Thank you to goodnessknows for sponsoring this conversation.
Things I never did before becoming a mom:
Consume a bowl of cereal for every meal and snack of the day.
Pull a crushed pack of goldfish crackers out of my bag and dump it in my mouth in a ravenous rage.
Utter the words, “I’m just too tired to eat.”
These days, however, those experiences aren’t too far outside the realm of possibility.
Eating healthy and at regular times often seems impossible when your focus is consumed by the safety and well being of little ones. We moms tend to put so much emphasis on wholesome meals and snacks for our kids, we forget that we need those things too.
These super helpful snacking tips for busy moms can help you get back on track—so you don’t have to spend another day living off cereal and crushed goldfish crackers.
5 Snacking Tips for Busy Moms
1. Make snacking a priority.
When we’re planning our meals or making our grocery lists, we tend to put on all the emphasis on breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Then 11am rolls around and we’re so famished we’ll eat almost anything to hold us over until lunch. Or we hit the afternoon slump and reach for junk food to keep us going until dinner.
So the first step to smarter snacking is simply to prioritize snacking in the first place! Plan for it and make time for it, and you’ll be less likely to mindlessly reach for a bag of chips or a few pieces of chocolate to make it to the next meal.
2. Scatter snacks around.
Let’s face it, when we busy moms are rushing out the door, we’re not always going to remember to grab a snack for later. We’re too busy remembering our son’s gym clothes, our daughter’s permission slip, our partner’s work schedule, and—if we’re lucky—our own heads.
I eliminate the need to remember by scattering snacks all around: in my car, in my purse, in the top drawer of my desk at work. Pretty much anywhere I might get a “snack attack” and need to eat something now.
3. Make healthy snacks convenient.
The dream: Leisurely assembling healthy, creative snacks each day—maybe even color-coordinating them, just because!
The reality: Grab-and-go, grab-and-go, and grab-and-go again.
My current favorite grab-and-go snack? goodnessknows snack squares.
These little guys are super yummy and super convenient! I especially love that each serving is divided into four little snackable squares. I can eat the whole thing all at once, or enjoy one square here and there.
For other healthy snacks that aren’t automatically so convenient, the key is to make them grab-and-go.
Cut up fresh veggies and pre-pack them in a container with a dollop of hummus that you can pull out of the fridge in a rush. Divide a bulk bag of trail mix into individual servings you can stash in your desk. Slice up a block of cheese into the perfect size serving to pair with some pretzels.
Ultimately, the goal is to have your healthy snack choice require zero prep work at the moment you’re hungry—otherwise you’ll probably reach for something else.
4. Choose snacks that energize you, not deplete you.
At 8:00 at night, when I’m totally exhausted and my 3-year-old is running laps around the house, I often find myself thinking that old cliche, “If I could just bottle up his energy…”
Energy is a scarce commodity for us busy moms.
So it’s important to remember that the quality of our snack choices can either help or hurt us in the energy department, depending on what we pick.
That Little Debbie snack cake that looks so tempting? A sugar crash in an hour.
That plain rice cake that looks so healthy? More hunger pangs in 30 minutes.
Truly energizing and satisfying snacks feature a good mix of carbs and protein, plus lots of real, unprocessed ingredients.
goodness knows snack squares are a smart choice for me because they’re made with lots of things I want—like whole nuts, real fruits, toasted oats and dark chocolate—and without anything I don’t want, like artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners.
The three flavor choices are pretty amazing, too!
- cranberry, almond, dark chocolate
- apple, almond & peanut, dark chocolate
- peach & cherry, almond, dark chocolate
5. Try not to multitask while snacking.
I know, I know, this is the toughest one yet. Most days it seems like if we don’t multitask, we’ll never get anything done.
But mindless snacking is a recipe for disaster because it tends to repeat itself—mindless snack after mindless snack after mindless snack—until you’ve mindlessly snacked yourself through an entire afternoon.
So even though the kids are tugging on your leg or you’re facing a big deadline at work or you’re on hold with the pediatrician’s office—or all three!—try your best to step away and do nothing besides enjoy your snack for a minute or two.
Guaranteed you’ll feel physically and emotionally better for it. Heck, go crazy and even take a few deep cleansing breaths while you’re at it!
What’s your favorite on-the-go snack?
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of goodnessknows. The opinions and text are all mine.