Afternoon snacking...

You know you're desperate when you are picking through your medicine cabinet for orange-flavored chewable vitamin C tablets or a Viactive Chocolate Mint Calcium Chew in order to satisfy an afternoon snack craving.  I don't know about the vitamin C because I ran out of those last week, but those calcium chews are 20 calories a pop!  Note to self: Stop consuming those before you get calcium poisoning and inadvertently ruin your diet!  Afternoon is particularly hard for me in terms of snacking.  My daughter is supposed to be napping (supposed being the operative word....right now she is talking to her stuffed puppy who apparently has a cold), which leaves me with a wonderful block of time to be productive around the house.  I LOVE nap time and will be sad to see it go.  However, it also leaves me lots of time to think about taking a break from whatever task I have going to munch on something.

I know what I'm supposed to do....eat carrot sticks or celery.  The problem is I could eat 50 carrot sticks and I'd still want something sweet after.  As for celery, the only way to eat that is by disguising the taste and texture with a big blob of crunchy peanut butter.  Fruit would be a better option but I'm picky about my fruits and lazy about getting them prepared.  In addition, having a toddler means I have lots of junk food in the house to serve as temptation.  I started out my parenting days with the best intentions of creating a healthy food environment.  As it turned out the universe has other plans and blessed me with a child who has a menu of about 20 foods she will consume.  Needless to say out of desperation any calories, no matter how empty, were better than no calories.  So I threw my lofty parenting ideals out the window and outfitted my house with a variety of less than diet friendly toddler food.  

To avoid the pitfalls of cookies, muffins, and endless piles of Goldfish crackers (once you start you just can't stop) I settled on those lovely little 100 calorie packs put out by a variety of different companies.  Forced portion control must work, right?  On WW most of those, at least the ones I've tried, are 2 points.  Doesn't seem bad, until you realize that after about 7 pieces you are almost done with your snack.  Sigh.  My personal serving size for those things....an entire box.  Somehow I think that was not what was intended by the marketing folks who gave us Oreo cookies for just 100 calories a serving!

What I have settled on today is the Mister Saltly Milk Chocolate Covered Covered Pretzel 100 calorie pack and a nice glass of water (I hate water).  I have to say I prefer the Keebler version of the chocolate covered pretzel.  They are in the traditional shape of a pretzel and I think you get more chocolate stuck in the crevices.  Mr. Salty are in the shape of "O"'s and in my opinion skimp on the chocolate.  See below.  Only someone on a diet could make that kind of in-depth analysis of a snack.  Talking about food makes you less hungry, right?

 

I ended up with the Mister Saltys because they came in a large variety pack I picked up at Costco.  Keebler didn't include chocolate covered pretzels in their variety pack.  So Mister Salty was better than nothing.  I swear the food gods are conspiring against me!  

There are 9 little treats, 9 little morsels of heaven....just enough to make a smiley face on the desk next to my computer.  Rather than chewing them I suck on them until all the chocolate and the salt have dissolved.  This makes the snack last twice as long.  I hope the boring distasteful water will somehow react with the pretzel in my stomach and expand to the point of blowing up (yeah right...the only time this really works is when you eat Chinese food...by the time you have finished your second helping of fried rice it's too late.  You have consumed so much water to counteract the salt and MSG that your stomach has puffed up to produce what I call a food baby, which takes hours to deflate.)  I have just finished the last piece of my snack smiley face.  That will have to be it until dinner time because I have a yummy meal planned which I like to budget enough points to eat a good sized portion (recipe to be posted tomorrow from tonight's dinner).  As well I always budget for dessert because I simply cannot watch my trash TV without a sweet treat to finish off the day.  At least the "non-nap" is nearing an end and I will be running around again thus unable to think too much about food until dinner time.

On a finishing note, thanks to everyone who not only read yesterday, but offered words of encouragement and enthusiasm.  I am hoping to create an interactive portion to this blog at some point in the near future....will keep you posted.  To answer one question from yesterday, I merely track my WW points at home.  I've heard good things about the meetings but I can't even find time to go to the bathroom most days.  And as for WW online, I'm cheap and don't want to pay when I think I should be able to track on my own.  Having my sister at to do this with is a huge help.

Until tomorrow, happy healthy eating (said with gritted teeth).