Tip #14: Always Have a Back Up Plan

The worst thing you can do is fall off the wagon, so avoid it at all costs. That's easier said than done. Imagine your at work. It's around three o-clock. You had an early lunch and you have a meeting in an hour. You're starving and you can hear your stomach rumbling already! What do you do?

A. Hit the conference room for a donut!
B. Grab a Poptart from the vending machine.
C. Eat one of your emergency snacks.

If you were being honest here, you probably said A or B. The conference room is always stacked with sweets and treats, but do you even know where they came from? Someone put them in there and you ate them, with no knowledge of what the nutritional value is. My best bet is that if you knew what was in there, you might just hesitate to eat them. And what about the vending machine? They are often stacked with snacks with ridiculous calorie, fat, and esspecially sodium count. Poptarts, cookies, and pastries are a no-no. If you lack an emergency snack and need to visit the vending machine, go for popcorn or mini prezels. Before you pop those pretzels in your mouth though, try to scrape off a little of the salt on the exterior.

The best answer you could have chosen was C, your emergency snack. These snacks are your choice, to bring from home, and you know exactly what it contains. It should have a low fat count, high in protein, and have between 100 and 200 calories. Stack your desk with FiberOne Bars, which are great because the fiber will keep you full. Fruits is good for the same reason, so try a mini banana or whatever fruit is an season. Any access to a fridge? Bring in Yoplait Light yogurt, which has between 100 and 120 calories and has about 12% of you daily protein. Bonus? A new study published in the September issue of Journal of Nutrition compared three groups of overweight women. Each group had a different amount of dairy products: low, medium, and high. The group with the most dairy products lost twice as much belly fat as the other groups. Craving something sweet and you know a yogurt won't satisfy it? Try WhoNu cookies, which are rather small but pack a lot of fiber to keep you full!