Snack Happy, All Year Long

National Snack Food Month is officially coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean your snacking habits have to. Hopefully, you had the opportunity to try new snacks around town this month and picked out a few new favorites.

San Diego is definitely not short on its snack supply. We offered a handful of our favorite snacks in San Diego in our last article to help get your wheels turning, and want to help your healthy habits going. Here are a few tips for integrating snacks into your daily routine, all year long:

Pay attention to when you are most hungry.

Do your breakfasts tend to be small, not giving you lasting energy until lunch? Do you need a post-lunch pick me up to get you through the end of your work day?

What is it that you need?

Our bodies are complex and need different things at different times. During your afternoon break, do you need protein or more water? Sometimes we can confuse dehydration with hunger, and not give our bodies what they are actually craving. Consider adding a sparkling water or healthy flavor additive to get you the hydration that you need.

Plan ahead.

One of the best ways to keep your snacks healthy is to plan ahead. Buy the snacks that you know will make you feel good, write down a list of places near your office or home that have a quick grab-and-go that won’t make you feel sluggish and have healthy ideas rolling in your head before you get stuck. When we eat junk food is when we haven’t planned ahead and just end up grabbing whatever is closest to us (which at the office tends to be cookies, right?)

Create a Pinterest board.

Sometimes we just want our food to be pretty and good. Think of a few ingredients that you like (peanut butter, almonds, oats, etc.) and enter them into the Pinterest search bar. Create a board of all new snack ideas to make at home, or to find at a cafe near you.

Take photos of your snacks.

Let’s face it. We are a culture that loves to share things about ourselves: fun new foods that we are trying, new recipes we are creating, ways we are getting healthy—these are all prime social media topics. Think about fun ways of sharing your food through photos and inspire others to join you in snacking healthy this year.

We hope these tips help you keep or create healthy habits of caring for your body, all year long.