It’s the beginning of an exciting new season: after a long summer, the kids are finally headed back to school! As the kids brush off the books, it’s time for us parents to refresh our knowledge too.

Set yourself up for the busy season ahead with these tools and habits that’ll have you energized and calm from drop-off to dinner.

If you spend more time grazing and grabbing your child’s Goldfish than you do eating from your own plate, these 5 tips will help you ditch the snack habit in a way you’ll find sustainable and satiating.

No more:

• White knuckling it through cravings, only to binge on the back end
• Eating off your kid’s plate because you didn’t make your own
• Being so swamped by busy back-to-school season that you throw healthy food to the wayside
• Feeling stuck in an endless loop of snacking

Let me show you how to avoid deprivation and frustration and feel more satisfied and calm day to day. First, let’s talk about that Goldfish habit…

What’s wrong with snacking?

Research on endocrine science, or the science behind our hormones and metabolism and how these things affect our bodies, tells us that eating every three or four hours actually sets us up for exhaustion, premature aging, and less fat burning. Say what?

This is because:

• Digestion takes time, and your body needs a break.

Digestion from start to finish takes 6+ hours. And when you snack in between meals, your body has to restart a process it hasn’t even completed from the last time you ate. So energy that could go elsewhere (detox, fat burning, repair and recovery, etc.), must be diverted back into digestion. 

• Constant eating keeps your insulin up, up, up. 

In case you missed it, insulin is known as the “fat storage hormone.” Insulin isn’t bad. It is released into the bloodstream after eating in order to “shuttle” glucose into cells for utilization. The problem is too much insulin in the blood for too long – driven by snacking and grazing – which keeps blood sugar high, cravings up, and fat burning at a stand still. 

• Sorry, but your snacks are mostly junk. 

I’m just going to call out the obvious. Most snacks are carb-heavy, highly processed, and/or laden with sugars. And typically low in nutritional value. Yes, even those “protein” bars you love are often touting as much sugar as a candy bar with a long list of ingredients you can’t pronounce. 

Top 5 Ways to Quit Snacking and Still Feel Satisfied

Many of my clients wonder how they’ll ever survive 4-6 hours without snacking. Won’t I starve?! Well, if you eat the right way, then no!

I’ve worked with countless chronic snackers and self-admitted grazers. And by implementing the following 5 tips, they’ve been amazed at their ability to feel full and calm and not even think about food for 4-6 hours in between meals.

The first three tips are all about ensuring blood sugar balance and satiety. These keep you from feeling hungry and like you physically need a snack to make it through to the next meal. The last two are all about creating a new habit. Because oftentimes, snacking is just that – a habit! Ever find yourself munching without thinking – not even feeling hungry? It’s a habit! Together, these five tips give you all the tools you need!

Balance Your Blood Sugar:

1. Balance your blood sugar with the Fab 4.
2. Optimize your protein intake.
3. Prioritize a high protein breakfast.

Kick the Snack Habit:

4. Starting strategy: Chunk your day.
5. Make it easy: Set yourself up for success.

Fire up your metabolism and let’s toss the Goldfish altogether. Here’s how…

1. Balance your blood sugar with the Fab 4. 

The Fab 4 is my easy-to-follow formula for creating blood sugar-balancing meals and smoothies from a simple yet effective whole food formula:

 1) clean protein + 2) healthy fat + 3) fiber + 4) greens

These four components work together, allowing you to shed extra pounds, curb cravings, fuel focus, and enjoy stable energy all day long. The magic of the Fab 4 is in the combination of these 4 nutrients to keep you full and balanced.

• Protein provides essential amino acids. It is the most satiating macronutrient, supports building and maintaining muscle, and helps increase your metabolism.
• Fat provides essential fatty acids to regulate hunger hormones. It helps you kick cravings by triggering the release of satiety hormones and slowing digestion, which naturally elongates your blood sugar curve to keep you full.
• Fiber balances blood sugar and feeds your microbiome. It helps keep you full without elevating blood sugar, feeding healthy gut bacteria and promoting daily detoxification.
• Greens provide the crucial phytonutrients needed to help your body fight inflammation and be well.

It’s all about eating complete meals that elongate your blood sugar curve, helping you stop the mindless snacking and ensuring your body has the nutrients required to optimize health. When you power your plate (or cup!) with the Fab 4, you won’t even have to think about snacking because you’ll finally feel satisfied!

2. Optimize your protein intake. 

Protein is the number one thing I see my clients under eat. And it’s vital for balancing blood sugar, calming hunger hormones, and promoting satiety. If you under eat protein you will feel hungry.

