"SNACK" what?

So this is probably going to be a SUPER LONG ENTRY, if you don't have time or interest turn back now and find something else to read.

So just to let everyone know: I'm attempting to make healthier, more aware of nutrition, decisions about what I eat. I'm not eating organic, but more for "losing weight" purpose. I'm not necessarily trying to lose weight, I'm more trying to avoid putting on any extra. I'm not getting any younger, have a crappy metabolism that's not getting better, and I HATE EXERCISING. I know people say if you exercise you feel better, but I'm just not motivated enough to do it. I've done it before and felt great, but crap happens (for instance the weather or the pets or other people). I prefer to exercise in the morning, can't stand the thought of going home (arriving close to 5:30) exercising for an hour and then trying to eat dinner. First I'm HOT and don't want to eat, second I have been trying to eat before 7 for the last few years (it's a resolution that I've actually stuck with, YAY for ME).

Also a friend of mine and I discussed a while back the benefits of eating fruits and veggies and how easy it is. I've done pretty well and usually get four total a day with a goal of at least five (since it's the minimum and all). I have a veggie for mid morning snack, a veggie and a fruit at lunch, a veggie and hopefully a fruit at dinner (sometimes I just have to eat the sweet, good, bad for ya crap). Plus my in laws started WW (*future note *doesn't mean anyone else agrees with me I'm just using a generalization) a month or so ago and I know my points value I'm allowed a day. The fruits and veggies count really low (zero or one or two points each maxing out around five for the really fatty large fruits), this is really helpful during the season to get fresh produce that is FABULOUS.

Well anyways since I've explained my reasoning now I'm going to vent my opinion about a couple of things. I was online checking my email at Yahoo and you know how they always have the front page items. I clicked on 100 calorie supermarket snacks and read (well that'll come later) and then at the bottom there was a link for the 50 healthiest snacks and this is where I start. Here's the post if you're interested http://www.self.com/fooddiet/2010/06/50-healthiest-snacks?mbid=synd_yahoohlth.

It starts out with savory items and then goes into sweet. For a person who is doing WW this is cool but also sucky at the same time. When you read this you think wow this is so helpful, but it just kinda rubbed me the wrong way.

