When you’re starving around 10 a.m. or 3 p.m. each day, don’t be ashamed to grab a quick bite to eat. Your body is telling you that you’re hungry for a reason, so satisfy those cues. Just be sure you make the right decisions when this happens. Otherwise, you will end up overeating at lunch or dinner, which you could have avoided with a healthy snack.

Jazzing up Fruits and Veggies

You’re smart enough to know that literally any fruit or vegetable is a healthy snack. For me, my favorites are carrots, bananas and strawberries. If you’re human, then turning to the same options for every snack definitely gets old. There are ways to jazz up those normal snacks, however, and make them more tempting for you.

Find ways to make it easier for you to choose the fruits and veggies over bad snacks. Buy a bunch of bananas and stick them in your drawer at work. That way, you’re less likely to go to the candy bowl or the vending machine if a snack is already right there waiting for you. When you have food days at work, bring a veggie and a fruit tray and hit that up first. Then, you’ll be full on healthy snacks and have less room for all the bad snacks your coworkers pick at all day.

Be sure to do something unique with your fruits and veggies to make them more of a treat to eat. Everyone knows how tasty it is to add low-fat ranch to veggies, but try adding yogurt to your fruit, make your peppers and tomatoes into salsa or put soy sauce (low sodium) on your avocado. These almost make the fruits and veggies into a whole new dish. Or, if you have a sweet-tooth buy dried fruit since it has a sweeter taste.

Low-Calorie Options

Make sure you are “treating” yourself throughout your diet. If your body is telling you it’s sick of carrots, move onto some low-calorie snack options. Some favorites for me, and around the office are string cheese, baked potato chips and fiber bars. Some of these options are also more filling, and therefore more likely to tide you over until dinner. Some of the chips you can have with dips like hummus. One of my favorites is dipping pretzels into chevre goat cheese.

If you have the time at home, there are many recipes for granola mixes you can make yourself. Or, I like to keep low-fat jalapeno poppers in the freezer to pop in the oven. These are used to tide me over while a dinner is baking in the oven.

When Not to Snack

Don’t snack at night. Your body has more time during the day to work off the food you ate, so if you eat a snack at night then go to bed that just sits with your body and isn’t worked off. Avoid it at all costs. Chances are, if you’re tempted to snack at night you’re just bored. When that happens to me I just get on the computer and find something to do, spend time with my fiancé, pop in a new movie or if I’m feeling super ambitious I go for a run. If this is happening every night, then you might want to reevaluate your eating schedule and see if you are portioning meals out right.

What healthy snacks are your favorites? Can you think of ways you jazz up your fruits and veggies?