Low Calorie Dairy Snacks – 100 Calories or Less

 Low Calorie Dairy Snacks – 100 Calories or Less thumbnail

Beginning today I will be sharing with you a series on low calorie snack ideas. I wasn’t sure how to approach this. After some thought, I decided to give you the lists of suggested snacks by food group. That way if you are needing to supplement a menu with a little extra of one nutrient or another it will be much easier for you to come up with an idea quickly and easily. Image via Wikipedia I am starting with low calorie snacks for milk and milk products. All of my suggestions will have no more than 100 calories per serving. That should make it easy to incorporate the item into your diet as a snack or addition to a meal. Dairy products offer a good source of protein and calcium as well as other nutrients such as Vitamin D when a product is fortified. If you are unable or unwilling to drink milk or eat milk products then there are other ways to obtain these same nutrients. I’ll include suggestions for other sources in another article. Milk 8 oz skim milk (0% fat) – 80 ½ cup lowfat buttermilk – 55 ½ cup 1% lowfat milk – 50 Cheese String Cheese Mozzarella – 80 1 oz. soft goat cheese - 75 1 cubic inch Reduced Fat Low Cholesterol Mozzarella by Alpine Lace – 55 Mini Babybel Light Original Cheese – 50 (1 piece) Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedges - 35 ½ cup 1% Cottage Cheese – 81 1 slice Provolone Reduced Fat Cheese by Sargento – 50 Jarlsberg Light Cheese - .75 oz – 50 Yogurt Yogurt – Thick & Creamy – Light - Creamy Mixed Berry – Yoplait Light– 100 (1 container) Dannon Light Fit n’ Creamy – French Vanilla – 100 (1 container) Yogurt – Key Lime Pie – Yoplait Light - 100 (1 container) Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt ½ cup Blue Bunny Vanilla Ice Cream – 100 ½ cup Edy’s Grand Light Vanilla Ice Cream – 100 ½ cup Breyer’s no sugar added Vanilla – 100 ½ cup Blue Bunny Frozen Yogurt – Homemade Vanilla – 100 Other Beverages 8 oz. Cafe Latte with Skim Milk – 80 ½ cup chocolate milk 1% - 78 Yogurt Blends, Spreads, Dips Create your own healthy low cal yogurt mix, spread, or dip: ¼ - 1/2 cup plain yogurt – 38 calories (1/4 cup) – 76 calories (1/2 cup) Mix with (choose one): ½ medium sliced banana – 52 ½ cup fresh blackberries - 31 ½ cup fresh raspberries – 32 1 whole chopped peach – 59 1 cup sliced strawberries – 53 fresh herbs (such as parsley, dill, or thyme) plus a little salt & pepper 1/2 Tbsp. Peanut Butter – 42 ¼ - ½ cup salsa – 20 to 50 calories or so (check the brand for calorie count) 1/2 Tbsp. honey – 32 Stay on the lookout for other low calorie nutritious milk products when you are shopping. If you have some low calorie favorites, how about sharing them with the rest of us so that I might expand on this list? Thanks! For more snack ideas, don’t miss my earlier article 28 Healthy Low Calorie Snacks to Go Till next time, have a nutritious and low calorie week! calories Health Maintenance weight loss calories, Health, Maintenance, weight lossmilk dairy snacks low calorie low calorie snacks low fat calcium protein

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Healthy Eating, Weight Loss, and Travel Part 2

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What an experience! My trip to Georgia by train is something I will never forget. I caught the last California Zephyr to cross Iowa last week. I don’t know if service has started up again or if I will be able to make the return train trip this Friday all the way back. I suppose if I can make it by train to Chicago, I could take a bus from Chicago to Iowa. My heart goes out to everyone affected by the flood waters! When I left the Iowa flood waters behind on Thursday last week and prepared myself for a sleepless two days and nights on the rails, I knew that at least I was prepared with nutritious low calorie food. When I’m traveling and the food choices are limited, I like to have some alternative possibilities. I had purchased and brought along with me canned, dry, and fresh food that would keep well without refrigeration and not be too heavy to carry. Here’s a list of what I brought along: 3 small pop-top cans of tuna fish packed in water 3 small single serve foil-wrapped packages of regular mayonnaise (I don’t know if it is possible to get light mayonnaise in the small pkgs.) 2 medium apples 2 medium oranges 1 can mixed nuts (no peanuts included, I chose Planter’s Pistachio Lover’s Mix at 160 calories per oz. I believe that would be equivalent to about ¼ cup.) 4 cups of Oatmeal –Hearty Raisin – General Mills – I measured each cup into a separate mini-size ziplock bag. ( I chose this cereal because it is high fiber and low iron. If you are 50 years of age or younger, you may want to choose a cereal that is good source of both iron and fiber.) 2 small cans of tomato/V8 juice Sunkist dried prunes (a partial package) 3 single serve cartons of enriched vanilla soy milk Kashi TLC Crackers This amount turned out to be plenty (Just about enough for my return trip also)! Here’s an example of one day’s worth of meals and snacks for a 1200 calorie diet that includes one purchased item. By dinner time in the evening I wanted to supplement what I had with something from the restaurant or snack bar. The choices were limited. I scanned the possibilities offered on the snack bar menu to see what I could find and I settled on the 4 piece Spicy Chicken Wings for a little chicken meat. I knew I would need to avoid eating the skin to keep the total fat and calorie count down. Even so, the chicken wings were tasty! (Note: The nutrient balance for the 1200 calorie meal plan comes out fairly well but somewhat short for calcium. So if you are on a 1300 to 1500 calorie diet, you might want to add another good source of calcium for some of your additional calories such as string cheese or yogurt (if any is available for purchase.) Simple 1200 Calorie Diet To Go (By Train, Bus, Car, or Plane) Breakfast 1 cup Oatmeal Raisin Crisp – Hearty Raisin (230 calories) 6 oz. (I have to check this amount.) soy milk – enriched vanilla 1 small can tomato/V8 juice Water, unsweetened tea or coffee Snack 1 Orange (fresh) Lunch 3 oz. Tuna Light (96 calories) 1 Tbsp. regular mayonnaise 15 Kashi TLC – Original 7 grain crackers Snack 1 apple w/skin (81 calories) Supper 4 Spicy Chicken Wings – skinless (160 calories, The only item I purchased for the day’s menu.) ¼ cup Mixed Nuts 2 Sunkist prunes water, unsweetened tea or coffee, or diet soda (Always remember to drink plenty of water throughout the day.) Total Calories = 1192 Total Fiber = 19.8 grams (A little short on fiber but not bad for 1200 calories when traveling. The recommendation is for women to have 20-25 grams of fiber per day.) Fat = 33% Carbs = 45% Protein = 22% Calcium = 499 mg (Women between 19 and 50 years need approximately 1,000 mg a day, 51+ need 1,200 mg a day. This would be a good day for a supplement of calcium with Vitamin D) Iron = 16.9 mg (Women 19 to 50 years need 18 mg of iron, 51+ need 8 mg Remember to bring along some napkins or paper towels and a few plastic spoons. You can add the soy milk right into the zip lock bags of cereal to eat. Simple, easy, and nutritious. So tell me, what kinds of foods do you carry with you when traveling to eat low calorie nutritious food? Let me know. I would like to share your ideas with my other readers. Thanks! calories Maintenance weight loss calories, Maintenance, weight loss1200 calorie diet 1200 calories sample menu diet 1200 meal plan

