Great Solutions from Snack Girl Readers

November 18, 2009   1 Comment

There were so many great entries to our snack challenges contest I decided to just use a random number generator to choose the winner. One of my fellow healthy food bloggers won the Snack Taxi bag. Here is Stephchows' comment:

I'm a big night time snacker for sure! I try to stop and think "ok am I really hungry or just eating out of habit" I'll normally drink a big glass of water or diet caffeine free soda... and then if I'm still craving something and feel hungry I go ahead and chow it :)

Steph writes about healthy eating on her blog Steph Chows.

This is an excellent habit to create if you can. Instead of grabbing for the Doritos, go get a glass of Water. This takes a certain amount of self-discipline and training. I know that I don't think of Water when I am hungry. When I want to eat, I think of the food that I want before I even consider a drink.

How does Steph do it? Well, she practices something called "mindfulness". She asks herself if she is really hungry. This is absolutely HUGE in understanding why you eat what you eat.

How many times a day do you eat without being hungry? How many pounds are on your frame because you simply don't pay attention to the food that crosses your lips?

Try this:

1. The next time you are hungry take a deep breath and count to 10 slowly.
2. Ask yourself again if you are hungry - yes or no?
3. If yes, ask yourself why you are hungry
   (didn't eat for the last 5 hours? go get some food!)
4. Drink a glass of water before you eat anything.

Try these steps toward mindfulness exactly once! Don't attempt "mindfulness" all day long because you will fail. It takes practice, patience, time, commitment, and self-discipline. Even if you accomplish this way of thinking once a day - you will notice an improvement in your eating. Once a week is great too!

Check out these other great challenges and solutions from Snack Girl readers:

Rachael: My biggest snacking challenge is mid-afternoon at work when I forget to pack (or have already eaten) nutritious snacks. It's always tempting to go grab junk from the 7-eleven across the street. But, I take the opportunity to take a work break and walk half a mile to the grocery store and buy a piece or two of fresh fruit. Healthy snack, exercise, work break - couldn't get better than that.

Junghwa: I am always hungry since i workout in the morning and night for fitness training reasons. I always try to have healthy snacks such as fruits and veggies. but sometimes I like healthy bars because they don't go bad at all!

AstraLibris: My biggest challenge always occurs if I'm grocery shopping while I'm hungry - I wind up putting way too many "oh my, this looks good" things that we don't really necessarily need into the shopping cart! I try to solve the problem by putting a banana into my bag before I go grocery shopping, for preventative measures... :-)

Damaris: I am such a snacker. seriously, I crave chips all day long. I just have to remind myself to wait for a real meal. It's hard.

MommyBear: My Biggest challenge when it comes to snacking is all the nibbling I do making or cleaning up my kids meals. I try to eat a handful of almonds if I am really hungry and can't make my own food right away.

Melissa: My biggest challenge is boredom eating, I will just sit and snack. I try to not have junk food in the house, if it is not there I will not eat it.

VeganGuy: my biggest snack challenge is at night. I can do OK during the day, but when I come home from work, I really want to snack. I also want to snack more after dinner too. I find that the combination of the time of day when I am home, and the abundance of food available is a tough combination for me. so, my solution is to figure out what snacks I am going to have ahead of time and only have them in the house, ready to go. it takes some planning, but it seems to work. if I know I want chips this week, I'll have a portion of veggie booty or tings in a small bag (so I don't eat the whole large bag...) I'll have a bag of microwave popcorn (smaller size) in the front of the pantry for another day. and after that I'll purposely clear out all processed snacks and make sure there is a fresh apple!

Lucy: And here's my secret snack vice: room temperature butter on salty crackers. Usually after a heavy night of drinking. When I'd come home and have the munchies before bed. This was in my carefree DC-living 20s. Solution: outgrow my 20s.

Have you achieved mindful eating? How have you done it? Please share below.

Want to read about snacks?
How to Eat More Vegetables
How to Get What You Pay For
Homemade Banana Bread
What is the First Piece of Advice Doctors give Dieters?