SAVORY

Almonds; they are so fattening, which is what WW focuses on, and that really means that we* can't really eat that many, it's like six or some ridiculous small amount that's just a tease. Olives; 5, of any kind, really, surely not, you would think that it would be different based on type (black, green, kalamata, etc) and size (small, med., lg, jumbo). Heck if that's the case serve me up five black jumbos before you skimp me on five small ones! I love olives and can just sit down and eat the whole can, but a serving for us* is pretty high for such a small snack. I'm from TN... What's a Martin's pretzel. I'm thinking one of those carnival, size of your face pretzels here. One? 50 calories? Wow, like to see that small pretzel. And if it's just one of those that comes out of a bag FORGET IT, I'll pass and have something with a bit more flavor thank you. The fourth one is just kinda strange. I love BNB pickles, but don't know too many people who do. I can literally count on one hand: my mom, me, and my in laws (but I don't think they buy them they just eat the ones at Cracker Barrel). 1/4 cup hummus and three carrot sticks; what am I supposed to do with the left over hummus? Eat it with my fingers? Is it the baby carrot sticks or a large one that ya think of when you think of Buggs Bunny? If it's the baby ones, by WW standards, a person can eat a whole 3oz, which is about 10, and they are pretty sweet and tasty on their own, I've discovered (it's my mid morning snack usually thanks to Costco and my MIL). The next snack about hummus, crackers, and avocado; a tablespoon of avocado? That's kind of a weird measurement IMO. Asparagus and almonds; once again six? I'm obsessing I know, but have you ever really stopped and observed asparagus? There are such a variety of sizes in a bunch. Plus I swear WW says it's low in points, like 1 or 2 for 12! Almonds are also high on the good fat, but none the less have more points value. Also it is in my top five nuts and I don't want slivered ones, I want the whole darnn nut! I especially love them if they've got all the bad flavorings: wasabi, honey roasted, jalapeno, etc.. The potato suggestion; is great, I've done this a hundred times. But unless you've got to or want to, the whole "1/3 cup 1/2-inch-thick potato slices" is kinda unreal. I measure and weigh almost everything I eat, but to get a guide and to try to cut a potato in even slices is a great big PITA. Why couldn't they have said an amount? Like one small 4oz or something? The black bean salsa; HELL YEA, I'm going to make that sucker ASAP! Great suggestion. Love all the ingredients and it's so summery and so healthy sounding (even though the black beans can get a bit on the high point side). Cucumber suggestion; that's just weird IMO, I love them just sliced on their own, with salt, or with a creamy fatty ranch dip. However I also love yogurt, but not the plain stuff. To me this would be two separate snacks instead of one. But it could be good, it almost sounds like a spin on a cucumber sandwich without the bread. Whole wheat toast fancy; it's only a half a slice! What on earth? Why couldn't they have made a suggestion for a whole slice. Come on, who really eats just a half a slice? I've tried cutting back on some of my sandwiches and eat them "open face" with just one piece of bread, but that's just too much, cutting it down that far. Laughing cow and thin; pretty tasty. I already do something similar: I eat my LC on Mrs. Suzi's crackers from Costco. For anyone curious I get three crackers and one wedge of LC for 3 points, lots of protein and flavor. (Just wanted to mention that I use the LC regularly and it makes an amazing pimento and cheese for anyone who likes the stuff and wants it to be "low fat".) Tuna jerky; not even going to comment YUCK! Mozzarella and tomato; what kinda cheese is that and where can I get some? Is it low fat and tasty or disgusting? Cheetos;? I agree with the comment on the bottom of the page, enough said. Not much to say about the rice crackers, no opinion. Edamame; thought it would be lower in calories, but okay. Vegetable chips; I've always wanted to have these as a snack, but I feel like I'm cheating a bit by not eating the fresh stuff. Maybe during the winter when fresh isn't as readily available. Trader Joe's chips; once again 1/4 a cup. Not very much is it? Plus chips of all sorts are one of my weakness I LOVE THEM with a passion. Pumpkin seeds; no comment again. Don't eat them too much to know anything about them. Prosciutto and dried figs; haven't have dried figs. Love prosciutto and fresh figs (but haven't had them together, just separately). Wonder what the two taste like together? Guess I'll have to investigate and possible try. OMG they are suggesting nuts again! Cashews; are also in my top five fave. nuts. I only get nine! What a tease! Subway Turkey Breast Wrap; wow there are only ten more calories in a whole wrap than in nine cashews. Enough said about both. I would choose the wrap: more substance, not a trigger food, and would last way longer (eating and filling wise).

