I saw my doctor recently and while talking about what a lazy fat-ass I am, he mentioned something about replacing the crap I usually snack on with healthier snacks like seasoned air-fried cauliflower or something like that. So what are your favorite healthy-ish snacks that can be made relatively quickly when I feel like shoving food in my face for no reason other than boredom and force of habit?
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It’s also important to change how you eat.
Do you tear open a box/bag of something and gun it down in front of a screen?
Try making yourself actual meals. Use napkins and silverware and non-paper plates. Make a protein, a carb, and some greens. Sit at the dinner table, not in front of the TV.
Even if it’s just a snack you can present it nicely. Cut the apple up and lay it out with bits of cheese.
Make the meal seem special.
I feel personally attacked
There was a cartoon. One person says that the only time they clean their apartment is when someone special is coming over. The other says “Don’t you think you’re special?”
So do I… Because it"is accurate when I’m not eating right! Haha 😮
How I received the post
Most people have gluttony eating disorder. They cannot stop eating and cannot fathom suffering with hunger… Which is required to lose weight. They will make 6 fancy meals a day instead of snacking, if they change habits at all.
Eating air fried cauliflower will fix nothing, as they will eat 800 calories of it in a sitting, and cannot imagine that they need 1500 calories a day for 3 years to not prematurely die in the next 5-10 years.
It’s the worst epidemic we have.
Where did you get the ‘most people’ statistic?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/research-news/12328/
"About 74 percent of adults in the U.S. are overweight, according to the CDC
That includes nearly 43 percent who are considered obese. "
I mean, look around… And it’s a disorder because they cannot stop, they cannot help themselves no matter what education you give them, and it’s directly connected to universally understood negative medical outcomes. It’s a disease based on addiction psychopathology.
Mind you, I do all that (without fail) and I’m still a lardarse.
https://leisureguy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/rcaf_xbx_5bx_exercise_plans_text.pdf
15 minute a day plan. The only equipment you need is a stopwatch.
Starts at a level anyone who can walk around the block can do.
Ah. I can’t walk around the block. I have CFS and post exertional malaise.
Damn, thats tough, you have strict limitations on the level of physical exertion you can do. This means that your diet is really the only realistic way to manage your weight.
You mentioned you already eat healthy snacks but if you are still overweight, you have been eating more kcal than you use, over a long period of time. Tracking calories is not fun but have you tried it? Its not something you need to do forever, just long enough to have an understanding of what you need to eat.
Do air fried chickpeas count as healthy? Goes great with some spicy seasonings :3
This is the type of thing I was hoping for. Something savory or spicy. Any particular recipes?
I don’t follow any particular recipe tbh (and just buy them from the snack section at the store half the time lol), but basically you just want to get them really dry before frying https://basilandbay.com/crispy-chickpeas-3-flavor-options/ there’s a few recipes you can find online that detail the process :3 for spices I just kinda eyeball salt,.pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, paprika, and cumin sometimes
I’d imagine some of the popcorn seasonings you can get would work well, too… Might try making them at home, I’ve gotten a bag of them pre-made before and liked them. Don’t have an air fryer, but I’d imagine a toaster oven would probably work well
This works for peas and you don’t need a recipe. Put boiled peas in an air-fryer to crisp them up a bit. Then sprinkle on whatever spices you like. Can add lemon, or sauces or whatever you like. Experiment as you like. Just be careful not to make it unhealthy by drowning it in sauce.
You could do the same with cutting aubergine into thin slices and making them crisp in an airfryer or oven and making “chips” out of them.
Bats eat those? As for healthy, probably depends mainly on how much salt they end up containing
Salt content can always be adjusted if you’re making it yourself :3
(And as far as im aware bats don’t generally eat chickpeas :3… most are insectivores, or frugivores (some vampire bats too) lol. For someone with a bat fursona I should really know more bat facts tho)
Sometimes for a late night snack I’ll do a tube of silken tofu with soy sauce and chili oil. Very few calories, a few grams of protein, and it feels kind of nice and refreshing out of the fridge. Basically works with any seasoning too
Popcorn, minimally salted
Fizzy water. When you feel like a snack, drink some carbonated water. I found a lot of time I wanted water and flavor more than the food.
And high fiber/bran stuff fills you up. Get stuff made of whole grains like popcorn, whole wheat (or real corn) tortillas, fruits with peels on, and the like.
