I know we have had this before from other people, however, I really need suggestions on good healthy food. I’m a major carboholic, and i want to kick it and get back into proper healthy food. This is mainly for snacks rather than for the 3 main meals a day. I firstly want healthy nutritious snacks for when needing to bring BM up, i secondly want suggestions for when you just want to snack but not to bring up your BM.
if you have any really tasty main meal ideas let me know if you want, but please bare in mind, i’m a student so money is limited and im from the UK so some of the stuff some of you tell me i may not fully understand or may not be able to get in the UK.
peanuts and almonds are my fav snack right now. pretty low on carbs and easy on BG. actually PB cups or peanut M&Ms forwhatever reason are ok for me. think the PB helps fight the spike. fruit is also great a firm pear for whatever reason doesn’t cause a spike too bad for me but a banana or apple will cause a spike. but that’s me you may have wildly different results.
The more carbs you eat, the more you will crave. Sneaky little devils. So, while cutting carbs in snacks is an excellent plan, it’s the higher carb meals that are probably making you hungry to need snacks to begin with.
You need pure glucose to raise BG quickly. You don’t want to wait for foods with fiber (fruit) or protein to kick in. A small amount of sugary candy (not chocolate) will do this. Nothing healthy in this dept because it’s fast acting glucose that’s needed.
For snacks, I eat nuts (low carb ones–almonds, Brazil nuts, walnuts, pecans), cheese, raw vegetables like radishes, cucumbers, celery. I roast nuts with spices or cinnamon & sweetener for variety.
For meals, you want to try to stay with protein & lower carb vegetables. Endless variations there, depending on what’s available.
Lots of healthy choices. But post does not make it clear if you are looking for low carb choices only. Or no carb. Or if you want healthy choices, regardless of carb content. One my niece likes, though not nec. low carb, depends on the fruit is to take a couple of tablespoons peanut butter and about 7 chocolate chips, put in microwave and melt for a spread. She likes to dip sliced apples and pears in it. The PB slows down the spike. PB by itself on celery sticks. carrots and hummus; sunflower seeds so much fiber, very low carb, pistachio nuts, sometimesshelled mixed with a few mini choc. chips, sometimes plain; crakcers and cheese; stick cheese; Romaine lettuce sandwiches (use Romaine as bread). Have put cheeseburgers, onion and catsup, lunch meat of all kinds, mozzerella, tomato and viniagrette, cucumber salad with onion and/or cherry tomatoes. Roast peppers over a gas stove, put in paper bag to cool, peel, and toss with vinagrette to keep in fridge as condiment or alone. bean salads, dips and all kinds of home made stews and soups. Lentil and beef barley a fave and cuts of meat used for flavoring is cheap. Home made chili, meatless or otherwise. A lot of the stews, soups and chili can be prepared ahead and kept in fridge all week. Goya has a lot of recipes on backs of their dried beans. Like their black bean recipe, but doctor it up with fresh jalepeno (1 or 2 if you like spice), can of crushed tomatoes, more garlic. P.S. All tastes better with home made chicken stock, which I make after eating chicken for dinner. Just made moussaka and leftover meat filling, low carb and can be used many different ways. Easy to make the meat filling by itself.
I snack on pig skins 0 carbs, sugar free jello cups with coolwhip add pecan chips,
If you can go 3 to 5 days with 0 CARBS your gravings will go away and doing NO CARB/LOW CARB becomes a lot easier. This will also jump start weight loss, if you don’t need to loose weight then use this to start your conversion to complex carbs. I eat a lot of Brown rice and wild rice.
The important thing with snacks is to stay under 5 -10 carbs. My favorite are nuts and nut butters on brancrisp crackers. Also celery with cream cheese or peanut or almond butter. Cheese is always a good snack. If you eat high carb snacks you will get more carb cravings.
I ate unhealthy carb-filled foods for years. I was always trying to “cut back” a little, but this approach didn’t work for me.
What I eventually did was to just STOP altogether. For months, I didn’t buy anything unhealthy – it just wasn’t allowed to enter our apartment. (My husband loves chocolate, but respected my rules and NEVER brought chocolate into the apartment. I thought that his health would improve too until I learned that he compensates by eating chocolate from the vending machine at work everyday!! Still better than having that stuff in our apartment). If I buy a bag of crisps (chips), I will eat the whole thing. So I just don’t buy it.
In the first months, I have HUGE cravings and just resisted them. Instead I ate olives, cheese, and small servings of nuts. Another thing that I like is pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds, which are really cheap as well.
Now after months of NOT eating carb-filled junk food, when I taste it, it doesn’t even taste that good. Now my view is that I will eat small portions occasionally, but usually my conclusion is that it is just not worth it. I think that the artificial flavorings can be almost addictive and when you stop eating them for a while, they even stop tasting good.
I have never smoked, but I feel like getting over snacking on high-carb junk food was a similar process as quitting!
If you’ve got access to a microwave, you can make crisps with cheese. Just grate hard cheese, add spices if you like, make into small mounds & zap in the microwave. Once they melt & then cool, they’re crispy. Don’t add salt because cheese is already salty. Cheese with a lot of moisture will get soggy. You can use a regular oven & it takes 5-6 minutes. They burn easily so you have to watch them.
Kristin, this is exactly what I am doing at the minute : ) Like you, I found with some foods, it’s just not worth it. I CANT just have one handful/portion size! Out of sight, out of mind. Goodbye bagels, crisps, bakery goods to name but a few! Of course, I’ll probably eat these again at some point in the future lol, just hopefully not TOO soon! : P And I dont know how appealing they would be to me. Esp as I know they will make we feel awful (sending my levels all over the place)
I always wondered why I was so sleepy and lifeless mid afternoon : / So far I’ve found cheese is a great one for snacks (i’m just bad at portion control haha- I’ve started having babybels, or individually wrapped cheeses, so I know how much I’m actually consuming!) Olives, almonds, cottage cheese, avocado, cold meats, tuna, hard boiled eggs… nom!! I do still have chocolate, but only DARK. Just a few squares is plenty, and I find it quite hard to eat any more! (This was definitely not a problem with milk/white chocolate back in the day haha) My favourite food for combatting cravings.
I dont know if I could do hardcore low carb ie eating these products alone for actual meals… I feel I need a bit of complex carb in there. Esp all bran. quinoa, rye bread, fruits… in small quantities.
Good luck with your healthy eating, Zo Zo : )
I have found by adding fat to meals it helps me stay full and I don’t need to snack as often. For example for lunch I just had some homemade chicken salad with mayo and sour cream on a bed of fresh spinach with 1/2 an avocado and chopped organic bacon on top. It should keep me full for 5-6 hours. If I have to snack I have GG Scandanavian Brancrisp crackers on hand. I buy them at Netrition. I usually spread them with a little Coconut Oil and then some almond butter and SF jam. The fiber in the cracker will fill you up and solves the carb craving problem.
