“I HATE SNACKS!” Said no one. Literally ever.

I mean, at least no one that I know!

Seriously, who doesn’t love a good snack?

You may be a sweet snacker and reach for chocolate or skittles.

You may be a salty/crunchy snacker and reach for chips, crackers, or organic Doritos (my absolute FAVORITE).

Snacks are delicious, snacks satisfy a craving. Snacks taste “so good.”

But, we all know that snacking TOO much can sabotage our weight loss.

In fact, when I asked this community what they struggle with the most, more than one person said that snacking is their weight loss nemesis.

The thing about snacks, though, is that having a snack is NOT a bad thing. In fact, a lot of times it is a very GOOD thing.

So how do you figure out if snacking is OK or if it is actually sabotaging your biking weight loss? Read on to learn more about how you can snack, have a healthy relationship with snacking, AND lose weight. 

#1: Plan your snacks in advance.

This one is huge. Like all of our meals, when we plan our snacks in advance we are doing it from a place of “this is what I need for fuel or pleasure during the day.”

We are so much more likely to make the choices we like about our snacks if we make them ahead of time instead of in the moment.

For example, I usually have a meat stick and a salty snack like chips or Doritos in the afternoon.

I know that for me and my body a protein/carb combo is the way to go in between lunch and dinner.

If I don’t plan my snack in advance and have to grab something on the go I am much more likely to make a poor choice for that snack that doesn’t fuel my body properly. 

I mean, my supermarket carries the exact meat sticks that I normally bring for a snack!
But “me” after a long day at work who is stressed and feeling like she deserves a treat is a whole lot less likely to make that choice on the fly.

Instead, I will likely grab something that isn’t as nourishing.

#2 Know and like your reason for having a snack.         

Ask yourself why you are having a snack.

Is it on your plan? Is it to fuel your bike ride or fuel your day? Is it strictly for pleasure? Are you even HUNGRY?

None of these reasons are BAD, it’s just important to know your reason.

When we have a snack that we planned either for a particular purpose or for pleasure it is pretty easy to like that reason.

What we want to avoid is emotional snacking.

Snacking is more likely to sabotage our biking weight loss efforts if it is of the emotional variety.

When we are snacking because we are bored, frustrated, angry, sad, lonely we are snacking to avoid the negative emotion. 

We want to replace it with feeling pleasure from the snack, or we just snack so that we don’t feel anything at all.

Generally this is not the kind of snacking that is going to help us along on our weight loss journey. 

Also, if we are snacking for pleasure but we aren’t even hungry? That’s another way that snacking might sabotage our weight loss efforts.

A lot of us when we snack for pleasure, even if it’s planned, end up eating way more than we are actually hungry for because it “tastes so good.” 

#3 Use a plate or bowl for your snack.    

Speaking of eating more than we are hungry for because it tastes “so good”, be sure to use a plate, bowl, or bag for your snack.

This helps us to be aware of how much we are eating. When we empty our plate, bowl, or little bag of a snack we have a built-in pause and reminder to check in with ourselves.

This pause is EVERYTHING when it comes to preventing overeating. Might you go and fill up that bowl or bag again even if you aren’t hungry for more of the snack? Sure?

But you are STILL likely to eat less. Because you have to make that choice to go back for more. 

Additionally, you will be way more aware of just how much you are eating if you have these built in pauses. You will know “I had three bowls of chips” versus “I have literally no idea how many chips I have had because I have just been standing by the snack table and eating all of the things.”

4. Stop thinking that all snacking is “bad”.   

When we think of snacks as bad or something that we need to avoid at all costs we are missing out on both pleasure of snacks and fuel. This is especially true of us girls who like to ride bikes and move our bodies regularly!

For example, I know of women who have been on long bike rides and have avoided having snacks through the ride because they don’t want to “undo” all of the hard work of the ride.

What we don’t realize is that a lot of times the snack is ESSENTIAL to us not only being able to have a good ride, but also to keeping our body and hunger regulated.

I personally get VERY hungry usually the day after a long/hard ride. When I used to lead group rides on a weekday night this would happen even with fueling during and after the ride!

I am so much more likely to overeat that next day if I have tried to keep myself from having necessary snacks throughout the ride, or if I try to just go to bed without my recovery protein shake. 

Sometimes snacks are absolutely necessary in order to keep our bodies regulated, and it would be a mistake to avoid them altogether or to think of them as bad. 

5. Realize that the snacks are not in control. YOU are. 

This last one is REALLY important. The snacks are not in control.

No chip is going to waltz its way from the pantry or from the snack table at the party and shove itself into your mouth.

I mean that would simultaneously be hilarious and horrifying, right? It’s CLEARLY not going to happen.

You are the one in control of what enters your body, not the food that goes in. Do NOT give it that kind of control.

When you relinquish your control to food you have given up all of your power to interrupt and make decisions.

You create this minefield of things that you “can’t have in the house” because you will “eat it all.” 

Then guess what happens when you see those oreos or chips at a party? You find yourself pulled to them like a magnet and think you have “lost control.”

Or you have to have this mental battle over ignoring that the darn snack is there in the first place because once you start you are afraid you can’t stop.

A Final Note

Snacking absolutely can and will sabotage your weight loss if you let it.

The key part of that sentence is “if you let it.” 

If you think about snacking as something that you can’t ever do, something that is bad, and something that you need to beat yourself up for even considering?

It’s probably going to sabotage your weight loss because it’s this forbidden thing that you never get to do.

If instead, however, you look at snacking as something that you plan, that you have a reason for, and that is just a part of how you fuel your body or eat for pleasure?

It puts you back in the driver seat. It puts you in control. It gives you the power to know that you can absolutely snack and lose weight. In fact, many of us SHOULD snack…especially if we need to fuel for our bike rides. 

When we learn how to snack mindfully and make it a part of our lives we can absolutely have a healthy relationship with snacks AND lose weight.

Start planning your snacks in advance today. Stop feeling guilty about snacking today. I know that you can do this, that you can strip all of the guilt, shame, and fear out of snacking and  make it just one of those things that you do.

Ride on!
xoxo
Stacy