Blueberries freeze really well, spread em on a baking sheet so they stay separate before you bag them. Muffins are pretty easy to bake at home and with a little practice you can make a whole wheat muffin with sunflower seeds fucking tasty.
The pain in the ass is that healthy ingredients go bad much faster. Whole wheat flour goes stale in a hurry compared to AP flour.
One thing that worked for me was fasting. It is far easier for me to skip a meal than to eat in moderation. I figure I want to eat a 2000 calorie meal every time i sit down, maybe that’s a sign I should only do it once a day, very much ymmv on that one, but I lost 50# in a year just … eating until I was full, but only once a day.
As a nice side bonus, your bathroom schedule also becomes very predictable, which is handy for scheduling,
Mandarins
They are easy to peel and unlike banana peels, its peels are relatively dry and smell nice, you can keep them comfortably in your pocket until you find a trash bin.
Many people is mentioning nuts. Yes, they are healthy but they are very calorie dense.
Rude
come on down!
Nuts are very caloricly dense, yes but since they are whole foods they do not have the same effect on your weight as a processes snack with the same amount of calories (say chips or candy). If you’re gonna snack on something, whole foods are always better.
That’s not how calories work.
Outside of a human body, a calorie is a calorie. Once inside being digested things get more complex. What I stated was not pulled out of thin air, take a look here
The truth is: Energy measurements of foods do not accurately reflect the energy a human body will get out of them.
Not to mention the fact that different people get different energy out of the same foods, since an integral part of our digestive system are hundres of different species of bacteria that vary between humans.
Just handy slices of raw vegetables like carrots tomatoes or pepper with a bit of spice.some type of bean salad with a bunch of veggies, tomatoes and a vinegar dressing, maybe some cheese? make a giant bowl that lasts a week and gets better each day. just leave it in the fridge and grab a small bowl as a snack when you’re hungry. also works great as a quick meal/side
Peanuts are apparently healthy, just not the salt that comes with them. I also really like peanut butter.
I used to straight up eat flaxseed with a spoon, and I felt better, until it made me sick.
Sometimes I just go to town on an entire container of cherry tomatoes
I take the cherry tomatoes and cut them in half, then add a dressing of balsamic vinegar, powered soup base, chicken flavored, olive oil and basil. The leftover taste even better the day after.
ah, you see I’m weirdly picky about tomatoes where I’ll basically eat them whole or as salsa but nowhere in between.
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No one mentioned it, so I’ll throw it out here:
Popcorn.
I’m not particularly concerned about avoiding fat or salt, so I drown it in butter, but you do you.
After one of my kids killed our microwave by putting a package of popcorn in it and turning it on for way too long and forgetting it, I banned microwave popcorn from the house and got an air-popper. The thing is awesome. I never liked the microwave popcorn, but the air-popped popcorn became my snack of choice.
Hmmm, yes, they do say popcorn can be a healthy snack, huh? Still, to invest in a machine that only makes one kind of food, in my not-too-big apartment…
Is it a big machine? Can you clean it in the dishwasher?
You can take the plain popcorn and pop it in a microwave in a brown paper lunch sack that is folded over. No need for a one off machine.
You can just make it on the stovetop in a pot with a top
Just any pot works, you dont need a machine.
I use spoonful of coconut oil or clarified butter, but coconut oil works better. Heat oil
put corn kernels, i put just to cover bottom of the pot, or a bit less.
Then you cover and shake.
Use fine salt and fine msg for seasoning. I like adding smoked paprika powder.
I have a collapsible silicone bucket with a lid for popcorn making that goes into the microwave. It’s easy to use, doesn’t require any fat, also serves as a bowl and you can just throw it into the dishwasher. Size-wise, it’s probably not that different from an air popper when collapsed, but it’s easier to find a spot for; mine is on top of the stack of roughly bowl-shaped things. And you could also use it as a bowl for other things, so it’s not necessarily single-purpose.
I have one of these. A perfect product honestly.
Air poppers can be small, mine is about ten inches tall, five inches wide and deep. I’m no fan of single use appliances but it makes a healthy snack so easy (just pour half a cup of kernels in and switch it on) that it gets a pass. It’s fast too, takes about a minute and can’t burn them. The only cleaning it needs it to shake out any popcorn bits that for some reason didn’t get ejected. It was a great value purchase for seven bucks.
The downside is it’s loud AF.
