The Wonderful World of Snacks

So I'm at the Boston Mania fitness conference today and (surprise surprise!) one of my big focuses is food. I'm going to be running around all day setting stuff up, lifting and carrying, trying to stay hydrated, and trying not to get so hungry I eat my shirt. Normally, my morning snack at work is a slice of multi-grain date toast with a thin spread of nutella, and my afternoon snack is the same toast with a thin spread of all natural creamy peanut butter. But not having a toaster puts a kibbotch on this plan. So what's a girl to do?

Healthy Snacks on the Go

1. Plain nuts (my faves are almonds and walnuts). Roasted and salted adds some unhealthy fat and a big dose of sodium. And frankly, I think they taste better plain (except peanuts, I don't like plain peanuts).

2. Dried fruit like apricots, cherries, cranberries, or goldenberries. They're sweet, but they don't have tons of calories or fat in them. And they're great paired with nuts. When I was in Cairo in May, I went through a big bag of almonds and another of apricots over the week.

3. Snack bars. The South Beach snack bars have a good amount of protein and taste pretty good, though they do have a bunch of those unpronouncable chemical ingredients I don't like so much. Kashi makes a cherry dark chocolate bar that's very yummy and have the whole grains to keep me full for longer (wow, now I sound like a commercial. I swear, Kashi hasn't paid for product placement....unless there's a Kashi rep reading this who wants to...).

Those three are really my go-to foods. I've also in the past brought oatmeal pancakes with me (dry oatmeal blended with cottage cheese, eggs, and spices and then cooked up into pancake form) and that works ok, but they're cold and rather dry, so not as appealing a snack.

Then there are the times when I'm not on the go.

Everyday snacks

1. The aforementioned toast with PB/jam/nutella/cheese. Protein generally tends to fill me up for longer, which is why I have the PB toast in the afternoon instead of the morning.

2. Fruit. Some people swear by having an apple/banana/orange for a snack. Me? That might keep my stomach busy for a half hour (if that), but that's about it! While tasty, I'm going to be left very soon noshing on something else. And the second snack is not likely to be more fruit.

3. Cookies/candy. Not a healthy option, but sometimes that's just what the body craves. The sugar will spike up your blood sugar and then drop you on your ass, but man is it tasty while you're eating it (then once you crash, you can eat some more). I went into a chocolate shop the other day and almost bought some elephant and donkey election truffles for a party, until I realized they were $3.50 a pop.

4. Protein bars. A healthier (and longer lasting feeling of full) option to candy is a protein bar coated in chocolate or vanilla or what have you. Because the protein in it will help you feel full longer. But they also tend to have lots of calories and hidden fat, as well as all those pesky unnatural ingredients. I used to eat them much more often (every day for my snacks, in fact), until I realized just what they had in them.

What do you snack on?