Dr. Elyssa:
Hello mamas and welcome to episode four. Today, we are going to be talking about some tips and tricks to decrease the urge for snacking. Number one. And number two, if you do want a snack, what those little snacks can be that are going to be healthy and decrease you wanting to snack further down the line.
Mama Poff:
Wait, let’s just talk about snacking. Cause you know now more than ever, we’re all sitting in our houses trying to balance the kids. Now school’s out now we’ve lost that preoccupier.
Dr. Elyssa:
So Jen and I were chatting about all of this and I have to say that all of my moms had the same exact kickback. Like you’re telling me, I’m sitting at home all day every day with my crazies and I’m not going to snack. Yeah. Right. Across the board. I agree. The key thing that I am trying to, you know, let’s shift the mindset. That’s I think the biggest piece of this is let’s shift our mindset and get rid of the guilt and the anxiety and the, Oh, I feel so bad for snacking. And instead switch the mind set to like, I’m going to snack. What are some good options or give your mind a trick of, I want to snack, but I have to go and do one thing first before I reach for the snacks.
Mama Poff:
So I have to earn my snack.
Dr. Elyssa:
You have to earn your snack.
Mama Poff:
Oh. So I have to mom, myself.
Dr. Elyssa:
Exactly where mom and everybody and earning their snacks. And then when we have our snacks, what are the choices and options that you can have then you don’t feel guilty about them. And they’re actually boosting your nutrition, helping you balance your blood sugar plus moderating your hunger signals. So that way you’re not snacking every 20 minutes.
Mama Poff:
I love it. What do you got? What are your tips?
Dr. Elyssa:
So, first thing, that little stop, that little stop. Our brains are pretty cool. And when we feel thirst, it triggers the same thing as hunger. So a lot of the times we feel like we’re hungry, but we’re actually thirsty. So before you snack, grab a glass of water, drink your water, wait 10 minutes and see if you’re still hungry. I like it. One and two, I noticed for myself that when we’re at home all the time, we’re actually not drinking as much water. When we’re at work. Everyone usually has their system with their water bottle or their glass of water on their desk and we just aren’t getting it in at home. So that is the first thing I do. And recommend you do when you are feeling like you want to go grab a snack, drink water.
Mama Poff:
I noticed that about water in our house too. During we were hitting, I think day 85 of being in lockdown here in my neck of the woods. And we were at, you know, one of those big bulk food places shopping, and they had the water canister, like the pitcher thing that you put on the counter. And we always usually use it for parties. I picked it up, it was nice glass with a stand on it. And I put watermelon in the water for on the counter and man did it drain really fast. And now we’re going to do lemon and cucumber infused water. And I just I’ll go by it and I see there’s no ice. I’ll just dumped some ice in it and keep it, you know, kind of circulated and fresh. And I noticed that everybody in the house walks by and now they’re more apt to fill it up versus when, Oh, you mean you have to go to the spicket to fill the thing or you pull out the pitcher of, we usually have like flavored sugar-free water in the pitcher and that refrigerator, but right there in the middle of the kitchen, everybody takes them and it’s helped.
Dr. Elyssa:
Yep. Absolutely making it accessible, throwing in some flavors. Cause we do get bored and we’re just drinking plain water all the time. So the fruit infusions and the veggie infusions are like my favorite. And the other thing you can do is if everybody in the family has their own water bottle and you can mark the time on it. So at the top of the water bottle, it’s 9:00 AM. And then you need to be down to the next tick by 10:00 AM and down to the next tick by 11. And the bottom of your water bottle is noon. So every four hours, you know, you need to drain your water bottle. So for some people that helps when you see the time and you’re like, okay, I got to get this in.
Mama Poff:
That’s good. And I have with the kids, I, I do something similar in that in order to get the snack, they have to finish that water. And sometimes they gripe and groan about it, but I kind of parallel it with your body is a machine. And just like the car where we have to put gas in the car for it to go, you have to put water into your machine so it can keep going. That’s a little game, a little game we play.
Dr. Elyssa:
Absolutely. And water is also flushing. So it’s going to help flush out all of the extra stress hormones we have going on. It’s going to help us flush out all of the dead cells. It’s going to help us flush out any infections that we might be fighting off that we’re not even aware we’re fighting off. So it’s so, so important for so many things and yeah, lots of easy ways to get it in. The key thing is always to remember to get it in.
Mama Poff:
So I think for mamas, they, if they, I think mama’s especially to look at the time on the water bottle and trying different flavors, but mama’s, we have to create, be creative with the kids of giving them games and contests to do, to help push it in because they’re going to get more sick of it than we are, you know, and to keep it fresh and to keep it different and just to keep so they can keep their machine fueled.
Dr. Elyssa:
Yep. Absolutely. And I like to make it, you know, interactive, everyone gets to pick their water flavor of the day. So every family member gets a day and they choose the water for the day. It can also be one of those things where it’s an experiment in the kitchen and maybe with your water, you take a mortar and you crush some of the fruit to get more flavors and to get some color. And then it’s like, okay, well, what kind of flavors do we want? Can we try putting new things together? So it turned into kitchen experiments and that’s a great way to get kids more involved versus having them go, ah, mom’s nagging me to drink water.
Mama Poff:
Well, right. I mean, now you’ve just accomplished a boredom buster. You’ve done a little science experiment by getting kids in the kitchen and getting water in them.
