How To Lose Weight And Still Have Yummy Snacks By Thomas Maras At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

The age old question about dieting is how do you lose weight and still enjoy yourself. The basic premise of losing weight is you need to expend more calories than you consume which means you need to eat less. I was having great success on the South Beach Diet but I had one problem I really missed snacks. I love to have snacks and I am not talking about some stalks of celery. I highly recommend the South Beach Diet because it helped me lose 45 pounds in a healthy manner over the course of six months. I was able to lose weight and also lose some of my medical problems so it is definitely is one of the good ways to lose weight but the snacks they recommend are really not the best. I am sorry chewing on celery is like chewing on wood. On a long term basis recommending a snack of celery doesn't really do it for me so I started a search for a snack that was both yummy and healthy. Before I lost the weight my snack was a bowl of ice cream or chips or cookies and I knew they were out. Well I found a replacement for my unhealthy snacks - Nuts!

It is a Nutty World but I love it!

I found out that I really love nuts and they are healthy for you too. You want to be careful how many nuts you eat because they have higher calories then some snacks, such as, celery but there are genuine health benefits to nuts. Medical studies have reported that nuts lower the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level in the blood. LDL cholesterol is the bad cholesterol so you want to lower your LDL level in your blood.

Nuts are also believed to reduce your risk of developing blood clots that can cause a heart attack. In addition, some nuts contain high levels of omega-3 which is also good for your heart. You want to be careful about eating nuts that are covered with chocolate, sugar or salt because those extra ingredients can cancel out the health benefits.

Most nuts are considered healthy. I enjoy walnuts, almonds, and pecans but I especially like peanuts in a shell which technically are not a nut but rather a legume but they provide real health benefits as well. One of the things I found out is that eating snacks for me is more than satisfying my hunger. I enjoy just the whole process of eating the snacks and watching TV so I normally have peanuts in shell when I am watching TV where I can crack open the shell and eat the peanuts. It sort of like eating crabs. You really have to work for that little bit of food but it is fun. I have always been one that enjoys the journey rather than the destination type of guy. I am a sailor in my heart so it fits into my psyche.

Another snack that is fun to eat and enjoyable is walnuts. I really enjoying cracking open that walnut and getting that piece of a walnut. The whole idea is you substitute an unhealthy snack with a healthy one. You still enjoy having a snack but you don't have to worry about gaining weight while you are having that snack. So go out and get nutty and enjoy those nuts and keep the weight off and lower your risk of a heart attack at the same time.

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