Did you know that snacking can be a helpful tool for reaching your health and weight loss goals? Smart snack choices can help you manage your appetite, eat less overall, and get more of the nutrients your body needs. But if you’re not careful, snacking can lead to added calories without helping you feel satisfied between meals. So, what’s the trick to snacking smart? Here are a few tips.

Avoid Mindless Grazing

It can be easy to identify some types of snacks that don’t fit with your health or weight loss goals. For example, sugary or fatty “junk foods” like potato chips and cookies are obvious poor snack choices that won’t contribute to your greater well-being. However, sometimes unhealthy snacking isn’t as easy to spot. “Grazing,” for example, or eating small, frequent snacks, absent mindedly, can hinder your health goals.

Here are a few examples of mindless grazing:

  • Nibbling on foods without considering your portion size.
  • Snacking at times when you are not especially hungry.
  • Munching while in front of a screen or while you’re focusing on something else.
  • “Taste-testing” while preparing a meal.

Grazing can contribute extra calories to your day in a way that can easily go unnoticed. Too many calories from any source can slow, or even halt, your progress toward a weight loss goal.

Create Healthy Snacking Habits

The most important difference between mindless grazing and healthy snacking is that healthy snacking is strategic and intentional. This is the type of snacking that can help you manage your appetite, eat less overall, and get more of the nutrients your body needs.

Here are a few examples:

  • Prepare snacks with an appropriate portion size that fits your goals, usually 100 to 200 calories.
  • Schedule snacks at a strategic time of day, such as “midmorning” or “post workout,” to help manage appetite and boost energy at times when you expect to need a pick-me-up.
  • Plan and prepare your snacks in advance before your choices can be influenced in a less healthy direction by an out-of-control appetite.
  • Select snack foods wisely with both flavor and nutrition in mind to enjoy more of the healthy foods your body needs.

Cultivating healthy snacking habits can be a powerful tool for reaching your health and weight loss goals. Smart snacking choices that are intentional and strategic can help you to manage your appetite and help you to eat less overall. Choose snacks wisely so you get more protein, fiber, good fats, and other nutrients that your body needs.

Isagenix offers convenient, delicious snacking solutions that can help to satisfy your cravings with sensible portion sizes that fit with your health and weight loss goals.