Wisdom Wednesday!!!

Snacking

I like to keep a food journal. Every night I write down what I've eaten for the day, everything, even my water consumption. Doing this helps me to see what foods make me feel good or bad, what foods my body can handle, etc. Over this past weekend, a holiday weekend, my food journal was interesting. I wasn't eating really bad things for me like refined sugars or anything, but I didn't feel very good. It was only yesterday that I realized that I was eating too much, even of the good things like fruit. I was snacking too much through out the day. Then a few days ago I saw a segment on Studio5, a local television show, by Melanie Douglas. It was all about snacking. She had some extremely interesting findings.

Melaine said that if you eat 100 extra calories a day (which is like a candy bar) it can lead to a 10 pound weight gain per year. If you eat an extra 250 calories per day (which is like a Zbar) it can lead to a 2 pound weight gain per month. And if you eat an extra 500 calories a day it can lead to a 1 pound weight gain per week. That is so crazy to me! I had never thought of it that way before. The one thing that really hit home for me was when she was talking about how even snacking on healthy snacks can lead to these extra calories. She gave an example of someone eating 8 grapes, 1/4 of a banana, crust of a peanut butter and jam sandwich, 3 bites of mac-n-cheese, 1 handful black licorice, 4 crackers, 2 hard candies, and 3 dark chocolate squares. All of these added up to 502 extra calories! Of course there are some things in that example that I don't eat and would not eat like the hard candies and the mac-n-cheese. But Melanie makes a good point when she said that little bites here and there add up and even though fruit and veggies are good for you and a better choice than the other snacks foods, just be aware of what you are eating and how much. It really does make a difference. And if you know what you are eating and how much through out the day you can add more exercising into your schedule to help balance it out. To see more of Melaine's segment or more examples you can go here. And remember happy healthier eating, even with snacking!