Life is busy and sometimes many hours can lapse between meals and then you can suddenly feel starving with hours till the next meal. What do we normally do? Reach for whatever snack is available and it’s not always great choices. Many tell me when ‘3:30itis hits’ the snack choices tend to get worst and can be things like chips, chocolate or biscuits. They know these aren’t great choices but they are in a rush, need quick energy, these are available and well, they taste good! Obviously where you are located can play a role in your choices, for example are you at home, at the office or out and about? It’s not easy to eat healthy if there aren’t healthy options available… The key is having healthy options available to throw in your bag, car or cupboard/fridge (reduces the chances of the muffin or chocolate bar stop). So, with a little pre-planning, this can be a problem of the past! Here’s some great snacks ideas:

Fruit e.g. apple, banana, punnet of strawberries or dried fruit e.g. dried apricots or dates

• Nuts or trail mix
• Tin of tuna or salmon or Heinz chicken in a can
• Tin of baked beans, 4 bean mix, edamame beans or corn
• Veggie snacks e.g. punnet of cherry tomatoes or a cucumber or vegetable sticks
• Grain crackers + sliced cheese/cottage cheese/tuna/lean deli meat/peanut butter/avocado +/- tomato/spinach/cucumber
• Nut bar or nut & fruit bar
• Protein ball
• Yoghurt (choose low fat, high protein or lower carb)
• 250ml low fat/skim milk +/- coffee/sugar-free flavouring
• Boiled eggs
• Sliced cheese, Babybel cheese or cheese sticks
• Chia pudding
• ¼ cup hummus + vegetable sticks
• 1 tbsp 100% peanut/almond butter with carrot sticks
• Sliced cucumber topped with low fat cottage cheese