Dr. Elyssa:
Yep. Awesome. Part two. I’m getting the kids in the kitchen is another one of my tips for snacks. The biggest issue that I notice is if food is not prepped for snacking, that is when the cookies and the potato chips and the ice cream and the super quick grab and go stuff comes out. So next big piece of snacking is actually having healthy snacks, easily accessible. So when your kids are in there and we’re making the water for the day, you can also start making snacks for the week for everybody in the family and making them easily accessible. I always recommend, especially in the summer months, have a shelf where no matter the age of your kid, if they are old enough that they are coming into the fridge on their own, have a shelf where they know all their snacks are that they can grab and eat. And one, it saves you the conversation of mom, I’m hungry, help. That’s, that’s gone. And two, when there are a bunch of healthy snacks, it doesn’t matter if everyone in the house is snacking all the day because they’re actually getting nutrients in with it.
Mama Poff:
So here’s that psychological shift for moms, right? Of, you know, you go to the grocery store to that bulk food store. And it’s easy to grab that multi box of gummies, the multi box of granola bars or the single serving goldfish bags. Those are all individually snack prepped bags. And so what you’re saying, let’s make our own individually snack prep to bags that are much better. Um, and, and freer to, to have whenever they want.
Dr. Elyssa:
Exactly. And you know, what’s in it. So a lot of the times when those granola bars or the goldfish, when you read the back of the ingredients, it’s a bunch of chemicals that you don’t even know how to pronounce. And my big thing is eat real food. So if you even make your own homemade granola, then you know exactly what’s in it and you get to make the flavor profiles for what your family likes. So, hey, I want, you know, chocolate chips in my granola. Cool. That’s your sweet treat? Because at the end of the day, we all want a sweet treat. But when it’s something that you’ve made on your own, it’s a whole different level of health and wellness for you and your family.
Mama Poff:
What are your some, what are some of your favorite quick snack bag grabs from the fridge?
Dr. Elyssa:
So my personal favorite, is I love those little glass, the little glass containers that you can put three or four scoops of hummus. You can do some scoops of hummus. You can do some scoops of yogurt. Um, you can do some scoops of a nut butter and have little snacks size for dippers because we all love our dippers. And then with that, I do snack bags of veggies, snack bags, the fruit. So you have Apple slices, you have carrots, celery, cucumbers, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, the list goes on and on whatever resonates with your family. You have little snack packs of defers, little snack bags of fruits and veggies. Good to go.
Mama Poff:
That’s awesome. Easy peasy. And some of that sweet, some of it’s salty. So you can get a little mix of both.
Dr. Elyssa:
You can get a little mix of anything and then you can also do nuts and seeds. So this is where I like to do homemade like trail mix. And I grabbed nuts. I grabbed seeds and even a little bit of dried fruit is okay, you have your fruits, your veggies, your proteins, your fats, all there, and all super simple to grab, eat, and move on.
Mama Poff:
Awesome. And again, back into the kitchen, interacting with the kids when they make it, they’re going to be more apt to eat it too.
Dr. Elyssa:
Yup. And I think a lot of them are snacking right now is boredom. So coming up with activities, you can prep all that. You’re looking at a few hours, you know, where everyone’s in the kitchen and you blast the music and everyone’s in charge of their one piece and you’re ready to roll.
But the key thing with all of these ideas is looking at stuff that’s nutrient-dense. So what that means is if you could imagine you’re going along and you want to snack and you’re like, okay, super hungry. I’m going to just go ahead. And I’m going to just grab the potato chips and I’m going to eat those well, there isn’t any nutritional value. So you basically have a hole in your cup and you’re filling it up with potato chips and all the nutrients are draining right out, super fast. You’re not holding onto anything. You’re not absorbing anything. So 20 minutes later, you’re hungry again. And you fill up with sugar and all the sugar drains out and you fill up with sugar and all the sugar drains out. When you’re eating nutrient-dense stuff, your body absorbs the nutrients. It gets what it needs from the food.
And then you’re not in that constant state of I’m hungry. I’m hungry, I’m hungry. So that’s my big, the big thing is when you eat snacks, have a nutrient-dense and then you’re not eating snacks all day every day. So we have one, do a check with your snacking, touch in, drink water first, wait, 10 minutes. If you’re still hungry, then you go to your snack areas and you grab a prepackaged, ready to roll bag of snacks, eat that. You’re going to have nutrient-dense snacks. So your body absorbs everything that it needs. And then you won’t be hungry again until your next meal.
Mama Poff:
I’m just trying, I’m trying, I’m like battling with an analogy in my head when you’re talking about the junk food and maybe we’ll even keep this in when you’re talking about the junk food and how it sees, you know, you put it in and then just, you know, nothing sticks. Right. I just, I can’t like complete the analogy, but all I was thinking was like bad dates. You know? Like something about like, you might go on a date and he might be nice, but he’s like, man, you know what? I like to see him again. And then just leaves like meh.
Dr. Elyssa:
That’s what unhealthy snacks are going to do.
Mama Poff:
Unhealthy snacks or like unhealthy dating.
Dr. Elyssa:
Yeah. Good at the moment. And then fizzles out of the end. Yep. Any other thoughts on snacking?
Mama Poff:
If your dating life sucks? Chances are your snacking sucks.
Dr. Elyssa:
Listeners can’t see the look on my face. At the end of the day, putting good fuel in your body is going to make you feel good.
Mama Poff:
Well, hey doctor, what if we do one more thing? What about in the show notes this time or in the, in the content that we spill with this one? Why don’t we give them some of our favorite recipes of snacks.
Hey listeners, why don’t you comment below your favorite snack ideas too? Because nothing is better than moms helping other moms. We’ll give some ideas and then you guys give us some ideas and let’s see how much we can share with each other.
Dr. Elyssa:
Absolutely. I love that. Alright, thanks mamas. And we will talk with you again next week.
