Tip #4: Give your evening snack a makeover

In our house we have young kids and we eat dinner right around 5:30pm. Unless I have a really heavy meal, I like to have a little snack in the evening. For me, that 5-6 hour stretch is a long time with no food!

Snacks are fine to have in the evening as long as they are the right ones. Even with having an evening snack, you should still have the feeling of a little hunger in the morning. If you don’t, you probably ate too many calories and/or too much fat too close to bed time (except for special circumstances like pregnancy, etc.). This is a dangerous habit to fall into. If you’re not hungry in the morning, then you might skip breakfast, which is crucial for healthy weight management and for adequate energy throughout your day.

So the next time you need a little snack in the evening or your sweet tooth is knocking at the door in the later hours, skip out on the heavy desserts, chips, and cookies, and try one of these instead:

-fruit (any kind)
-a glass of chocolate milk (make your own, using skim milk)
-a cup of decaffeinated hot tea, with honey
-yogurt
-a banana with some dark chocolate chips and a glass of milk
-berry yogurt “dessert”: mix plain lowfat yogurt (about a cup) with honey until smooth; drizzle on top of a small bowl of berries. Delicious! In the winter I just buy frozen berries.


These are some of my favorites, but you may think these suggestions look disgusting! That’s okay—the point is to think of some healthy, lower calorie foods to snack on in the evening. Get creative, and enjoy!