One of DelCorpo’s clients recently visited our friend, naturopath Kelly Simms (from our neighbors at Balance Health and Wellness). The reason for the client’s visit: accelerating her weight loss, and how she could successfully snack, without overeating, or throwing her fat-burning hormones out of whack.
Kelly responded with some really
great snacking tips. As she told me, “I
feel like snacking is one area most people can use some help.” I am not ashamed
to say that I learned a few things myself.
Here are just a few of Kelly’s tips:
- Snack on whole foods
- Never have carbohydrates as a snack. Carbohydrate or processed foods are popular snack items (popcorn, pretzels, chips, crackers, sweets, granola bars, etc), but those foods can lead to an initial rise in blood sugar and subsequent crash. When we crash, we reach for more food and calories to bring our blood sugar back up. This can lead to overeating. An ideal snack contains fiber from plants and protein. Perfect examples would be apple and almonds (10-12), carrots + hummus (2-3 TBS) or celery + almond butter (1.5 TBS).
- Count snack calories
- Notice the serving size of the protein in the snacks mentioned above. [Kelly] likes to say that veggie calories don't really count, but nuts, beans and nut butters can easily be overeaten. Put a limit on calories contained in a snack to about 150-200 calories. Run the numbers once and you are set with a go-to menu of snack items to fill you up when you need a quick boost to get you to your next meal.
· Kelly A. Simms, ND
· Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
·
1901 North Clybourn Avenue, Suite 301
· Chicago, IL 60614 Phone: 773-472-0560
· Web: www.kellysimmsnd.com