Trail Mix: A Great Snack for Automatic Eating
Snacks are the meals in between the real meals - and they are usually where all the fat is. And there is a good reason for this. When we think of snacks we are supposed to think fresh fruits and vegetables … yeah, right! There are too many tasty things like chips and other junk - and by eating them we train our bodies to crave them. We eat automatically, without even thinking about it.
Enter onto the scene … trail mix! Not quite fresh fruit and vegetables, but not quite chips and pastries either. The secret to eating healthy is to eat foods that are not processed or at least that are less processed. The reason is simple; your body needs nutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc), and when you feed your body with processed foods, it does not get all the nutrients it needs - so it stays hungry. And you keep eating. And eating. And … well, you see the point.
Trail mix is a great snack, because it contains a great variety of nuts and fruits (stay away from the kind that contains chocolate or other candy), and so has a great variety of nutrients - which is exactly what your body needs!! It is also minimally processed (dried fruit). At first, it may seem more expensive than that bag of chips sitting right next to it - but it has more of what your body needs, and less of what it doesn’t.
So remember, the more junk food you eat, the less nutrition your body gets, so it craves more and more food. If you keep eating this stuff, you will eventually get most of the vitamins and minerals you need, but not before you have eaten the mountain of empty carbs that junk food contains. Good nutrition is all about the quality of the food you eat, without the quantity.
Try some trail mix for snacking. It will fill you up, and give you more energy. Before long, you might just be ready to step up your game, and move into the realm of fresh fruits and veggies.
