feeling peckish?

For those of you who didn’t know me well, when I’m not blogging I work as an outreach support worker. Owing to my line of work I do spend a lot of time on the road meaning that I need to be organised and sometimes resourceful when it comes to getting my hands on healthy snacks, Supervalu stop anyone?

Making a poor a choice at snack time can have a negative impact on your blood sugar levels and derail good efforts made at main meals or in the gym. Eating that cereal bar or sugary soda causes a sudden spike in blood sugar levels followed by a correlating dip leaving you fatigued and increases the likelihood of overeating at your next meal.

The ideal snack will contain at least two of the following nutrients; protein, fat and fibre.

• Protein takes longer to digest, as it’s an energy intensive process.
• Fat slows gastric emptying (i.e. the speed at which food passes though the stomach). It’s the good fats we want here, think of poly and monounsaturated variety’s found below!
• Fibre takes longer to digest and slows the release of energy into the blood stream.

These are my favourite snacks when I am on the move:

• Water, yes because you might just be thirsty (I always have a big bottle of water in my bag, I consider it a mini workout lugging it around!)
• Piece of fruit with nut butter
• Natural yoghurt with raw nuts / seeds
• Homemade protein balls like these peanut protein bites
• Half a hard-boiled egg with a dollop of hummus
• Two oat cakes sandwiched with a large dollop of nut butter
• Sliced veggies (carrot / peppers / celery) with hummus
• Fruit smoothie like this pear and mint smoothie

Preparation is key but not always possible so check out Supervalu and some good service stations are now stocking actual decent snack bars now (not the fake pretending to be good for you ones, ahem Nature Valley) if you fancy something sweet I suggest Nakd bars or Bounce Balls. Keep a look out for them. They rock my world!