I realize it is that time of year now where fitness professionals start giving out hints and tips for staying focused during the holidays.  They tell you how not to gain weight and how to stay on track and etc.  I may or may not pull one of those out of the closet this year but before I do, I am going to give you at least 3 or 4 posts that say to you, “Really? I mean really?”

My main message has been and most likely will stay as ‘what you need to do to look good naked’.  You want more out of your body and you expect more out of yourself.  This means the proverbial “put some extra veggies on your plate” type of lecture almost seems out of context here.  But we are human right?  We’re not perfect and we should never try to be.  So I am sure you’re wondering what’s on my mind right now…

Snacks.

Yes.  Snacks.

They torment you so they torment me. 

If I had a dollar for every “I know what to eat for my meals but what can I have for my snack?”.  Umm…food.  The same stuff you have been eating all day.  Just have less of it.  

Somewhere some clown made all of us think that there is this *snack fairy* who is going to come along and give us this unknown snack food that is clean and legal that is going to WOW us like no other.  This food is rich and full of flavor, bursting with color and juiciness that sends our eyeballs to the backs of our heads.  Motion stops, breathing stops, the world stops as we savor this snack as if it was our last meal.  The phone is ringing, kids are crying, mountains are moving—heck, the universal health care debate is being solved and we just don’t care!  We have our snack, by golly and dammit it’s amazing!  Why haven’t we eaten this before?  Why didn’t Jodi tell us about this snack?  It has no calories, amazing texture, can be eaten everyday without any ramifications; it has protein galore and no ST count in it.  OH MY LORD I THINK I HAVE FOUND UTOPIA!

Then you wake up.  Wipe the drool off of your face.  And realize you are holding a cup of plain Fage yogurt with cut up strawberries in it.  Good.  But not where your mind just was…

Snacks are only elusive to you because you do not want to admit that there is no secret snack out there.  There is nothing majorly new under the sun.  Really what you are saying to me is, “Jodi, this is your problem that I find food boring.  You need to make up some new food so I can stick to my plan.  Because you refuse to make this exciting for me and force me to find a cookbook or recipe on my own, I can fully justify this really yummy pastry I found in the office lounge because you have abandoned me in my time of need.”  Sound familiar?

Most of you are savvy shoppers.  You are google fiends.  I am not falling for the “I cannot find any snack ideas (that do not involve copious amounts of starchy carbohydrate).  There are none that are clean (that I like or feel like eating) with protein in them.”

Ummm…yeah….

So here is the deal.  You want what you want when you want it.  So you are going to have to do what you have to do when it is time.  Period. 

There are plenty of snacks all over the web.  I will post them for you as we get deeper into the holidays if I come across them, but let’s be very real here:  The issue isn’t the lack of recipes floating around or the lack of information available to you, the issue is your mindset and *deciding* on how you want this holiday season to go. 

Feel free to let me know what your decision is.