Strategy Is The Key To Healthy Eating: How To Stock Your Fridge For Success

Strategy Is The Key To Healthy Eating: How To Stock Your Fridge For Success

By Kurtis Bright

How You Can Increase Your Chances Of Eating Healthy With A Little Planning

In this rapid-fire world, it isn’t easy to maintain a healthy diet, but setting yourself up for success can go a long way toward keeping a healthy weight and avoiding unhealthy snacking.

One reason why garbage snack foods and fast food are so tempting that many people don’t know about is that food manufacturers pay chemists lots of money to create formulas for their foods that are literally as addicting as possible through a combination of fats, salt and sugar. The human animal craves these naturally, dating from a time when nutrition was much harder to obtain--and they take advantage of that.

But another reason we grab the potato chip bag or hit the drive-thru on the way home after a long day is clearly convenience.

What if we could build our own “drive-thru” that only dispensed healthy snacks? Or construct ways to make healthy food more convenient for ourselves? When you’re really hungry--right now-hungry, not later-hungry--and you had the option to grab something quick yet healthy out of the fridge, would you do it?

There’s only one way to find out! Here’s a few ways to begin to set yourself up for successfully maintaining a healthy diet, some foods you can prepare in advance for quick snacking in the moment.

• Sliced turkey wraps - Low in fat, high in protein, and super versatile, our Thanksgiving friend turkey is a winner as a snack. One great idea is to make yourself a couple of turkey wraps with your favorite ingredients, then slice them, wrap them, and store them in the fridge. Going for a tasty disc of turkey, lettuce, cheese and tortilla is a damn sight better than scarfing down potato chips.
• Hummus - Mmmm, hummus. A tub of homemade hummus is easy to whip up--all you need is garbanzo beans, garlic and olive oil--maybe add a bit of cayenne pepper or chopped basil if you’re feeling sassy. A traditional middle eastern dip that is high in protein and fiber, yet low in calories is easy to prep, and easy to dive into when you are struck by the hunger beast. Pre-slice some cucumber and wash some organic cherry tomatoes ahead of time for dipping, and you have an awesome and healthy snack.
• Carrot sticks - This old standby is a fave not only for convenience’s sake but also for the insanely low calorie content of this nonetheless very filling and satisfying food--one that is also high in fiber and vitamins A and K. If you eat 120 grams of carrots--about a cup, chopped--you are only eating about 55 calories. For a little perspective on that, in order to eat the same number of calories in potato chip form you would need to limit yourself to about 9.5 grams. Prep yourself for going to carrot town by washing, peeling and slicing organic carrots into sticks, then store them in water in the fridge. They stay crisp for days and you can grab as many as you want on the go, with no fear of gaining weight.
• Hard-boiled eggs - Loaded with over six grams of protein at an extremely low caloric trade-off of around 70kCal, a quick egg on your way out the door can keep you on your feet for hours without a nasty glycemic crash or ruining your waistline.
• Seltzer - If you haven’t kicked the soda habit yet despite all the bad news about it, try stocking your fridge with seltzer water. If you go for the pre-flavored kind, take care to look for brands that are lightly flavored so it’s a treat for your palate without the deadly added sugar or aspartame of soda. Keep in mind another little-known fact: our bodies send us signals that we’re hungry when we are merely dehydrated. Go for a seltzer next time you get a rumbling in the gut and see if you concur.

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