But I Love Snacks!?!

Seen as a regular practice here in the great USA. Watching a movie, hanging with the crew, or just contemplating life? It tends to be regular practice to break out the snacks! 

“Break out the ding dongs Margaret! Bad man on TV is spewing that nonsense again!”

Snacking in itself is not inherently bad. Snacking is not forbidden This isn’t a story of crossed lovers leading to the reuniting of families.

O chips, chips, where art thou chips. I digressSnacking does become an issue it is a chronic and ongoing occurrence. When it happens in your daily life, every 30 minutes. This would be when snacking takes a toll on you, your. body, your health, and the quality of your daily life.There are many reasons I highly recommend to rid yourself of the habit of snacking.

Including but not limited to.

• Spiking Your Insulin 
• Keeping You Craving
• Creating the Habit of Instant Gratification
• Higher Overall Intake
• Weight Gain
• Habit of Mindless Eating
• Taking Away Your Ability to Fully Enjoy a Nice Meal

Yes, some do not have direct correlation but the practice of snacking having the ability to lead to each and every one of these can not be denied! Each and every time you consume anything, the body gets ready to digest food. This happens through an insulin spike, releasing of digestive enzymes, as well as your salivary glands secreting! The pure thought, scent, and sight gets our bodies ready to eat. Actually consuming a “small meal” in the form of a snack only enhances the desire to continue.

 Therefore, you are following into the trap of “Well since my body is now craving this [insert favorite snack here] then I must surely eat it!”. 

The increase in blood sugar levels leaves your body craving more. Seeking satiation most get stuck in the practice of continuing to eat food items high in sugar, salts, or fats. Those foods that offer that quick hit. Not being actually satisfied for long the body will pretty quickly seem to want more food. That is why fast food leaves one hungry minutes later! These foods are devoid of nutritional content, what your body truly wants! 

Think back to the last time you consumed your favorite treat. Take a slight pause and truly remember your bodily sensations and own thoughts. Not only do they leave you wanting more but these type of food items we tend to snack on are only satisfying as they are in your mouth. The moment it goes from mouth to throat you want more!

Truly a fleeting sensation. Some get past this by simply continuing to throw whatever your eating into your mouth. That is not a relationship with food that you want to develop. Being, eating out of pure sensory pleasure. 

The funny thing about the body is the more you do something the easier doing said activity becomes. Snacking and constantly giving into the sweets, salts, or fats your body seems to desire is a difficult practice to get out of. The more used to giving into this instant gratification. The more intense the pull to give in will be. The sooner you are able to begin controlling your nutritional habits, the sooner you will have more control over your hunger and overall health. This can be done through conscious awareness and emphasizing proper meal consumption.

Tools. Pushing Away from Snacking

As I was beginning to state, conscious awareness and focusing on meals are two steps you may take to ultimately push away from the gremlin that is snacking. Cute and fuzzy one moment, grotesque and scary the next!

Garnering control over your nutritional habits and overall well-being can begin by dropping the habit of snacking. First off you need to be aware of the situation at hand.

1. Developing Conscious Awareness Having the ability to differentiate a craving from true hunger is a learned and useful skill in taking control over nutritional habits. Knowing how the body begins to act when cravings arise is one of the first steps into taking control. 

Begin to notice how quick to jump the body is into eating from one moment to the next. Recognize just how badly the body seems to want that sugar or salt! It’s quite jarring to realize. The quick change in state and spike in desire for a food item is a red flag.

Know that you will experience these moments when all your body wants to do is eat that chocolate, those chips, or that pizza. Nothing else seems to matter. Not even the children! That is why you must learn to pause, step away from the situation, and allow these feelings to pass.

Once you have simmered in your bodies desires and realized it is purely seeking quick pleasure the initial feeling will fade away. If you genuinely are hungry then now eat a nice, quality, proper meal.

Cravings go away with time. The more you don’t give in, the less you’ll even desire to.

Only once you have developed this control would I say to slowly allow yourself “nutritional discrepancies”.

2. Focus on Enjoying Meals. Limiting how often and the amount that you snack is another practice that will assist you on your journey of kicking a snacking habit.

Focus on the meals you are enjoying throughout your day. Whether that be breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you’re one to skip out on breakfast then just lunch and dinner! 

Mindless snacking in the end increases your overall calorie intake and eventually leads to extra weight gain. That is not wanted by most! Snacking is eating in a way that is not truly satisfying nor gives you the ability to appreciate the food that you’re eating. Your just throwing things in your mouth cause it feels good! Realize when that is the case and eat if you’re truly hungry.

Sitting down, putting away all other things, being present, and focusing on the meal you are eating. These practices  give you the ability to appreciate foods in their highest form. Taking away all other sensory distractions, you will be able to taste intricate flavors much more as well as be able to get in tune as to when you are satisfied. Leading to better tasting food and a more desirable and healthy body!

The practice in only partaking in meals develops self-control as well as allowing you to have more clarity and focus in between meals. No longer giving into snacking or even having that as a desire opens life up for complete and utter focus and enjoyment!

Your body constantly digesting food and wanting food will only take away your physical and mental energy from the rest of life! Don’t take my word for it, try it, do it, experience it!

Snacking. End all, be all.

Now that I have sucked the enjoyment out of your life what can you do?! Realize you will be better off for dropping the regular practice of snacking. 

Notice I state, regular practice. Snacking on occasion is completely fine, that is life! Another objection would be that this removes snack items you enjoy from your list of food to enjoLittle trick, make those snacks into a nutritious meal or add it as a supplement to your regular meal! Boom, issues dissolved.

Life is not about absolutes. Basically everything is dependent on context, variables, amount etc. That being said, quit mindlessly snacking, appreciate food, live better for it.