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Week 4 Monday Meeting (January 25, 2010)
Topic of the Week: Smart Snacking
On the South Beach Diet, you’re encouraged to have a mid-morning and a mid-afternoon snack. Keep in mind that the purpose of snacking is to prevent drops in blood sugar that cause cravings and leave you feeling famished. On Phases 1 and 2, snacks are particularly important to help wean you off highly processed refined starches and sugar-laden foods and help you adjust to this new style of eating.
Snacks should be eaten 1 to 2 hours after a meal or an hour before your cravings typically strike. The best snack is one that combines some protein and some high-fiber vegetables — for example, you might have some lean white-meat turkey, fat-free or reduced-fat cheese, plain nonfat or low-fat yogurt with a handful of nuts, or some hummus with some celery sticks or bell pepper slices. Lean deli meat roll-ups make a great snack. Try the <a href="http://www.southbeachdiet.com/mealplan/recipeview.asp?id=2168">Swiss and Turkey Roll-Ups with Nut Butter.
Looking for new snack ideas? Here are some <a href="http://southbeachdiet.com/sbd/members/crunchy-snack-ideas.aspx">healthy snacks with a crunch or try these nut mixes: <a href="http://www.southbeachdiet.com/mealplan/recipeview.asp?id=5338">Spicy Nut Mix, Southwest Pepita and Pecan Mix.
Our guest speaker this week is Erin Palinski, a registered and licensed dietitian as well as a Certified Personal Trainer. Erin has also been recognized as both a certified specialist in adult weight management and a certified specialist in childhood and adolescent weight management through the Commission on Dietetic Registration. Please feel free to post questions to Erin!
Thanks, Teresa!
Snacking throughout the day is vital to help prevent excessive hunger at meal times, which can lead to eating too fast and overeating. Think about the last time you may have waited too long in between meals. Were you very hungry by the next meal? Did you find you ate your meal faster? Did this result in eating until you were uncomfortably full, or perhaps making less-healthy meal choices? Skipping snacks can actually sabotage your weight-loss efforts. By snacking at regular intervals, this can help to prevent excessive hunger and cravings, allowing you to continue to make SBD-friendly choices at your next meal. Also, since snacking helps to regulate your appetite, you may find you can eat your next meal slower, which is very important since eating rapidly can cause you to eat well beyond the point of fullness (it takes 20 minutes for the stomach to signal to the brain that you’re full). Snacking may also help to stimulate your metabolism. When hunger and cravings are on the rise and your next meal is a few hours away, try having a healthy snack to keep you going. The best snacks are those that will keep you full for 1–3 hours. This includes foods containing lean protein, healthy fats, or whole grains. Some quick and healthy SBD snacks you may want to try include:
Phase 1
· Low-fat string cheese
· Hard-boiled eggs
· Natural peanut butter on celery
· Fat-free or low-fat plain yogurt with nuts
· Raw vegetables with SBD-friendly dip
· Tomato slices topped with melted, part-skim mozzarella cheese
· Hummus with vegetables
Phases 2 and 3
· Whole-grain bread or crackers topped with natural peanut butter or low-fat cheese
· Healthy trail mix made with whole-grain dry cereal and dry roasted nuts
· Fat-free or low-fat plain yogurt with fruit
· A piece of fruit with nuts or low-fat cheese
What snacks have you found the most helpful in satisfying your hunger and helping you stay on track with your SBD plan?
One thing that is sometimes confusing is in Phase 1 - the "recommended" snack seems to be protein plus vegetables...but is it okay to have just protein, or just vegetables? Or is it okay to have just a dairy serving?
In Phase 2, snacks are easier - more options!
Beverly
Hi Teresa,
This is a great question! You may use any SBD friendly food that fits within your meal plan guidelines as a snack option. If you would like to have a snack such as fat free or low fat milk or yogurt, I would just recommend pairing this with a food high in fiber, healthy fat, or protein as well, such as adding nuts to a yogurt. You may also choose to snack just on vegetables, such as celery sticks, or just on a lean protein, such as a hard boiled egg or string cheese
The other thing some people like is roasted garbanzo beans - you can spice them up and they get crunchy in the oven. Not everone likes them, though...
1. how much water is too much? I drink easily 2.5 Litre a day. I dont force myself, I just like it. Is that too much?
2. Last time I went on phase 2, I failed, I think I added stuff too quickly. This is my first week and I have decided to add one day a fruit and one day a good carb. Is that too slow or ok?
thanks.
100 calorie package of almonds and 6 cubes of 2% cheese
Yogurt
Hard boiled egg
just to name a couple. I am always looking for new ideas, though, as I tend to eat the same things and get bored.
Beverly
And if you have a question, comment, or success to share, just click "Reply" and jump right in!
1. how much water is too much? I drink easily 2.5 Litre a day. I dont force myself, I just like it. Is that too much?
2. Last time I went on phase 2, I failed, I think I added stuff too quickly. This is my first week and I have decided to add one day a fruit and one day a good carb. Is that too slow or ok?"
You do want to drink adequate water each day. The SBD recommends drinking 64 ounces of water daily. Although you can drink too much water which can pose health risks, drinking 2.5 liters of water a day would still be acceptable.
It can be challenging when you begin to add in new foods to your meal plan, however I would recommend doing your best to follow the SBD Phase 2 guidelines of adding in both one fruit and one starch serving each day for the first week. If you find this difficult, try to space these servings out during the day, such as having a fruit with lunch and a starch with your dinner. When you say you failed at Phase 2 last time, what happened? Did your weight loss stall? Did you experience cravings? If weight loss stalled, you may want to review the meal plan guidelines of Phase 2 and keep a food journal to make sure you are staying on track. If you are experiencing cravings, look at your food intake and make sure you are not waiting too long in between meals/snacks.
100 calorie package of almonds and 6 cubes of 2% cheese
Yogurt
Hard boiled egg
just to name a couple. I am always looking for new ideas, though, as I tend to eat the same things and get bored."
These sound like great snack ideas! Are you in Phase 1 right now? If so, try adding variety with snacks such as celery with peanut butter, SBD friendly vegetables dipped in hummus, and lean deli meats wrapped in lettuce and dipped in mustard. You can also try adding variety by pairing different foods together. I love a snack taking slices of tomato and melting part skim mozzerella cheese on top for a "breadless pizza snack". You could also try mixing your nuts into your yogurt or even using a low fat Greek yogurt as a dip for vegetables.
Deb
My failures are connected: I stop exercising and eat without thought or planning and then I gain weight. The most difficult thing for me is sticking with it...my internal motivation just doesn't seem strong enough.