Ask Lemmy

It's also important to change how you eat.

Do you tear open a box/bag of something and gun it down in front of a screen?

Try making yourself actual meals. Use napkins and silverware and non-paper plates. Make a protein, a carb, and some greens. Sit at the dinner table, not in front of the TV.

Even if it's just a snack you can present it nicely. Cut the apple up and lay it out with bits of cheese.

Make the meal seem special.

Do air fried chickpeas count as healthy? Goes great with some spicy seasonings :3

Mandarins

They are easy to peel and unlike banana peels, its peels are relatively dry and smell nice, you can keep them comfortably in your pocket until you find a trash bin.

Many people is mentioning nuts. Yes, they are healthy but they are very calorie dense.

Nuts are pretty healthy. I usually have a bag of various nuts nearby. If you like it put in some raisins or cranberries or other dried fruit.

And of course fresh fruits are king. A banana takes almost zero effort.

No one mentioned it, so I'll throw it out here:

Popcorn.

I'm not particularly concerned about avoiding fat or salt, so I drown it in butter, but you do you.

After one of my kids killed our microwave by putting a package of popcorn in it and turning it on for way too long and forgetting it, I banned microwave popcorn from the house and got an air-popper. The thing is awesome. I never liked the microwave popcorn, but the air-popped popcorn became my snack of choice.

Im right here with you, I've recently been replacing all the candy snacks I have with various rustic snacks. I'll have like, 6 cheese curds and salami slices, 3 dates instead of my peanut butter cups, I 've been really into Japanese style peanuts, peacans just on their own.

When it comes to quick and not unhealthy meals, I found out I can make cheese rice in my rice cooker. Follow the usual rice cooker instructions, just add a cup of shredded cheddar, a tbsp of butter, garlic, salt, pepper, and if you want it extra rich replace 1/3 of the water with milk.

If you're air frying any veg, I highly suggest mixing your seasoning in a little oil and vinegar, then tossing the veg in it. That half assed vinegarette feels really fancy and if helps get an even coating of seasoning. Balsamic brings sweetness, all the others bring sour. You can even make it in bulk, put it in the fridge, and if keeps basically forever.

If you do ramen a lot, toss some frozen veg mix in with it while it's boiling, then replace half the packet with a splash of soy sauce, and some garlic. It's less and somehow so much more.

Recently I've gotten into "soy meat" it's dried, crumbled, tofu that's a really popular meat substitute in Mexico. Pound of beef equivalent for 97¢ at the local Hispanic grocery. Since it's dried and functionally flavorless, you can mix you up a slurry of spices and the stuff will sponge it all up. Toss it in a pan and it comes out the exact same texture as ground beef, but you can make it taste like everything from plain beef to Italian sausage, maple cured bacon, even smoked pepperoni. I've taken to adding it to chilli, sloppy joes, pasta, not only because it halves the cost of meat, but because it can add such an amazing depth of flavor and it seems to naturally correct acidity.

Hope some of this helps. I personally fell for the idea that eating right had to be miserable for so long and now it's like, why is this not the standard? This is so fucking good!

My favorite is frozen mango. I like to eat them as a quick cold snack straight from the freezer.

Another one is raw carrots with hummus as a dip.

Edamame is great.

Blueberries are tasty and keep surprisingly long in the fridge.

When I'm at the supermarket, prepackaged salad is pretty nice and comes in portions that I eat before they spoil (in contrast to heads of salad). Try not to drown it in dressing, but honestly even drowned in dressing it should still be healthier than regular junk food snacks.

Sometimes I just go to town on an entire container of cherry tomatoes

Apple slices with peanut butter

Peanuts with shell, salt-free. The fact that it takes a bit of effort to open the shell is a plus, because it slows the consumption. And apples too

Fruit. Nobody has ever gotten fat from eating too much fruit.

Bags of baby carrots are nice.

Also those cans of fruit with no sugar added. I call those adult fruit cups.

Dried apricots are my favorite and are rich in fiber and vitamins. Other dried fruits are good too, but personally I like apricots the most.

Grapes, apples, nuts

Fruit, I guess that's my favorite healthy snacks.

In winter, bananas. In summer, watermelon. If I'm craving something sorbet like I snack on frozen berries.

Nuts are also another good one but they're not low calorie.

