for my veggies to be super fresh. I do like roasted garlic hummus from my fav restaurant. But if I can’t find truly fresh veg, I skip the hummus too.

35

I’m a salt fiend. I love salted sunflower seeds in the shell. It takes a long time to eat a little. Pickles are really satisfying if you are feeling snacky but not for anything in particular. I love frozen blueberries with a splash of milk. The milk gets icy and slushy while the blueberries are like little popsicles.

36

I forgot to mention - a mug of sippable soup, like tomato or butternut squash, is very satisfying and gets some vegetables in you.

37

I almost gave up carrots as a snack because those little ones creeped me out, but then figured, hey, the skin has nutrients… what about just rinsing off a Real Carrot™ and munching it (role model: Bugs Bunny).

If I’m craving protein, I dip it in peanut butter (or Trader Joe’s Nut Butter… Almond, Cashew and Hazelnut, I think).

38

I have done exactly this, but it still isn’t my go-to snack. I already have other go-to snacks around and don’t need more. But thanks for the effort.

39

I tell ya, crunching something is very soul-satisfying. Which is how a carrot can dare to compete with a big cherry danish when I need a snack.

40

Hummus.