Snack Trap-tics – Healthy Snacking to the Rescue!
Movie theaters are total traps! There are no healthy food options and there is absolutely no way to avoid the foods you spend the rest of your day trying not to eat. I find these traps in so many parts of daily life that I think it’s time that we work out how to stay out of the SNACK TRAP!!!!
Snack traps are identified as any place where you have to enter, and the venue offers a limited amount of food, during a possibly stressful experience. For instance: today I saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Inside a mall. While I did make the choice to see it in IMAX (which I highly recommend), it was super stressful. Tom finds himself in a lot of predicaments as expected, and if I had someone next to me eating Reese’s pieces, for instance, they would’ve been shoveled down my throat between every metal twisting hijinx.
Although Target makes me FEEL like a kid in a candy store, it is definitely also a snack trap, and stores of it’s ilk. You walk in, and the first thing you see is either a Starbucks or a pizza offering! I realize that they have tried to supply a healthy snack with the carrots and hummus choice. The amount of times I actually skip the Skinny Peppermint Mocha are few and far between this season, but I do appreciate that they are trying. It’s usually the fact that I’m in a snack trap that gets me.
Since I love you and want to see you succeed in your dietary needs, I’ve decided to share with you my secrets. Here are some tips to avoid a snack trap:
1) Don’t go hungry: Much like any trap, it only works if you will feed into it. I will have a meal before I hit up the local supermarket, deal store, mall or movies. I will finish my food, give it 15 minutes (sometimes filled with cleanup) then head out. It helps to be satiated and I am less tempted to gorge on the treats.
2) Bring your own snack: Not only will this save you money, it will save you calories. I realize that most movie theaters discourage this strongly, but if you bring in food and break it out once the lights go down, I doubt you’ll get tackled by movie security. When I went to the movies today I brought a pre-popped Orville Redenbacher Light Butter popcorn in a ziplock, a Kashi Dark Chocolate Coconut Bar for my friend, some grapes and some carrot sticks. I may have been over prepared, but when my friend and I finished our snacks we weren’t bloated with guilt and gas, we were happy we had something to crunch during the super tense movie!
3) Beware: there will be people in your circle who will encourage you to go halfsies on a pound of popcorn or a pizza. DON’T DO IT!!!! Yes, splitting stuff is an easy way to cut calories, unless it’s pure junk! And if you say no to your friend, you’re not only saving yourself the sweat it’ll take to negate that in your food diary, but it will also save your friend the sadness. If she pushes the issue, just tell her she looks a little bloated. Just kidding. Offer her one of the lovely treats you brought yourself, or offer to buy her an apple when the movie is over. She’ll love you later. This move will also keep you accountable to your avoidance of the crappy treats that await you.
I hope these tips give you strength. I realize that when you have kids it’s a whole other ballgame, but I really think that they would acquiesce if you plan ahead knowing that they may not be able to turn off their need for the snack trap! Bring their favorite piece of fruit or something you know they love that isn’t candy. If it helps the big kid in me, it’ll help anybody! Let me know how this goes for you! I’m always open to feedback!
