FitSugar

Back on Track: Make Snack Packs for the Week

FitSugar — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:30:00 -0700

I am a firm believer in healthy snacking, and just like with meals, it pays to plan ahead with snacks too. Nuts and trail mix make up the solid portion of most of my snacks, I pre-pack small Tupperware containers with a couple of handfuls of nuts and dried fruit. I just stack them in a corner of my kitchen counter, so they are easy to grab on the go. Since I am nuts for nuts, and different nuts provide different types of important nutrients, I mix it up: walnuts with dried cranberries, almonds with dried cherries, and peanuts with raisins and dried apricots. I also like to make sure that I have enough cheese sticks on hand to make it through the week.

What do you pack as your snacks? Can you pack it ahead of time?

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What to Pack for a Day Hike

FitSugar — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:01:18 -0700

I love to get an early start in the morning when I am planning an all day hike up and down a mountain. The air is cooler in the morning and there are less people on the trail. Since I plan to be out for at least 4 hours, maybe even 8 hours if I am feeling really ambitious, I need more than just water in my day pack.

I made this widget - it's a list of day hike essentials. Check it out.

You can create your own Fit List and then Build Your Own Widget to share on TeamSugar.

Fit's Tips: I always pack my lunch and snacks in a plastic grocery bag and when I'm done, I use the bag for my trash and any I find on the trail.

Do You Buy 100-Calorie Snack Packs?

FitSugar — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:30:00 -0800

One-hundred calorie snack packs have attracted some fit fans, like Bob from The Biggest Loser, but these prepackaged snacks also have their share of haters. Consumer Reports criticized these low calorie portions in its December issue and concluded there are more reasons to skip these snacks than to scoop them.

The argument against 100-cal packs includes gripes like the fact that many of the products barely resemble the product they are supposed to imitate - for example, the Oreo snack packs. There are no creamy middles to be licked and a snacker may feel like the chocolate crackers she consumed wasn't even worth those 100-calories. Consumer Reports does give credit to the Cheez-It Right Bites and Doritos Nacho Cheese Mini Bites, saying those are the only two that are true taste replicas of the original.

Do you buy 100-calorie snack packs or do you pass them by?

Ziploc 100-Calorie Snack Bags: Cool or Not?

FitSugar — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:00:31 -0800

I was over at my friend's house and saw a case of Ziploc snack bags in her kitchen. They're sort of like regular plastic sandwich bags, except about half the size. I asked her what the deal was with her bulk buy and she said that she couldn't resist after seeing "Perfect For 100 Calorie Snacks" scrawled across the box. Prior to this my friend had never touched a snack bag in her life.

100 calorie snack packs of chips and cookies are big sellers in stores, but a lot of these offerings are empty carbs. My friend says these bags are a great way for her to pack her own healthy snacks while adhering to portion control. I'm not sure I buy it, though. She could opt for reusable containers that are way less wasteful than these bags, and many 100-calorie snacks wouldn't even fit in these hacked versions of sandwich bags.

Ziploc got it right though, and has positioned itself nicely within the 100-calorie snack market. What do you think of the Ziploc snack bags - a waste of money, or a successful tool for portion control?

Elizabeth Hurley: Unlikely Organic Farmer

FitSugar — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:00:59 -0800

Off the top of my head I can't remember the last time I've seen British bombshell Elizabeth Hurley on screen, but for good reason - she's packed everything up Green Acres style. The former actress has left the high life of London to live on a 400-acre organic farm in Gloucestershire where she shares space with cattle, poultry, sheep, and pigs.

She's not stopping there either. This week Hurley launched an organic snacks line in conjunction with Harrods using ingredients straight from her farm. All the organic snacks are low-calorie (100 or less), low-fat and include beef jerky, oat bars, and fruit snacks.

The 44 year old married mother of one couldn't be happier trudging through the mud in a pair of Wellingtons and says that leaving London was the only way to give her son a healthy upbringing free from paparazzi "I would be bursting into tears and just be so angry. There is something about motherhood that makes you very protective of anyone coming too near your child, and the paparazzi did things like take pictures of him nude on the beach and put them online. It was disgusting, disgraceful."

Hurley says that the inspiration for her organic line came from her own experiences with fad diets. “It’s compulsory portion control. I’ve never been able to chop a Jaffa Cake in half and just eat one piece,” she said.

