Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Giving up tasty treats is hard to do...


One of my favorite morning snacks for quite some time now has been a fiber bar in a coconut almond flavor (I could pretend it was an Almond Joy!).

A few months ago, it was brought to my attention that most kinds of "bars," granola and otherwise have a certain chemical that is not very good for you. Don't ask me what it is. I can't remember what it is except that it starts with an M. So I've been considering giving up those fiber bars since I came across that info. Aside from that M chemical, they have all kinds of other things that can't be that great for you either, right?

I just haven't known what to replace it with.

The other day, I was reading one of my latest free reads, How to Kick Your Fat in the Nuts by T.C. (Tony) Hale and something he said sorta hit me upside the head. He was talking about counting calories and he said, "...try eating 2200 calories per day of just chicken, eggs and green vegetables for two weeks.  For the following two weeks, try eating 2200 calories per day of Twix bars and let me know which two week period you had better weight loss results."

And I thought, "Huh."

I mean that makes a lot of sense to me.

But what could I replace my fiber bars with for the same or fewer calories? On the other hand, if you're eating real food, you could probably consume a few extra calories without too much harm. Well, I glean that from the quote above and some of Tony's other comments. What do you think?

Although, healthier and natural and real, I was leery of more fruit. I already eat a banana every day and I put honey on my oatmeal every morning, and sugar is one of those things I try to consume less rather than more of.

Well, when I was at the grocery store Sunday morning, I was perusing the produce and saw a bag of celery.

Now there's a great snack as it seems like you can burn more calories in the act of eating it than you do once you've digested it. And think about all that lovely roughage. Something else we could all use a little more of.

Of course, you can't eat celery plain, but salad dressings--specifically ranch dressings--are also full of that M chemical. But what other tasty treat is synonymous with celery?

That's right--peanut butter!


While my new snack has over twice as many calories (yikes), my quick research says that peanut butter is really very very good for you. It's low in sugar, high in fiber, and insanely high in monounsaturated fats which reduce the risk of diabetes, among other things.

So I'm going to give a try for a week or two and see how things go. And maybe, just maybe, I can convince a few other members of the family to eat it as well.

Are you a fan of the celery and peanut butter??

2 comments:

Regina Richards said...

celery with various fillings is a go to snack for watching movies at my house. My favorite filler is Bousin cheese. But I love peanut butter as well.

mtnchild said...

I like p-nut butter on celery, but not as much p-nut butter as you seem to like ... LOL.

Granny Smith apples are good for munching and really fill you up ... I like the tart-ness of these, but I think any apple will do.

I've started eating a lot of salad, but NO Ice Berg lettuce (flavorless to me) I use spinach and kale, chop up a Roma tomato and some cucumber. A
bit of shredded cheddar and a light Italian dressing ... Sooo much flavor!

Try doing a search on "healthy snacks" and see what comes up ... I need to do that too.

Love you, Mom