SWEET

Plain yogurt; not sweet! I only use the stuff to make smoothies in which the fruit is obviously making it sweet! More often than not I use low fat Vanilla. My friend who doesn't really even like sweets likes to make cucumber smoothies using the plain stuff b/c she agrees it's not sweet. Fla-Vor-Ice Lite Sugar-Free; I could see this. However I rarely choose to eat a Popsicle. I'd rather have the creamy stuff and if I do eat Popsicles they aren't usually sugar free (which is weird b/c most other things I choose are: kool aid, jello, pudding, and the like). Frozen grapes; why is it suggested to freeze them? Is it supposed to make eating them slower? I've heard of doing that with jello and yogurt and pudding. 10? By WW standards you can eat a whole cup for one point! I can usually get about 18! Fruit Crisps; not a bad idea if they are tasty. I bought some apple and pear dehydrated crisps and thought I was doing good, but they weren't so much. The pear was decent, but there was only six in a box of 20ish. Strawberries; why roll them in powder sugar? They are usually sweet enough on their own. I like to slice them so that I feel like I'm eating more. Also it states 10. This is such a hard thing to go by b/c we all know that those delicious berries range in size. I would choose all 10 to be the size of my hand. This is one time I think a measurement of sorts would be handy. WW says 1 1/2 cup for 1 point. That's an easy standard to follow. Slice the suckers, fill up the cup, and dump into bowl or container to tote. (So it's around noon now and THIS SOUNDS SUPER YUMMY, wish I had some to eat). Mocha cookies; never heard of em', but I bet they are tasty (to me anyway). I LOVE mocha flavored foods. However I bet it's a package of two cookies that are smaller than Oreo's. If that's the case give me ice coffee please! Froz Fruit bar; yummy I'll take one. However I'm sure it's worth two points to WW followers, do I really wanna take that? I could eat two cups of fresh fruit or a large apple or orange. Jelly Belly; I'm a huge fan of. I'm not sure about their nutritional value. I did read somewhere that if a person ate 20 (I think that's the number), about half an hour before a meal they would consume fewer calories in their meal. I'd hope so considering they would have just eaten a hundred plus chewy flavorful calories. I like to save mine and have them as desserts, especially when you have the little cheat sheet to make fun combinations! Trader Joe's Graham Cookies; once again no opinion. I'm sure it's one of those little packages like Nabisco offers where there's usually have 7 to 10 thumb nail sized treats. This is also such a tease to me. I feel like I can eat a whole box of these suckers. Of course that makes sense consider cookies don't really have filling food worthiness, they are just tasty fat packers. Balance Bar; usually these things are about two hundred calories. This site states it's only a hundred. I bet it's a three bite bar (like the two bite chocolate brownies at Kroger's). Newtons; yummy, especially the raspberry flavor. But two? I'm sure that's the serving size on the package. But in case you haven't understood my standpoint I like to get more food for less. Trying to have my cake and eat it too I know, but once I understood that I could eat all kinds of stuff (i.e. Greek Yogurt, peppers with dip, cup a grapes, string cheese, serving of carrots) for 6 WW points or a little bitty Lean Cuisine for 6 WW points, which one do you think I'm going to choose? Which one would you? I know this winter I'll probably go back to eating those super convenient meals, but right now the fresh stuff is AMAZING (especially if you can get it from a local (read Uncles) garden) and I get to eat so much! Starbucks Frap. bar; count me in! I love mocha stuff as you already know and surely since its a Starbucks product it's gotta be larger than the average bar, right?!? But if it's a small one they can keep the sucker, I'll eat a Fiber 1 instead (haven't a clue about its WW value, guess I should find out considering I have tons of them, they are so gooey chewy delicious and pretty filling too). Graham sticks; huh? I'd like to compare this to a regular graham cracker. Is this just for convenience sake? I understand candy bars have made sticks but I thought that was so you could have the taste in a smaller quantity? Banana and chocolate; sounds kinda yummy. But why only a half? And why frozen? I've done the frozen banana thing with my husband a couple of times. He really likes it. At the grocery store next to the banana display there's this banana chocolate freeze dip stuff and we've done it. It's kinda tasty. I prefer to eat the banana fresh. I used to like the banana where they were yellow and had green ends. Still kinda firm and tasty. Then I tried a banana that was turning brown and realized it's way sweeter, so I started eating them like that. Did it for a few months and then the grocer told me that the other way was better for ya. So I'm working my way back, I eat the yellow banana's no green ends. I'll get there one day I know. PB and celery; ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITE SNACKS!!!! I've never had the butter they are suggesting, but I KNOW that using the real PB isn't that low in calories. Two tablespoons of crunchy has 190 calories and a WW value of 4 points. Believe me, this is a hard one. I can eat the stuff out of the jar by the spoonfuls. Used to do it. I would do the healthy celery and small serving and go back for more. Damn trigger food! Funny enough though, our dog loves it just as much as I do. I open the jar and she's there instanstantly, like she's apparated, with drool three inches long! Smart Pop Mini; great stuff. I prefer eating kettle corn popcorn, thanks to my super close friend who got me addicted to the stuff in college, but haven't really found a "healthy" way to eat it yet. This suggests a teaspoon of sugar. I bet if I ever go to the dark side and use Splenda I could use more than a meager teaspoon! I'm going to have to start weening my self soon. The stuff just leaves a weird feeling in my mouth. Now there's an amount of popcorn one person can eat. I always hate popping a bag. If my husband doesn't want to share, than I feel the need to eat the whole bag ( I can't stand to throw stuff away) and it isn't too good left over. Candy apple; with coconut shavings? so few calories? That apple has to be the size of a grape. I've always thought those things were way bad for you! Even if I do eat one (I of course prefer the caramel with nuts kind) why would I put coconut on it? Pears; with marshmallow cream one word YUM! I love making the marshmallow cream and cream cheese fruit dip, but it doesn't love a person back. That stuff is so good with all the fruits I've had. I could probably sit down and eat the whole darn container. My family also likes to take the stuff and make our own version of stuffed french toast and waffles with fresh fruit compote. Well I've discovered that I like fresh pears on their own and can't wait for our roommates pear tree to produce edible sized ones this fall. Annie's Grahams; probably tasty, must compare the options. Are they really worth the "hit"? M&M mixed with granola; good stuff. It's like homemade trail mix. But ya gotta watch the granola, that stuff can be loaded with hidden "healthy" stuff. Cereal and milk; ummmm...... snack? I usually have cereal with out the milk as a snack. The milk makes it a meal I thought? Apples and caramel; I'll have some please! Especially if it's a Granny Smith. However the caramel isn't the greatest suggestion. I know this is a sweet list, but have a Fuji, it's pretty sweet on its own and you don't have to eat the fatty gooey stuff. I'm sure there's another "dip" that's comparable to caramel, I just don't know it. Oooohhh ooooohhhh oooohhh what about a caramel flavored yogurt? Does that exist? If not I hope that a food creator reads this and makes one, preferable low fat or light or something along those lines. Chocolate chip cookies; what's up with that? Does this even sound like a "healthy" suggestion? Not really, need to google it and see what makes em' so. McD's FnY Parfait; good stuff. I prefer to make my own. I can control the amount of the substance put in, plus I get to tweak it. Shake; might have to try. Would never have thought of using extract. Applesauce; first off warm? Doesn't sound yummy. My husband and I have this ongoing disaggreance about the topic. I like to have my refrigerated. He leaves his in a plastic bag. 3/4 a cup at 150 + calories? What are they eating. The ones we eat are the prepackaged ones by Mott's (I think), and they are 1/2 a cup for 50 calories (it is the natural unsweetened and granny smith healthy harvest ones). Does heating the stuff up make it have more calories? Chocolate milk; good stuff. Why isn't there a calorie count on it? Are they talking about the pre made stuff or the kind you make on your own?

