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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?

Flipping Fear

Darcy is afraid to give up the comfort and security food has given her. She can’t even THINK about what stopping overeating might be like.

She is overwhelmed by fear. Fear is generated by that ancient, reptilian part of our brain, the amygdala, affectionately known as your “Inner Lizard.” It’s an awesome response when we truly are in imminent physical danger. It was extremely useful to our ancestors when they were under attack by a Sabre-Toothed Tiger. It triggered their fight-or-flight response, and, as my historical reference “Clan of the Cave Bear” suggests, they were then able to perform heroic (and eerily modern) acts to save their lives. In these times, most fear is generated not by imminently dangerous external circumstances, but by our minds–our thoughts to be specific.

You can see this with Darcy. She is not in any kind of physical danger, yet her fear feels no different than what our primal ancestors felt. Until she’s able to flip that fear, she won’t be able to successfully stop overeating.

Here’s how to flip this kind of thought-generated fear.

Face the Fear
Darcy’s main problem is that she’s resisting the fear, and by refusing to look at it and what’s driving it, she intensifies it. You can’t push fear or any emotion away, the key is to face it and see what is really there. Which will lead you to…

Disprove the Thought
What thought is causing the fear? How does that affect you? And, of course the infamous Dr. Phil question, “How’s that workin’ for ya?” If you decide it’s not working, now that you’ve wiggled that thought loose in your mind, you can find one that feels more true and helps you create the kind of outcome you want.

Darcy’s thought that is causing her to feel afraid is “I need food to give me comfort and security.” When she believes this thought, she feels — you got it! — afraid, and perhaps hopeless and anxious. And, when she contemplates stopping overeating food to lose the extra weight on her body, she becomes paralyzed at the thought of losing her “friend.” Yet she desperately wants to be free from the food obsession. As long as her mind believes this thought, she will not be able to consistently eat the amount of food her body needs because when she feels this fear, she binges. Here is the ultimate irony–food is NOT giving her comfort and security, overeating food brings her discomfort and insecurity. This thought she believes is a lie.

Flip to a Better Thought
Thoughts that bring you fear and pain are always lies. I know this is a big pill to swallow, but even in the darkest of circumstances, there are multiple stories (thoughts) you can tell yourself about what’s happening. Think about it. Right now Darcy wants to lose weight. But she’s telling herself a very scary story of deprivation and loss of comfort which is preventing her from doing that. There are multitudes of stories she could tell herself instead. What she wants to find is a thought that feels better and also feels true. Many people fall down here because they find a thought that sounds better, but it does not feel true to them. That won’t work. It is vital to keep brainstorming until you find a thought that meets the better AND more true criteria.

Here’s what that better-thought finding process might look like for Darcy:

Thought 1: I am a pretty pretty princess and all will be well.
She doesn’t believe it for a second–not better, not feeling true.

Thought 2: I don’t need food to give me comfort and security! I can do it on my own!
Sounds nice, but Darcy can’t quite buy this yet–doesn’t feel true for her.

Thought 3: Food is food, it does not provide comfort.
Hmmmm, interesting, Darcy says. This one gets her mind clicking–getting warmer…

Thought 4: I give me comfort and security.
Again, very interesting, but Darcy can’t quite get there. That’s ok!

Thought 5: I’m only giving up the parts of food that don’t bring me comfort and security.
BOOM! Darcy’s got it. She feels a shift inside, a relaxation when she thinks this thought. It’s just right for her because it doesn’t ask her to totally give up her beliefs about food, just the part that isn’t working for her. This new thought causes her to feel relaxed and even excited about the idea of fueling her body and honoring it rather than overeating. She can start to see how doing that would bring her more comfort and security than overeating does. She knows she still has more thoughts to work through, but she’s up for giving it a go.

The next time you feel that tingle of anxiety or gut-wrench of fear, instead of pushing it back down with rationalizations or food, check it out, find the thought that’s fueling it and flip it.

Eat What You Want (WHAT?!?)

When I tell my clients they can eat what they want, they usually respond with
some version of “Huh?”

“You mean I can eat pizza?” Yes.
“Nachos?” Yes.
“Ice cream?” Yes.

They tend to go two different directions with this stunning information.

Either into Wild Child I-can-stay-up-as-late-as-I-want-mode: Whoo hoo! I can eat whatever I want!! Pass the cocktail weenies and cotton candy!

Or they go into Inner Dictator freak out mode: WHAT!!! I’ll get big as a house if I eat that way! Are you crazy! Pass me the -10 calorie ice cream bars and carrot sticks! And get me a diet plan while you’re at it!

Neither one of these are what I mean by eating what you want.

We’ve spent so much time depriving ourselves of certain foods and then rebelling against the deprivation, that the idea of eating what we want from a balanced place is completely foreign. When you’re in that deprivation/overindulgence cycle, you’re ping-ponging back and forth between those reactive behaviors. You lose sight of the bigger picture.

You create the bigger picture by redefining what you want–a compelling, juicy, vision for life that includes foods you want, but more importantly, includes the YOU that you want.

Here are some questions to help you determine the YOU that you want:

How would you like to feel about yourself at the end of the day?

What are 3 actions you could take each day to cause you to feel that way?

What does your body feel like at it’s best? (e.g. energized, satisfied-but-light, strong, etc…)

What could you eat that would cause you to feel that way?

What else can you do to cause your body to feel that way?

And, in the moment when you’re noodling on whether or not to have that chocolate sundae, you can ask yourself this:

Knowing that it’s perfectly ok to have this if I want (and I can truly savor and enjoy it and stop when I’m satisfied), is it in alignment with the ME I really want?

How will I feel about myself after I eat it?

Am I eating it to avoid something unpleasant?

Will it be delicious?

These are not trick questions, sometimes you’ll choose the sundae (but without the guilt). What you’ll find as you start to live in the space between the inner dictator and the wild child, is that sometimes you won’t choose it.

Not because you can’t or shouldn’t, but simply because it’s not what you want.