Make sure to use your My Fitness Pal app! (Click here for best apps for staying fit and healthy) Track your snacks as you eat them throughout the day! Knowing how much you are eating and where you stand with calories consumed will help keep you on track.
Best of all, all of the snacks I've listed are around or under 200 calories and rate above average (B- or higher) on Fooducate.
A little side note: if you are trying to choose a snack that I have not listed, use Fooducate to help.
Craving something sweet? These snacks are healthy and will keep you satisfied.
- Celery and natural peanut butter: One stalk of celery is less than 10 calories! Eat as much celery as you want but pay attention to the peanut butter serving. Quick tip: Your thumb is equivalent to about a tablespoon. One tablespoon of peanut butter is around 100 calories. Fooducate Rating: A for celery; A- for natural pb
- Larabars or ALT Larabars (their new, AWESOME protein bar)- These bars are easy to take on the go, they're tasty and you can feel good about what you are eating. Made with nuts and sweetened with dates. This bar will fill you up and satisfy your sweet tooth. **The only downfall is these are pretty high in sugar (so wouldn't reccommend eating one per day), even though its naturally sweetened- sugar is sugar so track what you are eating in the myfitnesspal app and pay attention to your sugar count for the day. Fooducate Rating: Some flavors rate higher than others but B is about average.
- Fresh Fruit- You can't go wrong with an apple or an orange. Keep these on hand in your dorm for when you are craving something sweet. To help fill you up, pair the fruit with some plain greek yogurt, peanut butter or some pistachios. Fooducate Rating: A for fruit
- Your own granola bar!- I'll provide a recipe in a new post but by just mixing rolled oats and brown rice syrup you've got a quick, easy snack! Fooducate Rating: Rolled Oats- A. (any kind of sugar will be rated pretty low.. brown rice syrup, agave and honey all rank C in Fooducate but they are better than others) So let's just say for an average rating of a B/B-.
- Dipped Dark Chocolate Frozen Banana- This is another thing you can do on your own, and if you've got a freezer and a microwave (or know someone who does) then you can make this cold treat! Fooducate Rating: A for fruit and C for dark chocolate, sooo how about average B)
Craving something salty? Take a bite of one of these yummy snacks.
- Food Should Taste Good sweet potato chips- When you want something crunchy like a potato chip, reach for these instead. They are 100% whole grain and much better than a bag a lays. Pay attention to the serving size- You can have 12-18 chips to keep this snack at 200 calories or less. Fooducate Rating: B- ... these still are chips
- Rhythm Superfoods Kale Chips (I've only had zesty nacho)..I know not everyone is going to go for these but if you aren't afraid of trying something different, they really are good! There's a lot of nutritional value for these raw, kale chips. They are dehydrated (which keeps all the nutrients in but makes them crunchy!) and then flavored. One bag is two servings so just be careful not to eat the whole bag!.. I admit I've done it once. Fooducate Rating: B+
- Celery and hummus: Or bell peppers or carrots.. any veggie dipped in hummus works! Hummus is a high protein snack, keep it healthy with pairing it with some veggies. Fooducate Rating: A for vegetables and A- for hummus.
- Pistachios- the lowest calorie nut is good to keep around to snack on. They're high in fiber and will help hold you over until your next meal. Fooducate Rating: A
- Dried Edamame- Soy nuts are balanced with protein, fat and is a low-card snack to help hold you over. Be sure to look for a Non-GMO label on the package! Some brands include: Sensible Foods, Good Sense or Seapoint Farms) Fooducate Rating: A-
Snacking tips:
- Measure out a serving size and pay attention to how much you are eating- LOG it in your myfitnesspal app!
- When choosing peanut butter, stick to natural.. you don't need the added sugar or whatever else they add. (A lot of grocery stores now have that peanut butter machine where it grinds the peanuts and turns it into peanut butter). If you like your peanut butter sweet, add some honey.
- Actually, when choosing any snack pay attention to the sugar content and where the sugar is coming from. A good rule of thumb is to choose products that have 10 grams or less per serving (If it's over 10 grams, that's okay, just limit the total amount per day. Females should not have more than 6 tsp of added sugar/day and males should not have more than 9. 1 tsp of sugar = 4 grams.
- If you'd like to stay away from GMO's look for a GMO certified seal or stick with organic
For more tips on eating healthy in college, check out my earlier post about navigating the dining hall.
I will be posting 1 or 2 more dorm room recipes, so keep a look out :)
If you are a college freshman, I hope you are adjusting well away at school! College is an exciting time, enjoy yourself! But of course keep it healthy!