Stove top popcorn is too stupidly easy to buy a one off gadget. I make popcorn on the stove at least 3 times a week just using vegetable oil and flavacol. My wife and I are now spoiled on this popcorn.
Trader Joe’s has ranch seasoning that is amazing on popcorn!!
I’ve been using nutritional yeast and it is like a cheese dust replacement. Would not recommend eating it by itself though (ie what’s leftover at the bottom of the bowl).
So a double whammy for health. To OP: Do an internet search for volume eating - lots of good suggestions there.
Yes!! I totally forgot about nutritional yeast, it is SO GOOD!!
Isn’t it!!! I might make some yeasty popcorn tonight.
I don’t think nutritional yeast tastes like cheese, it’s a unique flavor, but wow it is incredible on popcorn, particularly with chili powder, and also on grits, with cheese and butter.
Came here to say exactly this, people sleep on popcorn as a low calorie fiber source.
I buy it pre-popped by the bag at Aldi, since it’s pretty cheap and for healthy snacks I need to prioritize convenience to make sure I actually eat them.
This is probably my #1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispbread Either plain or with low calorie butter
Good suggestions for snacks but I think a lot of people missed the “when I want to shove something in my face as a force of habit.” You really want to get the lowest calorie thing possible, ideal would be lettuce and celery since those are basically nothing but still give you something to eat. Next would probably be apple slices, berries have surprisingly low sugar, egg white is basically pure protein but a full egg is fine too. Sprouts can be good if you grow them right. I sometimes just slowly eat a spoonful of peanut butter over like an hour but…
I would also recommend having random drinks you can go between, like tea soymilk coffee, even diet soda. Just avoid anything with sugar or fat. Things like nuts are healthy but not a great constant snack food because they do have a lot of fat, so that should be an intentional thing rather than something to reach for.
Seconding Crispbread, but also think about Zwieback - it’s at least twice as crunchy and delicious, it’s right in the name!
For real though, Zwieback and tea ist ein perfekter Snack für Zwischendurch.
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Nuts are pretty healthy. I usually have a bag of various nuts nearby. If you like it put in some raisins or cranberries or other dried fruit.
And of course fresh fruits are king. A banana takes almost zero effort.
I absolutely love nuts, but plenty of them are very dense in energy. Not to discourage from nuts because they are healthy though in moderation and I could easily empty any size bag of pistachios without thinking about it.
Hell yeah brother
I need to gain weight and was recommended to eat nuts. The only problem is that I’m deathly allergic to tree nuts and even peanuts can be cross contaminated. The closest I’ve been willing to go is peanut butter.
almonds with plain yogurt.
Are peanuts considered healthy?
In moderation yes.
Im right here with you, I’ve recently been replacing all the candy snacks I have with various rustic snacks. I’ll have like, 6 cheese curds and salami slices, 3 dates instead of my peanut butter cups, I 've been really into Japanese style peanuts, peacans just on their own.
When it comes to quick and not unhealthy meals, I found out I can make cheese rice in my rice cooker. Follow the usual rice cooker instructions, just add a cup of shredded cheddar, a tbsp of butter, garlic, salt, pepper, and if you want it extra rich replace 1/3 of the water with milk.
If you’re air frying any veg, I highly suggest mixing your seasoning in a little oil and vinegar, then tossing the veg in it. That half assed vinegarette feels really fancy and if helps get an even coating of seasoning. Balsamic brings sweetness, all the others bring sour. You can even make it in bulk, put it in the fridge, and if keeps basically forever.
If you do ramen a lot, toss some frozen veg mix in with it while it’s boiling, then replace half the packet with a splash of soy sauce, and some garlic. It’s less and somehow so much more.
Recently I’ve gotten into “soy meat” it’s dried, crumbled, tofu that’s a really popular meat substitute in Mexico. Pound of beef equivalent for 97¢ at the local Hispanic grocery. Since it’s dried and functionally flavorless, you can mix you up a slurry of spices and the stuff will sponge it all up. Toss it in a pan and it comes out the exact same texture as ground beef, but you can make it taste like everything from plain beef to Italian sausage, maple cured bacon, even smoked pepperoni. I’ve taken to adding it to chilli, sloppy joes, pasta, not only because it halves the cost of meat, but because it can add such an amazing depth of flavor and it seems to naturally correct acidity.
Hope some of this helps. I personally fell for the idea that eating right had to be miserable for so long and now it’s like, why is this not the standard? This is so fucking good!
