Snack Habits

Having healthy snacks on hand will make your healthy eating goals easier to achieve. When you are feeling snackish or maybe have gone too long without food and are famished the snacks that are closest to you are the snacks that will win. If there is a box of doughnuts or a pot of coffee in front of you it will win. If there is a bag of raw almonds and raisins beside the doughnuts you have a choice. You decide which snack wins your love. The trick is to train your body and mind to choose the snack which will be the best for you in the moment and in the long run.

If you at first choose a handful of almonds followed by a doughnut, that's okay. It's a step towards snacking success. Take it as a victory and keep moving forward. Focus on your victories and forget about the times that you eat the doughnut. Just like riding a bike it takes practice and the more you do it the easier it is. Pretty soon you will be snacking on almonds without a second thought, just like you get on your bike and peddle even if it has been awhile. You don't think about it you just do. Automatically reaching for the doughnut at snack time is a habit, that is all it is. It is not about willpower or lack there of, it is simply a habit. All you have to do is create a new habit to bump out the old one. The new habit is grabbing a good for you snack. The more you do it the better you will feel. At first you will have to remind yourself that eating the almonds will make you feel better than eating the doughnut will. After awhile your body will remember and will choose the best choice for you.

When I worked as a baker I got into the habit of drinking lattes, eating cookies, scones and bread when I was at work. It was all around me, it was easy and it gave me energy to get through the early mornings and into the late nights. I continued that habit of chowing down on carbs for energy long after my baking days. It was a habit and it was not serving me; it eventually showed up in a big way when my joints became extremely swollen. I was forced to change this habit out of fear of permanently being the Pillsbury dough girl as my friends lovingly called me. Now I have a new habit of healthy snacking and it serves me well. I do slip back here and there and I allow it, knowing that feeling guilty about it will be worse than eating it.

Habits are easy to follow, create good ones!