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Thoughts about Healthy Eating, Weight Loss or Maintenance, and Travel

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It’s time for me to make another trip to visit my mother. She had been doing well most of the time, living on her own in Florida, but then she had a massive stroke a couple of months ago. We moved her to a nursing home in Georgia. I have two sisters who live there who can look in on her every day. That’s good news but it is still a long way away for me to go visit and to help out. I’m sharing this with you because I am getting better at planning how to stay on track with a healthy low calorie diet despite the upheavals that life throws at us. From air travel, to long car trips, and for the first time next week, travel from Iowa to Georgia by train, each form of travel presents challenges for healthy eating. In addition to that, when I arrive at my destination, there is the challenge of staying in hotels or being a guest in someone else’s home. I will be the first to admit that there are times when I have little control over my food choices. Some advance planning and preparation helps but won’t solve every tricky situation that might be encountered. When necessary, to make a situation better, my advice is to make the best choice you can from the available food options, watch how much you eat (portion size), and see if you can get in some exercise to make up for a less than ideal meal. I rarely skip meals because I function better with poor food than no food at all. Image by ninahale via Flickr In addition to advance planning for trips, having healthy eating habits at home can go a long way in helping you get past the obstacles when traveling. How? When you are at home eating a healthy and satisfying low calorie diet such as what I recommend at this website, you choose the kinds of foods that help fill you up and give you a sense of satisfaction with fewer calories. This in turn may help you get better at recognizing when you have had enough to eat. Keep in mind that recognizing you have had enough and then actually stopping are two different things! One of my battles in the last 10 to 15 years is eating more than I need simply because I can. Sound familiar? There are all kinds of reasons I may keep eating regardless of what my body is telling me. If you would like to learn more about the psychology of why people eat more than they should and what to do about it, I highly recommend psychologist Carole Solomon and her blog “Stop Stress Eating”. [Note: Not all overeating is emotional or related to stress!] Correcting poor dietary habits is the first step for successful weight loss, maintenance, and better health. It gives your body a chance to do what it is programmed to do on its own far better than you might think. That is, maintain a healthy weight. 1200 and 1500 calorie carefully planned diets may be what you need for a while. But eventually you want to reach a point of having enough confidence with your choices that you have no need to count calories. Your body will do the hard work for you. What you need to do is pay attention. If you have overeaten one day whether consciously or not, pay attention to your bodies’ cues and you will likely note that you are not as hungry the next day. Our bodies are designed to balance calories or energy intake to maintain weight over a period of days. (However, having said this, do minimize your intake of refined carbohydrates!) When you are traveling, allow yourself to have the occasional treat or to eat less than healthy choices when necessary without feeling guilty. But do stop short of giving in to the mindset that it is O.K. to eat whatever you want just because you are traveling and away from home. Here’s something else I’ve learned. My husband and I discovered years ago that we only have enough room for one substantial meal a day when traveling (given the over-sized portions at so many restaurants). The rest of the day we snack on small portions of healthy food that we may have brought with us or purchased locally at a grocery store. This allows us to enjoy one great tasting meal (healthy or not) in a restaurant each day without overeating as badly as we might otherwise. Next week I will be more specific. I will share with you some suggestions as to what to bring with you for snacks and mini-meals when traveling. I’m hoping I can plan two days of meals and snacks for my train travel so I am not stuck with less than ideal choices from the dining car or snack bar. However, I will definitely buy something fun to eat when I am at the train station in Washington, D.C. The last time I was there (a number of years ago) I discovered that they have a great food court with intriguing and tasty food from all over the world! Does the Chicago station have something similar? Guess I will find out soon. Till next time, watch those calories, and most importantly, stay healthy! Health Maintenance weight loss Health, Maintenance, weight losshealthy eating travel weight loss maintenance mini-meals snacks calories

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