Spring Cleaning? Use These 5 Tactics To Clean Up Your Snack Habit This Spring

It’s Spring, get your priorities in order. Forget the house, room, or apartment — focus on what’s critical and CLEAN. UP. YOUR. DIET. ASAP. Especially if you’re shooting for a six-pack and stellar beach body come June. Time is tick, tick, ticking.

Chances are, if you’re struggling to reveal your abs or drop a few pounds, unintentional snacking is probably one of the biggest reasons why. Eating a few Sour Patch Kids and a handful or pretzels seems harmless, but they quickly add up. Really.

Get on top of it and fix your snack attack habit before your belly spontaneously combusts. Use these 5 LEAN tactics wherever you might be.

5 Tactics To Clean Up Your Snack Habit This Spring

1. Erase the Word “Snack” From Your Lexicon.

Above all else, start by shifting your eating philosophy. Snacking is inherently negative. It’s also unnecessary if you’re eating properly. Instead, identify key windows when you’d typically shove garbage down your esophagus (i.e. the 2 PM energy crash at work, flights, driving) and plan out a FULL-blown, nutritious meal instead.

It might seem counterintuitive—you’re actively planning to eat more—but you’ll fuel up with lean, nutrition-rich food that’ll keep you full for a few hours — and simultaneously displace unhealthy snack food.

Maybe it’s a niçoise or grilled chicken salad, chicken and avocado sandwich, an omelette, HQ protein shake, or a peanut butter and (no-sugar-added) jelly. Whatever. You’ve got options, exercise them.

2. Smoothie It UP.

Fresh smoothies are THE easiest way to satisfy hunger mid-day and juice up your diet with vitamins, nutrients, protein, fiber, antioxidants, and other healthy compounds.

Your formula — start with almond milk as a liquid base, toss in a scoop of whey protein and/or Metamucil fiber powder for healthy bulk, and accessorize it with fresh fruit, spinach, Greek yogurt, almond butter, and superfoods like cacao, maca, cinnamon, and spirulina, just to rattle off a few. BAM, ROCKET FUEL.

Use our smoothie recipes for a little inspiration, or go with an antioxidant-pumped ACAI BOWL.

3. Go Greek (or Icelandic).

Greek and Icelandic yogurt are two of the most versatile lean powerhouses in any dietary arsenal. They’re JACKED with protein and calcium, and they’re completely customizable. Keep a batch loaded up in your fridge and pack one up in a freezer bag whenever you’re on the go.

Your move — start with a plain Greek yogurt and then accessorize it with fresh fruit, flax, nuts, chia, cacao, cinnamon, goji berries, rolled oats, coconut flakes, PB2 and other delicious add-ins. You’ll actively cut out excess sugar content.

But if not, flavored varieties are a solid option as well. Use our Greek yogurt recipes to kickstart the habit.

4. Upgrade Your Bar Game.

Bars are a solid, easy-to-pack option when you’re traveling, golfing, working, or running around like a crazy person. That’s great in theory, except that the vast majority of protein and energy bars aren’t as healthy as people think.

Don’t let pretty packaging and exaggerated, buzzword-rich labeling fool you. Choose a BETTER bar. We like the following bars:

• Fiber Bar: Meta Health Bar
• Vegan Nutrition Bar: Chia Bar
• Protein Bar: EXO Cricket Bars
• Energy Bar: Raw Crunch Bars

Use our protein bar guide and energy bar guide to lock down your favorites.

5. Keep Your Desk STACKED.

Assuming you work at an office of some variety, TRY to avoid vending machines, fast food, and other forms of impromptu binging whenever hunger rages. You’re setting yourself up for extreme fatness.

Instead, be proactive and load up your desk with lean options in bulk, that way you’re always prepared. Keep protein powder, mixed nuts and seeds, peanut/almond butter, raw oatmeal, fresh fruit, lean energy bars, and other easy options on hand.

BAM, lean meal in 36 seconds.

*Disclaimer: This article was sponsored by Meta Health.

• About
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Bryan DiSanto

Owner & Editor-in-Chief at Lean It UP

Bryan DiSanto is the Owner & Editor-in-Chief of Lean It UP, a culinary student at Le Cordon Bleu – Paris, an ACE-CPT & CSN, NYU graduate, ex-fat kid, and all-around fitness/nutrition nutjob.

He also contributes to Men's Health Magazine.

When he’s not working on his (or somebody else’s) abs, whipping up Eggocados, or running a Tough Mudder, he’s probably off yelling at a Carolina Panthers game somewhere.

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