The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies (105 page)

Chapter 19
:
Healthy (And Yummy) Snacks and Desserts

In This Chapter

Recognizing snacking saboteurs that can get in the way of effective weight loss

Keeping healthy snacks around by planning ahead

Finding ideas and recipes for lower-glycemic snacks and desserts

S
nacking can be a great weight-loss strategy, but it can also be a weight-loss saboteur. Whether snacking helps or harms your weight-loss efforts all depends on how you approach it. Unfortunately, you can easily fall into the trap of eating too much or eating the wrong kinds of foods that wind up adding more calories to your day. Not being prepared to snack wisely can also mean grabbing whatever you're able to find, which in many cases is a high-glycemic or high-calorie food. Carefully choosing healthy low-glycemic snacks is the key to successful weight loss, and I help you figure out how to do that in this chapter with the assistance of some delicious recipes and healthy-snacking ideas.

When it comes to sweet treats, the good news is a low-glycemic diet is flexible enough that you can enjoy them — in moderation. Moderation is the key because desserts are typically extra calories. Limit your portion sizes and try to eat desserts slowly, really savoring each bite. When you do, you'll be surprised how small a taste of a sweet treat can actually satisfy you. Also, make an effort to choose lower-glycemic dessert options. There are more than you think, and they're quite tasty. I share a few examples of delicious, lower-glycemic desserts in this chapter.

Introducing Snacking Saboteurs

Snacking is one of the biggest challenges people face with weight loss. You may find yoursel
f grazing throughout the day because of time, or you may discover that you tend to wait too long to eat, which can affect your metabolism. Finding the right snacking balance will help you stick to your low-glycemic guidelines and reach your weight-loss goals.

In the following sections, I delve into the details of the two primary snacking saboteurs and give you ways to combat them.

The negative effect of mindless grazing

Grazing is a typically mindless way of snacking, meaning you don't know how many crackers you
just ate and you probably aren't paying too much attention to the calorie count of the large mocha and scone you just grabbed at the local coffee shop. The result of mindless grazing? Much higher calorie levels than you can possibly imagine. Those calories add up without you even realizing it, because you feel like you're eating very little throughout the day.

I put myself to the test many years ago when I worked in a long-term care facility. Family members routinely brought in donuts, cookies, and chocolate candies for the staff. These treats would linger on the countertop so everyone could take some during the workday. I partook, but I really thought I didn't eat that much. After all, I was the dietitian, and I wanted to be a good example of balancing these types of snacks. To see just how much I consumed while grazing, I decided to jot down each thing I grazed on during the workday. A piece of candy here, a half a donut there. When I added up the numbers at the end of the day, I realized I'd consumed a wping 850 calories! That's a lot for mindless picking. Even I didn't realize how much I was eating because I only grabbed little bits and pieces throughout an eight-hour workday.

I'm sure you too have occasionally found yourself picking on food items throughout the day without being mindful of the amount and kinds of foods you're choosing. But do you really understand why that happens? Following are a few reasons why people find themselves in grazing patterns, as well as ways to avoid falling into the mindless grazing trap:

Feeling like there's not enough time in the day:
People are busier these days than ever. Grabbing whatever's around therefore seems much easier than taking the time to choose a nutritious snack. However, snacking healthfully is actually quite easy if you make eating a priority. Crazy, I know. But if you don't make your meals and snacks a priority in your life, you'll completely lose focus of your weight-loss goals. Prioritizing healthy eating doesn't have to mean huge amounts of time or effort, just a little forethought. The payoff is totally worth it: If your body is properly nourished, you can tackle your busy day with gusto! (I offer some tasty low-glycemic snack ideas in the later "Planning Out Healthy Snacks: A Top Weight-Loss Strategy" section.)

Eating because of emotions or stress:
This is a big culprit for many people. You may find yourself reaching for a soda and a quick snack from the vending machine many times during a stressful day. Awareness is the key to emotional eating. Keeping records of your food intake and emotions doesn't take much time but is valuable in becoming aware of and overcoming your old habits and emotional-eating triggers. Turn to Chapter 13 for additional advice on defeating emotional eating.

Wanting to keep junk food out for the kids:
Although the occasional treat is nice, leaving junk food such as chips and cookies on your countertop is a big trap. It's so easy to grab a cookie here and a few chips there. Before you know it, that mindless grazing has added up to a whole day's worth of calories. Keep your countertops clear of junk food and put out a bowl of fruit instead. You'll be amazed how your family will eat better choices when that's all you give them, and you won't be tempted by "just a bite" here and there.

The problem with waiting too long to eat

Waiting too long to eat a meal or a snack is the exact opposite behavior of mindless grazing (s
ee the preceding section). Going five to seven hours without eating anything can negatively affect your
metabolism
(the rate at which your body burns calories). As you discover in Chapter 8, your body recognizes when it's out of fresh sources for energy (read: meals and snacks), so it begins to slow down the rate at which it uses calories to compensate for this lack of energy — that's the exact opposite of what you want to happen for weight loss!

When you wait too long to eat, you typically wind up eating way too much whenever you do finally sit down to a meal. What's wrong with that? Well, you're consuming
more
calories on a
slower i>
metabolism. If that scenario is the norm for you, losing weight is going to be pretty difficult.

The point of all this is simple: You really do need to eat to lose weight. Planning out your meals and snacks (and taking the time to eat what you planned) are steps on the road to weight-loss success.