First off, I want to preface that I am by no means a professional. I’ve had a strange relationship with food, as I feel most have, so I wanted to share what foods have helped me fulfill that craving for food when I’m not really hungry but still feel like I need to eat. Hopefully, this can help you in any way as well!
- Popcorn
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Popcorn without butter or any flavoring is actually not bad for you! Like many other items on this list, it’s not necessarily “good for you,” but it’s not bad for you. It’s also great for when you really just need a snack to eat while you binge-watch some Netflix. Personally, I’ve become (too) obsessed with the Smartfood Smart 50 popcorn. Do I still eat half the bag in one sitting? Absolutely. Does that defy the entire purpose? Probably! But it’s a lot better than an entire sleeve of the Halloween-themed Oreos, and honestly, that’s the goal right now.
- Pretzels
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I’m not going to lie, I really wasn’t a big pretzel person. I don’t love a lot of salty snacks. They just make me thirsty, so I’d rather have cookies or ice cream, which is obviously by no means, better. However, eating the little ones with hummus has been actually really nice. Hummus can also lower your risk for heart disease and improve cholesterol, so now you have to try it because it’s been proven as healthy!
- Smoothies
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I honestly never even drank smoothies that much until about a year ago, but my goodness was I missing out! It’s the best way to trick your body into thinking you’re eating sugar but really you’re just eating fruit! I also recently saw that other good alternatives for sugar in smoothies and smoothie bowls are honey and natural maple syrup. You can also make it fun and add in things like shaved coconut, which is my personal favorite that I highly recommend. And– if you’re bad at keeping fruit fresh, I highly recommend frozen fruit. It won’t always taste as “fresh” but I don’t ever really notice, and I honestly don’t think you will either. Smoothie bowls are also really filling and good for you, so if you can master the proper ice proportion, unlike me, give it a try the next time you have a bit of time!
- Guacamole and Veggies
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My sole purpose here is to advocate for rainbow carrots and prove that they actually taste no different than regular ones. They’re purple, and I honestly don’t know why, but that just makes me so incredibly happy. By all means, your favorite veggies are also the best, especially when you take the time to cut up a bunch of different ones and make a mix. (Insert chef kiss here.) I took a nutrition class a while ago, and my professor mentioned that you should be switching out the “color” of your fruits and veggies every week, which at the time I thought was really stupid. Because if I love carrots and strawberries, why should I try anything else? Then I tried it, and now I’m obsessed with so many other foods, and I can now make meals outside of those, so please, if you’re like stubborn me, give it a try! I promise you won’t regret it.
- Water
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This sounds really silly, but your body often confuses hunger with thirst, so if you haven’t had water in a while, try drinking some before you decide to eat a snack. I’m absolutely awful at drinking water, so this was a game-changer for me. Hopefully, if nothing else, this was a fun little reminder.
- Trail Mix
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This one can be fun! It also gives you so much choice, which makes it that much better! The key to this is getting things that aren’t exactly sweets. I know that sounds really obvious, but I used to make trail mix with something as simple as just chocolate chips, and if that’s what you do, that’s still wonderful. It’s actually been proven that chocolate can help with heart disease (especially dark chocolate), I just eat too much of it, so I need to save it for different meals a lot of the time. If you’re like me though, I recommend avoiding it in trail mix! Switching it out for something like peanut butter pretzels or yogurt covered pretzels (both of which give the same effect as chocolate chips in my non-professional opinion) is something that I really feel has helped me still feel like I’m getting something sweet. Other things that I also think are great are cranberries, raisins, plain (or flavored) Chex, coconut (my personal favorite), nuts, dry fruit, granola, pumpkin seeds or anything else your hungry heart desires!
- Homemade Muffins (yes, the healthy ones)
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Okay, but hold on… these are actually good if you get a good recipe. Again, not “good for you,” but they’re a really great alternative to ice cream or your drawer of chocolate. If you search up healthy banana muffins (or other flavors, these are just good at having a fairly low sugar intake but still taste somewhat sweet), there are going to be a ton of recipes. I like to look for the ones without rolled oats in them. It might just be a personal thing, but I’ve noticed that whenever I make them with oats my brain doesn’t like it any more. Which makes no sense if you look at the next snack, however, I think it’s just tricking your brain into thinking you’re eating sweets versus knowing you’re having something moderately healthy.
I really wanted to include this in here: please still eat what your body wants! Obviously moderation is always important, but depriving your body can be really unhealthy, especially if it goes on for a long period of time. The entire reason I wanted to make this list is because when I’m sitting at home for a long time, my mind just constantly goes back to when I’ll be able to eat again. This especially applies to everything going on with online schooling. This is so heavily correlated to boredom, so if you know you’re not actually hungry and can wait a little bit, make a little playlist and go for a short walk! Do a bit of homework or whatever else you need to for a bit until you’re ready! A lot of the reason I like being busy is because it gives me more structure, so if you’re like me, it took me a long time to realize that was something beneficial that I needed to do. It took me even longer to do it in a healthy manner, so I truly hope this list was beneficial in any way to you. Food can be a really strange thing to deal with, especially when you’re using it to help you fulfill other purposes, so please, more than anything, stay healthy and stay happy.