Let's hear it for snacking

I'm big on snacking and I believe it's important to eat when you're hungry. Maybe another way of saying this is I don't believe in denying myself when I want to eat. 

But what I eat, when and how much is important. If it's 10:30 at night and you're in the kitchen plowing through a bag of chips, it better be because you just finished a 7 hour bike ride and you're waiting for your dinner to cook.

Though I'm not big on rules, I do try to keep tabs on a few of my habits when it comes to snacking. First, I don't let the snack turn into a meal. I used to, but my metabolism at this age is a lot slower than it was when I was in my 20s and I would definitely notice the effect of eating that whole bag of chips, even if I had just finished a long ride.

I also keep tabs on snacking at night. This can be a toughie but one thing that works well for our family is having a later dinner. When we're having dinner around 7:30pm and heading to bed a few hours after that, I'm not getting hungry again and wanting to eat. But eating at 6pm would always have me starving by 9 and grabbing the bag of cookies to eat in front of the tv. 

Which brings me to what I snack on. An apple or an orange just doesn't cut it for me and it never has. I need a snack with guts and right now my favourite snack is yogurt with cereal, which is what I lived on when I was training for ironman. I buy the large containers of Astro Smooth & Fruity yogurt and pour the cereal right in, eat through that then pour in more cereal. A few pieces of toast with honey is another fave.

So when you're snacking, try to keep a few things in mind; 1. Quantity. If you find yourself eating a huge snack, stop and have a proper meal instead, then have a few of those cookies for dessert. 2. Timing. Try not to eat late at night and don't have dinner while you're making dinner. 3. What you choose. If you need something light to tide you over, then grab something light - not a piece of cake because it's there. You're smarter than that and nothing speaks Smart like smart snacking.