Which one of these snacks has more calories per serving? (sorry for the bad picture) Trader Joes-San "Crispy Green Beans", or TJ's Caramel Corn? I think you would be surprised to find out the green bean snack has more calories! For a mere 3/4 c., the green beans have 130 cal. and the caramel corn has 120 cal. Oh...but who eats 3/4 c.?
These bags are relatively small...seriously, the look as if they are "2 serving" size bags, but there are 4 servings in the Crispy Green bean pkg. That equals out to 520 calories if you ate the whole small bag. Five servings in the caramel corn, 600 cal for the whole small bag.
Many times we try and "stave off" hunger until our next meal and we grab a handful of this, or a handful of that. We are allowed to eat if we are hungry! The habit we want to establish is to eat nutritious foods, not the habit of seeing how long we can resist nutritious foods! This is one of the reasons I discourage "chips" of any kind, especially "chips" that disguise themselves as "healthy". Green beans, right? Wrong!
I know I included staying out of bakeries or the bakery isle of stores, but if I had to cross one entire store off the list it would be Trader Joe's as a whole....more to come...
8 comments:
This is such a good point (and post), thanks Tracy! So often I feel hungry but tell myself that "it's not time yet". But if you think about it, it's silly to have to ask permission (even from yourself) to be hungry, i.e. in need of nutrition. Some people reach for the worst possible choices to 'tide them over' to the next meal, so this is an interesting and important shift to make in our general eat-by-the-clock mindset.
Hahaha this is so true. I used to live close to a TJ's and I also called it the "candy store". If I bought something there then I really went all out and bought something I really really wanted and is worth it. This of course should be very seldom.
But in all honesty, no TJ's here in Canada and I do miss it....sometimes..
Awesome post, and it totally hits home for me. I am the queen of "tiding myself over" which usually means crap food. Time to pack more during the day in the form of meals!!
Hannelle,
Interesting that a lot of people (myself included) will reach for foods they would never "normally" eat just to stretch out hunger.
Besides adding to over consumption it's rarely satisfying! It's uncommon for me to have a snack (unplanned) and afterwards say to myself, "now I feel better!", it's the opposite! It's, "now why did I just eat that?" lol
Hanneke,
I have a list of staples I buy at TJ's, like almonds, lemons/limes, string cheese (for Mark), but the list gets smaller and smaller all the time. (oh, and wine :))
I may buy certain things that I wouldn't normally buy there like, onions, celery, avocado because it saves me a trip to yet another grocery store, but I can see a day when I will stop shopping there all together. I'd rather go to Safeway.
tufmud...(cute)
As I commented to Hanelle, I rarely feel good about the choices I make trying to avoid eating a real meal. even though I may choose "healthy" foods, like almonds, or some fruit, it just adds to the unsatisfaction, and then add in disappointment of increasing calories I really didn't need or want.
Eating healthy involves your mental health too! How you feel about what you eat, and how you feel about how much you eat! No need to beat yourself up, just take a step back and ask yourself, are you "reacting", or are you in fact hungry? If you are hungry then eat a meal! (even if it's a small meal..."meals" don't have to be large!)
I started to do this a couple of months ago mainly because of the kids. When they come home from school they are starving and "snack" quite a bit and then aren't hungry for dinner. So we started having our meal around 4pm. It's worked out so much better.
I'm one of those people who will go for the bag of chips before I think about eating a meal. duh!
Maribel,
I eat my dinner around 4:30...and on good days nothing afterwards....today is an OK day as I munch on a handful of almonds and write this comment! (It's 7:15pm...time for bed soon!)
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