Healthy snacks

Feel and look great with our smart eating tips

Eating healthy meals and hitting the gym religiously, but still carrying those extra few pounds? If you're topping up your calorie count with one too many sneaky snacks, it might be ruining all your hard work. Snacking between meals is fine, but your snacks need to be portioned out and nutritionally sound. So no, a chococlate biscuit (or two!) and a handful of sweeties definitely won't cut it. Follow our top tips below for smart snacking and watch the pounds fall off.

• The key to good eating habits during the day is a nutritious breakfast. Make sure it contains protein, as well as slow-releasing carbohydrates to fill you up. Cereal and porridge are popular options, but they’re low in protein. Top them with fruit, natural yoghurt and nuts and seeds to ramp up the protein and fibre content, it’ll keep you going until lunchtime.

• When packing your lunch for work, throw two snacks into your bag of roughly 200 calories each. Your snacks should be well-constructed mini-meals, just like breakfast, lunch and dinner, and contain fibre, protein, carbohydrate and healthy fat. Being prepared will stop you picking at the unhealthy offerings at work.

• Banish snacks to your desk drawer, but have a bottle of water in view at all times. Each time you have a snack attack, take a sip of water instead. Switch your caffeine fixes to herbal tea to boost your hydration. Coffee is a diuretic, which means it makes you thirstier, and you could be confusing thirst for hunger.

• Birthdays in the office can seem a weekly occurrence. Of course you should allow yourself the odd cheat treat, but make sure there’s a trade-off. If you have a chocolate biscuit (roughly 100 calories), commit to a brisk 15-minute walk at lunchtime.

Healthy snack choices

Half an avocado  140 calories. Full of fibre and essential fats.

One apple and 20g almond butter  175 calories. Almond butter contains magnesium, vitamin E and calcium.

One hard-boiled egg  70 calories. Contains healthy fats and 6.5g protein.
  Natural yoghurt with berries/seeds  185 calories. A sprinkling of seeds contains 35 per cent protein.

Crudités and houmous  50g low-fat houmous contains 125 calories. Carrots contain 37 calories per 100g.
 
90g edamame beans  120 calories. 36 percent protein and high in fibre.

http://www.womensfitness.co.uk/healthy-eating/588/healthy-snacks