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Fuel Food Snack Ideas

Hey!

I recently decided I needed some new fuel food snack ideas so of course I consulted my Facebook family–my go-to information resource.

Here are their suggestions. You decide which ones work for you!

Susan Oglesbee Hyatt
cottage cheese w/blueberries, turkey on wheat, balance bars, almonds and dried apricots

Teri Oglesbee Proffitt
almonds !

Katherine Kaufman
Carrie’s trail mix. Almonds, dried cranberries, pumpkin seed. YUM! Also, cheese.

Kirsten Cameron
Trader Joes 8 minute steel cut oatmeal, ground flax seed, and some kind of fruit. Yum.

Dani Fake Webb
Frozen blueberries, nuked for 30 seconds, then mixed with vanilla yogurt. Apple & peanut butter. Handful of raisins & almonds. Buckwheat toaster waffle with honey or agave syrup. Crackers, grapes & a lil bit of cheese. Yogurt with Kashi go lean crunch cereal. Garbanzo beans with celery, red onion, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper. Sweet potatoe, 8 mins in microwave, cinnamon & cloves.

Dixie St. John
Walnuts, hard-boiled egg, blueberries, V8…

Kelsey Foster
almonds, Larabar (coconut – yum!), apple w/ peanut butter, TJ’s hummus w/ veggies

Frances Cadora
apples and almond butter too, blacks bean and rice, I like eating a lot of fruit like berrries mixed together or smoothies from frozen fruit.

Linda Rains
Dried, pitted prunes with almonds. Healthy, easy snack. Yum!

Lori Race
chocolate…

Stacy Spears
walnuts with laughing cow light wedge!

Kelly Pratt
frozen edamame – nuke for 6 minutes add sea salt

Katherine Kaufman
Pinot Grigio, but just for a snack. Chardonnay for a meal.

Kimba Livesay
Jelly Bellies! Hey sometimes a girl has to munch. I am the whole wheat pita pocket queen. Everyday I stuff one with organic salad greens, veggies and TJ’s Ranch dressing (low fat and sugar). Add a cup of veggie soup for lunch or dinner.

Chona Castro
Pirates Booty!

Esther Golton
Brown rice sushi rolls with something yummy in the middle (avocado or tuna or cucumbers… dipped in soy-sauce and wasabi, of course! Yum!

Laura Hilton English
Shelled Edamame (find them at Trader Joes in the frozen food section). With a little salt you can be fooled into thinking it is almost like fries (or at least I can).

Liz Gallagher
http://www.zingbars.com/ I like the choco/peanut butter

Christina Brandt
soy joy bars. an avocado.

Martha Monaco
homemade trail mix with almonds, raisins, dried cranberries, sunflower kernels, chocolate chips; hummus and whole wheat pita; greek yogurt with granola.

Amy Johnson
Clif bar’s Zbars (they’re supposed to be for kids but they are delish!), whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter, and yogurt with Kashi go lean cereal mixed in.

Sue Spoden
Sunflower seed granola from Clean Eating. If you like oatmeal, sunflower seeds, peanut butter… Mix 3/4 cup sf seeds, 1/4c ground flaxseeds, 1/2 c almonds, 1/2 c shredded unsweetened coconut, 3 tbls nat. peanut butter, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/3 c agave syrup or honey, 1/2 tsp vanilla. Bake at 300F in a sheet cake pan for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and mix in 1/2 c dried cranberries when cool. A great, high protein snack. Make 12 servings – 234 calories, 13g protein. Yum! One of my favorite things.

Toni Turner
plain old gorp (raisins and peanuts) with a little chocolate chip treat sprinkled in for fun…best high energy food i use in the mountains…

Missy Hooton
Homemade hummus made with flax oil & fresh lime eaten with organic carrot & jicama sticks… yum!

Koren Pollock Motekaitis
yogurt with ground flax (and frozen mixed berries), almonds, trail mix, cottage cheese and stoned wheat crackers

Taconcitos De Infarto
beetroot cake – lots of seeds inside and outside (homemade, a plus:-))

Stacey Riley Shanks
dates!

Emiko Jaffe
Hummus and carrots, hard boiled egg and a banana, GF bread toasted with avocado and marinated artichokes, apples with almond butter or peanut butter, tempeh pate and with rice crackers (savory thins at Trader Joes!).

Gina Vick
plain greek yogurt drizzled with a really good honey. a slice of a tangy cheese (think smoked gouda) drizzled with a really good honey or a mellow cheese splashed w/ balsamic vinegar (I like strong tastes)

Gail G. Kenny
Snap Pea Crisps

Sheryl Lanham
wasa crackers with pesto and goat cheese (or any cheese) toasted under the broiler…chocolate covered coffee beans with mixed nuts…yummmmmmmmm

BTW here are some of my faves: Kind bars, Greek yogurt with bob’s granola, apple with cheese, wasa crackers with cheese, fruit, raw nut mix.

Releasing the Pressure

The Pressure.

You know, to perform, to be successful, to prevent bad things from happening, to lose weight.

When I finally got off the whirlwind I’ve been on for the past few weeks (Who am I kidding? It’s been months.) and looked around, I saw people putting tons of pressure on themselves: clients, friends, fellow coaches.

And me.

The belief is, “If I keep the pressure on, I’ll get what I want.”

Which translates to:
If I tell myself I’m fat and point out my flaws, I’ll lose weight.
If I beat myself up, I’ll do better.
If I worry enough, good things will happen.
If I do it perfectly, I will acceptable.

Can you see the problem here?

We say to ourselves,
Do bad/hard/heinous thing to get good thing.

Remember in school when you had to do equations and you learned that both sides of the equation have to balance or the world tilts on its axis or something? (Honestly I probably cut class that day.)

Same thing here.

We think the equation is:
Pressure=Desired Outcome

What it really is:
Pressure=Pressure.

I’m not going to get all math-y on you, what I’m trying to say is that we put the pressure on because we think that will get us what we want.

Doesn’t work, the equation is not balanced.

Here’s the part where your brain might explode a bit so grab a tissue to contain any unfortunate seepage, I’ll be here…

The key to your desired outcome is releasing the pressure.
Letting yourself off the hook.
Quitting the worrying.
Giving yourself a big ol’ break.

It’s making peace with yourself so you can lose weight.
It’s being kind to yourself so you do better.
It’s staying in the moment so you notice good things when they happen.
It’s doing it imperfectly and accepting yourself.

See? The equation balances.

And you get an A.

Want to practice releasing your pressure? I cooked up this handy worksheet you can download for free.

Fact vs. Fiction

Are you letting fictional thoughts slip by disguised as facts?

Statements like:

• I have to pay the mortgage.
• I have to get this work project done on time.
• I need to go to this family event.
• I can’t disappoint Aunt Gertie.

And of course…

• I have to lose weight.

These are all fictional thoughts.  By “fictional” I mean that they are your story about that particular situation.

The facts of the above scenarios are different:

• I have a loan on my house from the bank.
• There is a project at work with a deadline.
• There is an upcoming family event.
• Aunt Gertie invites me to visit every day.
• I am above my natural weight.

When we treat fiction as fact, we lose our ability to actively make choices.

When you don’t feel you have a choice, it causes you to feel fearful and anxious which can cause you to reach for the nearest bag of Cheetos.

• You may choose to pay the mortgage because you like living in your house.
• You may choose to finish the work project on time because you don’t like the consequences of not finishing on time.
• You may choose to go to the family event, but if you’re clear that it’s a choice, you may also choose not to.

Where are you telling yourself a fictional story disguised as fact?