Post by kellsbelles on Feb 17, 2019 14:37:20 GMT -5
Does anyone have recipes or suggestions for healthier dessert options? It’s Girl Scout cookie season and after eating a whole box myself again (please say I’m not alone in this) I’m realizing I need to clean up my snacking.
Things like “eat an apple if you’re craving sweets” don’t really work for me. Even healthier alternatives like the black bean brownies would be a great start. My cholesterol levels thank you!
Dark chocolate covered pretzels, strawberries or nuts. We melt our own dark chocolate chips and dip things into it. Then it goes in the freezer for a bit. Or just Dove dark chocolate.
I have focused on eating the real stuff, but eating less of it. Eat it slowly and pay attention to how much I enjoy eating it. Instead of grabbing an entire handful of chocolate, I grab one. I take a second to recognize it as a nice treat, and am surprised at how satisfied I can be with only a fraction of what I used to think I needed to feel satisfied.
If I feel like I can’t have something, it only makes me want that thing more...so this has worked well for me. An apple will never feel like dessert for me, but I was shocked when I realized that I really could be happy with just one Hershey’s Kiss or one or two thin mints!
I was also going to suggest strawberries and cool whip. Angel food cake is also light and not a ton of calories, so sometimes I’ll do that with strawberries and cool whip. Not exactly “healthier” but probably less calories than a sleeve of cookies.
A lot of what other people said: strawberries with whipped cream, chocolate covered pretzels, basically just any fruit with chocolate or whipped cream. Lol.
If I’m not actually hungry though and just trying to kill a sweets craving I’ll sometimes have one maraschino cherry (super sweet, but only like 30 calories or something). Sometimes a bowl of cereal will also satisfy a sweets craving.
Though to be honest, if I want cookies, all the fruit in the world isn’t going to make me not want cookies. I just have to learn to watch my portions. If that sounds like you, maybe try putting your go-to snacks into portioned bags right away? That way instead of grabbing the whole box you’ll just get a small bag with 3 cookies instead.
Post by nextbigthing on Feb 17, 2019 15:58:40 GMT -5
Sometimes if I'm craving sweets I'll make a protein shake "milkshake" with protein powder, almond milk, sugar free syrup and ice. Sometimes I'll add iced coffee so it's like a frappuccino
Doesnt always work but usually it's enough to curb the sugar craving
I recently did a month of whole 30, which does not allow sugar at all. When I really needed something sweet at the end of the night, I drank a La Croix. It's obviously not the same as a chocolate bar, but it's worked surprisingly well to satisfy the urge for something sweet after dinner. It also takes a while to drink, so by the time I was done the feeling had passed. Disclaimer: This works because I do not ordinarily drink anything sweet at all. I am strictly a water and black coffee kind of girl.
Years ago when I did weight watchers, my group leader gave us a recipe that consisted of a can of pumpkin, a small box of sugar free vanilla pudding (just the dry mix), and fat free cool whip. It was basically a pumpkin mousse, and at the time (several iterations of Weight Watchers ago!) it was like 1 point for the entire recipe. I wouldn't call it healthy since who the hell knows what is in fat free cool whip, but it was delicious and pretty low calorie. I ate it a lot when I was on that round of WW.
RE: the girl scout cookies, as soon as I finished my whole 30 a couple weeks ago, I proceeded to go ham on a box of Lemonades and a box of Smores that had been taunting me most of January. I think they put crack in those things.
Two very easy packaged things I like: Larabar brownies. They're marketed for kids, but they satisfy that craving for something cakey and chocolatey for minimal calories and sugar. I also really like the Dole frozen chocolate covered strawberries. I single pack is about 60 calories and usually satisfies my sweet tooth if I want something fruity.
I am not a fan of substituting low fat, fake sugar, 4000 ingredient list options but I don't care for any sweets except chocolate and ice cream.
I will grab a couple spoons of PB and some chocolate chunks and eat that.
Or I will freeze some coconut yogurt and eat that as ice cream.
Sometimes frozen grapes will help, but I find if I want chocolate, I'll just end up eating the substitution AND the chocolate so I would have been better off just eating the damn chocolate.
Following as I have been having major sugar ad carb cravings ever since having DD2. My favorite sweet snack is a trail mix from Trader Joe’s. It has almonds, cashews and dark chocolate chunks. I portion it into little tupperwares and have one a day as an afternoon snack. The nuts satisfy my crunch craving and the chocolate is sooo good. It’s not diet food but I’m sure it’s healthier than the processed snacks I would eat otherwise.
I try to eat one small thing (like one piece of dark chocolate or one thin mint), then immediately drink a glass of water and brush my teeth. Once my teeth are brushed I don’t feel like eating anymore.
I’m low carb so I’m not sure if these would work for you, but I like sugar free pudding, mini Kind bars (chocolate and nuts), a spoonful of cool whip. I also will get low carb ice cream but I portion it out into a bowl or I’ll eat the whole thing.
Post by goldengirlz on Feb 17, 2019 19:14:35 GMT -5
First, I ask myself if I’m really hungry and if I am, then I eat something healthy first. Usually this is after a workout when I’m starving and craving everything bad. So I always make myself eat “real” food first.
If I still want the unhealthy food after that, then it’s easier to portion out just one serving (or even half a serving.) I serve it on a plate (instead of eating from the box) and often make a cup of tea with it, so I sit and savor it for awhile, even if it’s just a single square or two of chocolate.
Also, See’s makes little chocolate sucking candies that are 15 calories each and I often keep those in the house. I can eat just a few while watching a show, for example, and I don’t touch any of DD’s leftover (whatever holiday) candy.
I understand the girl scout cookie craving issue. More than a thousand boxes of girl scout cookies have moved through our house these past few weeks. (We are down to just over a hundred right now.)
A few things that have helped:
1) Drink a glass of green juice (I keep a bottle of this in the fridge www.target.com/p/suja-uber-greens-46oz/-/A-51440049) whenever I get peckish before deciding what food I'm actually going to cook/eat. If it was just hunger, it clears my mind enough to pick a real food option over cookies.
2) Eat a small amount of something much better - a square or two of very high quality chocolate, a small cookie from a local fancy bakery, whatever. Then I'll crave that (which I don't have around) instead of the cases and cases of what I do have.
3) Buy a box but open it only when there are 4 or 5 people around to share it. I've slowly done this with different flavors and each time it kills the craving for that type.