5 Smart Snacking Tips |Frugal Front Porch

Snack your way to a thinner you on Thanksgiving day. I find it very hard to cook Thanksgiving dinner without “sampling” all of the goodies. The aroma and visual presentation is just too tempting to pass up.

The problem? Those bite-sized morsels add up FAST. Then I sit down to consume even more food during the actual “dinner” with the family. I even go back for seconds!

See how those calories are piling on without really any effort?

Here’s some smart snacking tips I plan to utilize on the big holiday feasting days.

Prepare fat and calorie rich foods as late as possible. Preparing these kinds of foods at the latest possible moment means they aren’t sitting around tempting you for days in advance. It also gives you time to “fill up” on healthier alternatives so if you do end up taste-testing these treats, you’ll do so in smaller portions.
Schedule a healthy breakfast and lunch in your cooking schedule. Give yourself plenty of time to sit down to eat a light healthy breakfast and lunch to avoid the crisis “junk food snack attack” followed with gorging at dinner time to make up for the mealtime loss.
Prepare healthy snacks early in the week and pre-sort to individual serving sizes for grab and go snacking. The convenience of grabbing a baggie of baby carrots or pretzels so much easier to satisfy the hunger bug than waiting for those Christmas cookies to come out of the oven.
Keep moving. Weight loss 101=You loos weight simply by burning more calories than you consume. The nutritional value of these calories doesn’t mean much strictly by weight loss standards (thus the invention of the Twinkie Diet) so you need to be more physically active (aka-up off your booty more) on days you eat more calorie rich foods.
Hydrate without the calories. Obviously water is the best source of hydration but I don’t like the taste of water. Soda is loaded with sugar and adds up fast when you don’t think about how many 20 ounce drinks you consume on a busy day like Thanksgiving or Christmas so go for a lower calorie hydration option. Mix natural 100% fruit juice with water; I usually go half and half. You end up with a flavored water effect with the benefit of natural sugars, vitamins and nutrients. This drink works very well with the kids too plus it extends the “life” of your juice purchase. (ka-ching!)

Low Calorie Snack Foods

Food	Calorie	Food	Calorie
apple	95	20 baby carrots	85
orange	85	2 c chopped broccoli	60
banana	105	2 cups cauliflower	50
2 cups strawberries	100	2 cups pea pods	80
20 seedless grapes	105	1/2 cup salsa	35
8 ounces orange juice	120	1 tbsp. peanut butter	95
2 ounces lean ham or turkey	120	2 tbsp. low fat ranch dressing	50
20 peanuts	120	1/2 cup cottage cheese	80
hard cooked egg	75	6 ounces yogurt	100
1/2 cup pretzels	75	6 whole wheat crackers	105