Now may not be the time to mention healthy eating; after all we are gearing up for our annual carbohydrate packed comfort food feeding frenzy. But in about a month's time we will all be feeling rather full, rather guilty and desperately trying to stick to those New Years resolutions! Losing weight is one of the most popular resolutions to make in the New Year - and one of the oh-so-easiest to break. Most of us who have tried, failed and tried again to lose weight will be well aware of the would-be slimmer's worst enemy; the snacking bug. Second only to the common cold in virulence, as with the cold there is no known cure; or is there?
There's any amount of methods to losing weight and you can spend a lot of good money on bad advice. The best way to lose weight is to not eat quite as much and to take a little healthy exercise. Forget extremes - a sandwich a day and three hours in the gym - they'll kill you quicker than over eating. Reducing portion size and continuing to eat three healthy meals a day, combined with a little Biltong moderate level exercise every day can work wonders. Moderate level exercise includes things like brisk 'walking' - no expensive sign-up fee for that one. The problem with reducing portion sizes is that it tends to encourage a higher incidence of 'snack attacks'. The good news is that not all snacking is bad - and here are some tasty, tempting alternatives.
- Fruit and nuts: Packed with calcium, potassium and tons of vitamin C, dried apricots are an essential snack attack survival method. Almonds go rather well with them and are high in fibre and protein and vitamin E.
- Smoothies; homemade smoothies are best. Fruit juice is great and like Coke contains loads of sugar, so best avoided. Smoothies, however contain healthy ingredients like fibre in addition to counting towards the essential five a day - also a great option for kids.
- Chocolate; this is off the snacking menu for good, of course, isn't it? No, actually not. Dark chocolate containing a high percentage of cocoa solids is actually considered good for you. It's an excellent source of antioxidants and is believed to be good for reducing high blood pressure. Naturally there are some calories involved here, so it's tread carefully!
- Biltong; now if you haven't already discovered this, add the experience to your New Year resolution list. Biltong is a dried meat snack, all the way from South Africa. The curing process involves air and lots of delicious herbs and spices; at 3% fat, 64 calories and 50% protein per 25g serving this is the high energy, high flavour snack of choice for athletes, mountaineers and, in South Africa at least, Rugby spectators.
