Preparing Healthy Snacks
I think this was one of the most difficult things for me when I began clean eating. Prepping my snacks for the week was such a simple task, but it was just one of those things that I did not take the time to do initially. However, after I caved to some sweet and salty cravings a few times, the setbacks really motivated me to focus on this aspect of planning. I was not willing to let my self fall victim to the snack machine cravings just because I was too lazy to take 30 minutes to put some food into baggies!!!
I am going to provide a list of some healthy snack options below. I spend an hour or so on Sunday afternoons grilling up some chicken, preparing salad into tupperware containers, slicing fruit and veggies, and putting my nuts into individual baggies. The key to sustaining your energy and blood sugar all day long is to pair healthy complex carbs (fruits & veggies) with proteins (nuts, yogurt, cottage cheese, hummus, avocados) at each meal/snack. This prevents a crash in blood sugar which will most definitely lead you to BINGING!!! And we don’t want that, do we??
I really try to plan out my weekly meals…snacks and everything, because I have found that I stay on track and am much more successful! Here is a sample meal plan of mine:
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| This is based on my caloric intake |
Based on this, I will prepare my snacks for the week, which doesn’t take very long. I check out clean eating magazines and some other favorite clean eating websites of mine for healthy recipes. Some of those include Clean Eating Magazine, Committed to Getting Fit and Chelsea’s Messy Apron. There are tons of sites out there. Just make sure their ingredients stick to your list of approved ingredients in your meal planning guide.
- Handful of Unsalted almonds & an apple.
- 1/2 cup of Cottage cheese & fresh cherries.
- 1/2 cup of Low fat greek yogurt & fresh berries (raspberries & blueberries)
- Cucumbers, carrots, & hummus.
- Celery & 1 Tablespoon of Peanut Butter.
- Shakeology…of course! Chocolate is my favorite!