Roasted chickpeas

Hummus. There is some degree of effort involved, where you have to put 5 or so ingredients in a blender and blend them. Use crackers, pita, tortilla, veggies, etc. to deliver hummus to your mouth.

Good beef jerky/biltong. Not the usual 7-11 stuff. Make it yourself ori have a few good brands if you want recommendations.

Nuts, mini carrots, berries, just a bottle of water sometimes goes as a snack (the water inside the bottle, not the bottle itself)

I've been dabbing into intermittent fasting for the last couple months.

It's not really a snack, but my doctor recommended that before I break my fast, to drink warm lemon water. So I do,

I run my tap until it's hot as it gets, and squeeze half a lemon of juice in a cup, and fill it with that warm water. The first one was rough, I didn't like it. But after a short time, I really like them now and just drink one or two, or sometimes three times a day. The warm water helps my tummy feel full and the lemon nearly tastes sweet at this point. My doctor said it makes thw fat cells "move". So move it!

For meals,I stopped buying butter, and cook everything from scratch. Sometimes I'll just roast a sweet potato or squash and eat that. Roasted veggies are under rated. The take like 20-45 mins depending, but I like I can do it in the air fryer or toaster oven. Olive oil and spices its a win.

Years ago, I lost 100 pounds in a year. I ate, whole prepared foods, but didn't really cut anything out. I used a smaller plate. I just ate less. I still would have bread and butter, just less. And, it still worked for me. Take whole or real food meals you like, and just have a smaller plate. This is easier if you use an actual, small plate.

I also made everything spicy as hell, by the end of the year I was chopping raw habeneros and putting them on like, a ham sandwhich. I don't eat deli meats anymore, but making any food spicy will intuitively help you to slow down. Eating slower makes a huge difference. I also often would eat meals with chopsticks, that will also slow your eating habits.

Edit, to add, homemade popcorn in avocado oil, with a little salt, black pepper, nooch and cayenne pepper is amazing. You can eat a whole bowl and its only like 300 calories. I make mine on the stove in a dutch oven, but you can put a 1/4 cup of kernals in a lunch sack paper bag, fold it up and microwave it too! Its guilt free snacking.

An apple among many other fruits, some salad with a light dressing.
I may also hunt for bare carrots, Bugs Bunny like ;)

A slice of handmade bread I just cut, too. Just the bread, it tastes so good.

This is probably my #1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispbread Either plain or with low calorie butter

Good suggestions for snacks but I think a lot of people missed the "when I want to shove something in my face as a force of habit." You really want to get the lowest calorie thing possible, ideal would be lettuce and celery since those are basically nothing but still give you something to eat. Next would probably be apple slices, berries have surprisingly low sugar, egg white is basically pure protein but a full egg is fine too. Sprouts can be good if you grow them right. I sometimes just slowly eat a spoonful of peanut butter over like an hour but...

I would also recommend having random drinks you can go between, like tea soymilk coffee, even diet soda. Just avoid anything with sugar or fat. Things like nuts are healthy but not a great constant snack food because they do have a lot of fat, so that should be an intentional thing rather than something to reach for.

Nori is fantastic, it's very light and has a strong taste. So you're not eating much by weight. It's also healthy, if you're not eating tons every day.

Air-fried spinach leaves.

Add some species you like to the leaves, spray them with some olive oil and airfry for 10-15 mins at 200°C.

Makes for a great alternative to normal chips but takes some practice to find the perfect timing to make them crispy but not burned.

Banana and nuts? I usually eat them as snacks. Any easy to peel fruits will do. I might add a glass of soy milk, too, if really hungry.

Apples can work real wonders. But if you are more into a crisps/popcorn type of mood (something small to eat over the duration of a movie), grapes are a good alternative.

Chickpeas, either out of the can or roasted

In shell peanuts (in moderation)

Bananas

Cheese

Pepperoni sticks

A few suggestions based on whether you need more calories. If you are trying to gain weight:

Triscuit crackers and hummus

Nuts, whichever you like.

Whole fat Greek yogurt with honey or savory with olives and crackers (again, Triscuit if you need calories)

If you need to reduce calories:

Apple & a few slices of good cheddar

An avocado

Boiled egg

Popcorn made at home

NONfat Greek yogurt with fruit and/or a little honey.

A walk. Sometimes you are bored not hungry.

Banana with brown almond butter (that one that is 100% almonds).