Well all that's the first part, if you've made it this far, I swear it's only a little bit more. Keep on

This is the other website http://health.yahoo.net/experts/healthieryou/100-calorie-supermarket-snacks and they don't have near as many suggestions, but I like that they were suggestions with a cap on the calories.

Yoplait; yummy! Why are they specifically stating the red velvet flavor? There's so many to choose from that are good. I would choose a light or fat free one, but that's me. Bubble chocolate; what is that? I wanna try it. I love chocolate pieces. Right now I've got Ghirardelli at home and eat it so sparingly and indulge every time. Strawberry Sauce; I guess it's a good idea. I'm kinda weary of flavored applesauce. I like the granny smith one b/c it's made from my favorite apple versus having other stuff in it. But I guess it's not too wiered it's just basically strawberries puried with the apples right? Cereal and marshmallow; kinda like another home made trail mix. I think I'd rather put something other than the marshmallows. Tortilla, salsa, and LC; do it often. I use the flat outs and toast it. The night before or morning of I mix the LC with the salsa so it can "blend" and then spread the LC on the toasted tortilla. I usually have some sort of steamed veggie with it to help meet my daily quota. Popcorn; can't be bad if you like cheese popcorn. Not much nutritional value, but tasty stuff. Pears; freeze dried? Don't know if I'd try em' again. I've still got all the apples from the box I mentioned earlier. It's 30 calories per bag. SF Jello with whipped cream; the bomb, love this little treat. Been doing it since I was a little girl. My PGma was diabetic so we did lots of things similiar to this. Trail mix; can we say two bites? One tablespoon of each? Really? Boo on this suggestion! Fruit salad; love this! Wondering what kind of salad? Most people put some kinda creamy stuff in the salad, if that's the case no need for the cool whip. My in laws use fresh squeezed oranges and it doesn't really need the cool whip. It stands alone! One of my favorite parts of their holiday dinners. Strawberries; suggestion repeat, not going to repeat my opinion.

Well that's it folks! Aren't ya glad? If you made it this far you must have something to say. Please feel free, I'm begging ya, leave me a comment (don't be too harsh).