Consumption Control

 In a world of oversized portions and high calorie foods how do you control what you eat? Tweet

I drive from 43^rd ave and Union Hills Drive to 43^rd ave and Glendale and back at least 5 days a week. As I drive I pass a bunch of places that I could stop and eat food. Some are easy to pass others are not so easy.

How do I ignore that gnawing feeling in my stomach telling me to stop and grab a bite from here or there?

Eat Before you leave:

This is the first thing you need to do to make sure that you do not stop and waste a fuel stop on a 1000 calorie hamburger or load up on fats from a fast food joint.

If you are craving a burger don’t wait till you are on the road, grab a turkey burger patty out of your freezer and fire up your George Forman grill and grill the fat out of a delicious burger you can make at home. Don’t have time to prepare a burger from scratch before work? Prep everything when you have time and then all you have to do is flop your meat on the grill while you get ready and then fix your bun and you have a quick delicious substitute to that fatty, dry, heat lamp burger. Still don’t have time before work, while you can always prep a salad in a plastic bowl with a lid and take it with you eating an apple, carrots, or cucumbers as you get ready and then following or next tip to get you to work worry free.

Drink Water!

This is the second tip I discuss but it is actually quite a bit more important than the first tip.

Make sure you are drinking plenty of water you should always have a water bottle on hand and you should refill it as soon as it is empty with good quality water… If it’s brown turn it down! Water is better for you if it has high alkaline levels, that’s not saying you should walk around with water test strips but I do recommend drinking from a trusted source… not all SODA companies can be trusted to provide you with good quality water, do some research. Anytime you begin to feel hungry grab a light snack, fruits or veggies, and your water.

Water does two things:

It fills the space that your body wants to fill with food so that if you do eat you get full faster.

It rehydrates you… you can begin to feel hungry if your body has not been hydrated properly.

I have a water dispenser that I bought at Walmart and I have a five gallon jug on it that I fill at the water store down the street from my house, when it is not 110 degrees I carry the water jug it is about a half mile or so which is good exercise. I have a large size water bottle that I always have on me and I am always drinking from. Even with as much water as I drink, I do not drink soda at all, I have a hydrationindex of -3.2.

Eat fiber

YUCK. Why would I want to eat cardboard flavored cereal?

Yes original flavor fiber one taste horrible and I do not like to eat it either but there are other flavors that do not taste half bad and you can also eat fruit. Fora list of the ten best sources of fiber check out this post.

Fiber is awesome

It helps you stay full for longer, because it takes longer for your body to digest it.

It helps you poop on schedule, if I eat a bowl of fiber one cereal every day I can count on dropping the kids off at the pool at around 10 every morning.

If you are trying to lose weight fiber helps your body flush out the excess fat in your digestive track

Finally it helps you drop those rock hard poos you always dream of.

While it is important to poop on a regular basis do not get carried away and keep a log of logs… unless your into that kind of thing.

Eat Enough

Everyone is on a diet

It does not matter if you are vegetarian, vegan, carnivore, omnivore; if you are on the Atkins diet or the SEE FOOD diet. You want to eat enough to make you not hungry, if you feel like you are about to pop 20 minutes after you eat then you tried to consume enough to feed a third world country!

The suggested serving size is just that SUGGESTED, only you know what you need to eat to be satisfied but do not overfill and make ever calorie count… not to be confused with count every calorie.

Count Calories

This is the most tedious and annoying thing in the world and you will hate every god forsaken second of it and you will curse my name and your name and whatever website you are using to track your calorie intake, but it is a good tool. This is temporary, you count calories for a couple of months. Once you get a routine down and understand serving sizes you will be able to prepare a menu or plate for yourself without over consuming.

Keep your goal in mind

This is the hardest one because as you drive past your favorite fast food hole in the wall, or what have you, you will not be thinking I need to drop a unspecified number of pounds you will be thinking my stomach is growling, when was the last time I ate, I don’t want the nasty salad sitting in my passenger seat, I want a deliciously horribly tasteless heat lamp burger on stale buns.

Last but not least think about the last thing you think about in the above point

Deliciously Horribly Tasteless heat lamp burger on stale buns.

If your still hungry after that eat something healthy like a sandwich from a sandwich shop or the salad bar at a salad bar having place.

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Have a Happy and Healthy week

Thomas Gould

Adventures in Finding the Perfect Snack

The key to every good diet is eating... According to Michigan.gov (No I do not live in Michigan) One of the reasons fad diets fail is that: "Diets Deprive us."

Average diets tell us when and how much we are allowed to eat. They give us certain foods to stay away from and demand that we eat other ridiculously expensive foods or foods that taste like shit... Like Acai Berries.

I do not know about the rest of you but I do not have a lot of money; I can not afford and do not have the time to cook every night. I work a very demanding job and finding the time to eat can be hard.

Thats where nature box comes in!

NatureBox has many options to serve your needs.

1. Just feeding yourself at your desk while at work - try out the $13.95 option, recommended for an army of 1, and choose three snacks and take the bags to work with you... its better than grabbing a doughnut out of the break room.
2. Got a Battle Buddy or Family that needs some snacks to - The Deluxe Box is recommended for 1 - 3 people and lets you choose 5 snacks that you can share. and it only costs $19.95
3. Are you in ROTC and your whole Squad wants to snack along with you? - Your in luck for just $29.95 you can get the Happy Snacker Box. 2 bags each of 5 customizable options that you can share with your squad. Recommended for up to 5 people. Divide the price and get the above option for 2 people for only $15 each.
4. Want to feed a whole Platoon? - You can with the Smart Snacker option! For only 49.95 you get 4 bags each of your 5 Favorite snacks or let them surprise you. Split the cost 4 ways and each person gets option 2 for less than option one... comes out to just under $12.50 per person. Recommended for a small army AKA 8 to 10 people!