Don't Wait Until You're Starving to Eat

FitSugar — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:30:18 -0700

I am just here to remind you that hunger pains, dizziness, lack of energy, and irritability are the body's way of letting us know it's time to refuel. Busy schedules can bump eating to the last item on the to-do list. If you ignore these symptoms chances are that when you can eat, you're beyond starving. This is a recipe for disaster because hunger makes you reach for anything quick (which is usually not the healthiest thing), and you end up devouring way more calories faster than you would if you were just slightly hungry.

No matter how busy you are, you want to eat before getting to that famished point, so you can prevent overeating or feasting on unhealthy foods. Plan ahead and pack healthy meals, or schedule times of the day to eat. Also keep snacks at work, in your purse, in your gym bag, and in your car, so if you're on the road or know it'll be a while till mealtime, you can have a little something in your stomach to tide you over.

How Octomom Slimmed Down to 125 Pounds

FitSugar — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:00:37 -0700

Whatever your opinion of Nadya Suleman's decision to carry eight babies at once, most can agree that her quick slim-down is rather astonishing. When her octuplets were born nine months ago, Nadya weighed 270 pounds. In the latest issue of Us Weekly, she admitted she packed on the pounds by "eating everything in sight." Now this five-foot-seven single mom of 14 has lost 145 pounds and 39 inches off her waist and weighs 125 pounds.

How did she do it? To find out, read more.

With her previous pregnancies, the Octomom admitted she had no problems getting back to her pre-pregnancy size 1 or 2, thanks to her skinny genes. This last time around, simply delivering the eight babies in January helped Nadya lose 40 pounds instantly. Losing the rest of the weight, however, wasn't a walk in the park. This mama joined the local gym and sweats it out three times a week at midnight! Yep, after her children go to sleep, a nanny stays with them while she exercises late-night for 90 minutes. Since Nadya gets her cardio from chasing after the kids, her gym workouts are devoted to strength training. She does top-secret crunches (which she hopes to reveal in her own fitness video), tricep kickbacks, bicep curls, shoulder presses, and lunges. Her dumbbell of choice? A set of 12-pound weights. I don't know how she does it, but Nadya claims she gets by on only three hours of sleep a night. She can't possibly keep that up for too long.

A healthy diet also helped Suleman lose her baby weight. Her day is filled with five protein-based meals or snacks, including turkey, sushi, eggs, and lowfat cheese. She also includes whole grains such as oatmeal, and veggies by eating salads and stews. Her favorite snacks include Pinkberry frozen yogurt and cottage cheese with fruit.

Although Nadya needed help to get pregnant and deliver her babies, she boasts that she's slimmed down with diet and exercise alone, and didn't need any surgical help.

Try a "Tropical" Yam For Your Pre-Workout Snack

FitSugar — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:00:17 -0700

It could be the orange color just makes me happy, but yams are one of my favorite foods. They're one of Autumn's tasty delights.

This tuber is packed with potassium and magnesium - two important minerals you lose through sweating. Aside from replenishing electrolytes, yams are easy to digest making them a perfect pre-workout snack. High in complex carbs, yams fuel you up as well as prep you for a sweaty workout or a long run. Poke a small yam with a fork a couple of times, microwave it until soft, slice it open, and voila you have a snack. They're great post-workout too. Do you love yams? Have a recipe that features them? Please post it in the Healthy Recipe group and I will be sure to try it.

What I buy at my grocery store is labeled a yam - a jewel yam, garnet yam, or a tropical yam. It is in fact, biologically speaking a moist fleshed sweet potato. I was raised in the States and unfortunately, and incorrectly, here we refer to them as yams. I will watch my yam and my sweet potatoes from now on.

Flickr User Muffet

Sweet Snacks 100 Calorie Quiz

FitSugar — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:00:00 -0800

You know how much I love chocolate and other sweet snacks in moderation. It is possible to satisfy your cravings for sweets in a low-calorie way; you just need to know the right serving size. To test your low-calorie sweet-snack knowledge, take my little quiz.

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Take the quiz

Healthy App: Slim Down Shopping List

FitSugar — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:00:08 -0700

If you have an iPod Touch or iPhone, I hope you're taking advantage of all the great health and fitness apps available. I just downloaded a new healthy app from Women's Health - the Slim Down Shopping List. It is cool, easy to use, and best of all it's free!

For more details and to see some pics of this application action keep reading