So you think watching the calories during lunch and dinner is enough to prevent you from putting on the kilos? Well, if you are meticulously sticking to salad or grilled food for your large meals, and then grabbing whatever you can in between when the hunger pangs really hit you, you need to read on. In order to stick to your fitness goals, you need to make sure that you snack properly too. Here are a few easy hacks to ensure that your snacking habits are healthy.
Don’t wait till you are starving
Your body gives you signs that it is hungry. Each time you feel irritable or feel a craving for some snack, or feel the hunger pangs, you will find yourself reaching out for food. But waiting for these signals is a bad idea–because then you either end up grabbing anything that is available and that is not necessarily healthy, or you end up overeating. Give your body food at regular intervals, even before it communicates to you that it needs fuel.
Carry a snack pack
Make your own 100 calorie snack packs and carry them in Ziploc bags with you at all times. These could contain 100 calories of your favourite snacks. So you can stock up on dried fruits, healthy nuts, cereal, popcorn or even protein bars. Keep them in your bag so that even when you are commuting, you can just grab one whenever you feel like munching. This will stop you from overindulging, which can lead to weight gain.
Eat your fruits
Instead of fruit juices, grab a whole fruit. It has more quantities of fibre and lesser calories compared to fruit juice. Moreover, fruit juices might have added sugar—definitely not healthy for you. The fibre in whole fruits even prevents certain types of cancer and also keeps your bowel movements regular, and fills you up quicker so that you end up consuming fewer calories.
Set snack times
Just like you have a specified time for lunch and dinner, set time aside for snacking as well. Long gaps between meals can make you eat more since you will be hungry and won’t be able to keep track of how much you are eating. Also, the body tends to convert all the energy that you get from the food into fat to be converted into energy later, as it is unsure about when it will get food again. Snack times will ensure that the body gets food at regular intervals.
Use measuring cups
When you are snacking, keep measuring cups and spoons handy so you know exactly how much you are eating and you don’t over indulge. When you don’t measure your food, you have no idea that you are overeating. And those extra small amounts of food tend to add up over time, making losing those extra pounds tougher.
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