For the last two months we have been running on the happy snacker and this is what we got this month!

I was sadly disappointed by most of the products that we selected for this box.

Honey Mustard Dipping Sticks

Well the Kids Liked Them

These were not even edible in my opinion. I tried them by themselves and I also tried to eat them with ranch (kinda defeating the purpose of healthy snacks) They were a very sharp taste and I did not enjoy them at all.

Mango Orange Chews

I Want a Lifetime Supply

Similar to the welch's fruit snacks you can buy at the grocery store but so much better.

There have been many times where I have gone to walmart on my way home from worked and grabbed a box of fruit snacks and ate all the none grape and raspberry flavors for my dinner.

I wish they sold these in the grocery store I would eat so many of them.

Southern BBQ Sunflower Seeds

My Wife Wants a Lifetime Supply

 

I did not eat any of these as I am not a huge fan of sunflower seeds but my wife loved them and is getting more of them in our next box.

Lemon Tea Biscuits

Probably better with Tea

   

These were not horrible but they were not great. They were really dry but I did like the lemonyish taste if you ate like 6 of them at a time.

Apple Pie Figgy Bars

Is it still American if I say I did not like these?

I don't not like them but compared to the strawberry ones I got for June I was very disappointed. I would have loved them if they had little apple chunks in them and they were a little juicy.

We are possibly upgrading to the Smart Snacker ($50) box next month depending on our finances.

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Have a Happy and Healthy Week



Thomas Gould!

A Healthy Snacker is a Happy Snacker!

Nature Box - Happy Snacker

For father's day my kids gave me a Happy Snacker Nature Box.

What is a happy snacker nature box?

it is 2 bags each of five healthy snacks.

What? You want to know what I got in my nature box?

Well here you go :)

• Whole Wheat Strawberry Figgy Bars
• Seaweed Rice Pops
• Citrus Chipotle Chickpeas
• Sourdough Cheddar Pretzels
• Country Ranch Sunflower Seeds

Not very helpful?

I don't think so either so I included pictures and some general information below.

Whole Wheat Strawberry Figgy Bars

These are my favorite part of this box, I tore through an entire bag in the first day.

 They are a little dry but that comes with being Whole Wheat.

Each bag contains 5 1.2 oz bars

Important things to consider:

• Serving Size: 1 bar
• Calories per serving: 130
• They are made from the most amazing fruit ever grown STRAWBERRIES

Because of the small serving size and the number of calories that each bar is worth and how hard it is to stop eating them you can quickly consume all of them or to many for one day. Luckily there are only five in a bag.

Seaweed Rice Pops

Theses are my second favorite Item out of the box. They are cute little balls of crunchy rice with little seaweed patches on them. When you first put them in your mouth they are kind of sweet and by the end of chewing them you get the tart savory taste of the seaweed.

Each bag is 5 oz of Seaweed Rice Pops

Important things to consider:

• Nutritionist Approved
• Vegan
• Serving Size: 1/3 cup
• Servings per bag: ~4.5 (~ means approximately or about)
• Calories per serving: 130

It is possible that you end up eating the whole bag but I do not think they warrant more than a handful or so every couple of hours. A serving suggestion on the bag is to add them to a wrap which actually sounds pretty delicious.

Citrus Chipotle Chickpeas

My wife thought I would like these because I like to spice it up sometimes. I was actually quite disappointed, I was expecting a fiery pop in each bite but there was no really spice it was just the kind of bland taste of the chickpea with the kind of rustic taste of a pepper. 

each bag is 4.75 oz

Important things to consider:

• Nutritionist Approved
• Vegan
• Serving Size: 1/3 cup
• Servings per bag: ~4.5 (~ means approximately or about)
• Calories per serving: 130

There is no way I would this entire bag in one sitting. If I decide to eat anymore of them I will probably only eat a few at a time. I do like chickpeas but not in a roasted covered in peppers form.

Sourdough Cheddar Pretzels

I love sourdough and I love cheddar cheese but I hate pretzels so it was a toss up if I would like these.

Can the two goods outweigh the bad?

Not in this case! I do not like these and could not eat more than... luckily my kids like them :)

Each bag is 5 oz

Important things to consider:

• Nutritionist Approved
• Hint of Beer
• Serving Size: 9 pieces
• Servings Per Container: ~5
• calories per serving: 120

If you like these little sour cheese beer bombs then watch your calories as you scarf the whole bag down. I fortunately do not have this problem as this is one of very few foods that make me gag.

Country Ranch Sunflower Kernels

Sunflower seeds can be fun to eat especially if they are in the shell and you like to spit. These sunflower seeds are not in the shell but as long as you are eating them by themselves they are still fun to eat. 

The ranch flavor is very subtle and easily over powered by anything else. 

Each bag is 5 oz

Important things to consider:

• Nutritionist Approved
• Serving Size: 1/4 cup
• Servings per Container: ~4.5
• Calories per serving: 190
• Non-GMO Sunflower Kernels

1/4 cup of sunflower seeds is a lot of sunflower seeds but since you're not having to shell them orally as you go small handfuls or just dumping the bag into your mouth will add up. at 190 calories per serving it is the second highest costing food in the box this month.

I love my Nature Box there is only one problem with it... there is not enough food to last me the whole month and when we get next months there will definitely not be enough for all four of us.

I hope you all have a happy and healthy week.

Thomas Gould