Healthy Munchies

On a roll!  I'm surprising even myself with all these posts.  Maybe it's the New Year.  Maybe it's a full moon.  Who knows?  We'll see how long it lasts...

Awhile back I had a friend (hi Melanie!) ask me for healthy snack ideas.  I totally dropped the ball.  But now that I'm refocusing on weight loss, I remembered that long-ago request and thought I'd finally answer the question.  Here's a list of some of my favorite low-cal snacks that helped me lose weight the first time.

• toddler cereal Puffs
• sugar free Jello (with bananas in it, just for fun)
• pickles (although you have to be careful with the sodium content)
• nuts, especially pistachios
• portioned-out baggies of chocolate chips (I put one portion size in a snack size bag for the day and that's all the chocolate chips I'm allowed to eat.  I'm kinda addicted to them, and this helps A TON.  My favorite are the Ghiradelli 60% Cocoa chips.  They are larger than normal and somehow do a better job of satisfying the craving.  It's worth the extra cost for me.)
• fruit
• Kroger's rice and bean chips with hummus
• veggies with hummus, especially bell peppers
• roasted chick peas (I'm new to this one, but I loved them the one time I had them and intend to make them A LOT this go around on my weight loss journey.  You flavor them with whatever spice(s) you want and then just roast them in the oven.)

And that is all I can think of right now, although I bet there are more.  My biggest thing on this adventure has been to never completely deprive myself of the things I love.  I do count calories.  Yes, it is a pain, but there are some great online resources.  And we tend to eat the same things every day which makes it easy to keep track of.  The only thing that really changes for me is dinner, and I try to only make meals that I can find nutritional info for.  In October I fell off the counting bandwagon, and what do you know?  I started gaining again, even though my gym attendance was still above average.  It really is all about the food.  

When I started, I weighed about 150.  I am now at 123, and my goal is 115.  (Before people scream at me for being unreasonable, please keep in mind that I am only 5 feet tall.  And I talked about this with my doctor.  It is an informed number.)  This week I worked on sticking to my gym plan for the week and not making excuses.  I only missed one class, as opposed to the 2 or 3 I'd been skipping out on, and that was to come home and do some physical therapy. I'd say I did pretty good.   Next week, it's back to calorie counting!

ETA:  Another hint for you.  Write down your calorie count for the day in the morning, not as you eat.  This gives you a plan for the day.  If you make a plan and write it down, it is easier to stick to it.