Sub-optimal protein intake can result in:

• Low energy levels 
• Mood swings
• Nutrient deficiencies 
• Surges in hunger hormones and cravings

…all of which lead to snacking!

I recommend consuming around 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. This is enough protein to promote muscle synthesis, calm hunger hormones, and actually feel full. Aim for 30 or more grams of protein per meal, and you will set yourself up for satiety. No need to even think about snacking before your next meal.

Note that animal proteins are of the highest quality, easily digested, and readily absorbed by the body. They are considered complete proteins because they contain all nine essential amino acids, which cannot be produced by the body and must be ingested via food. If you struggle to consume essential amino acids – necessary for signaling your body to turn off the hunger hormones – then Be Well Essential Amino Acids will be your new BFF for regulating appetite (and they’re vegan-friendly, too!).  

3. Prioritize a high protein breakfast. 

How you break your fast impacts energy, satiety, and blood sugar levels the rest of the day. To boost your metabolism, balance your blood sugar, and set your day up for appetite stability, start with a breakfast that includes a minimum of 30 grams of protein.

Consistently skipping breakfast – or skipping out on the protein piece of your breakfast – can lead to negative health implications and snack-promoting conditions including:

• Increased stress hormone activity 
• Impaired insulin sensitivity
• Poor blood sugar balance
• Increased cravings
• Higher likelihood of weight gain

Research continues to show that a high protein breakfast is supportive in quelling cravings, suppressing appetite, and down regulating hunger hormone activity. One study even found that increasing protein to 25% of total calories reduced late-night snacking by half and obsessive thoughts about food by 60%.

Find a few of my favorite high-protein breakfasts here:

• Fab 4 Smoothies: Very Vanilla Fab 4 smoothie or Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Fab 4 smoothie.
• Oatmeal Replacements: Pumpkin Pie Chia Pudding or Faux-meal.
• Egg Scrambles: Egg Cheesy Broccoli with a side of Applegate bacon.
• Protein Pancakes: For both omnivores & my plant-based friends.
• Yogurt Parfait: Coconut or Greek yogurt parfait topped with chia seeds, hemp seeds, berries and a drizzle of almond butter. Stir in a scoop of protein powder to the coconut yogurt to reach 30 grams of protein.
• Soups: Chicken and Veggie Soup Breakfast Style.
• Leftovers: 6 oz of grass-fed beef (or any protein leftovers) drizzled with hot sauce + topped with microgreens and avocado slices.

So grab your protein powder and blend up a satisfying protein-rich breakfast to set yourself up for snack-free success! Or, for the ultimate in high-protein breakfast ideas, check out my article right here.

4. Starting Strategy: Chunk Your Day.

We’ve talked about ways to physically reduce the urge to snack – balancing blood sugar and optimizing protein. But what about the snacking habit? Have you ever found yourself snacking on a bag of something without even realizing you were munching? Yep, we’ve all been there - and that’s the habit we’re looking to break.

My first tip to kick the snacking habit is this:

Chunk your day up into pieces such as breakfast to lunch, lunch to dinner, dinner to bed.

Focus on the first window of your day first: breakfast to lunch. Nail that window and all the daily habits in it. Eat your protein-rich breakfast. Include healthy fats, fiber, and greens. And then cut out any snacking and/or grazing after that breakfast up until lunch. Don’t worry about the other windows yet! Once you nail down your breakfast and get really solid at giving your digestion a break until lunch, then you can work on the other windows (lunch to dinner, post-dinner).

Chunking your day and working on one window at a time helps things feel more manageable and less overwhelming. Celebrate the little successes, and move forward on that momentum!

5. Make It Easy: Set Yourself Up for Success! 

You may have read James Clear’s NYT Bestselling Atomic Habits (or you may have heard him on my podcast!), and if so, you know he’s a specialist in the habit space. An absolute genius. 

Clear talks a lot about tweaking your lifestyle so that it is easy to succeed and hard to fail. What does that mean? Let’s think about snacking in these terms. What would make those snack packs easier to avoid? What would make that cheap protein bar hard to avoid?

A few ideas:

• Begin by cleaning out your pantry. Out of sight, out of mind! Get rid of snacky foods that aren’t at all nutritious. The ones that call your name from the other side of the pantry door. Put any clean chips, pretzels, crackers, or other snack foods you plan on keeping in bins. Sealed, closed and out of sight. Even a little extra effort can be enough to help you think twice!
  
  
• Create space. Do you normally do your work at the kitchen table and find yourself mindlessly munching there? What if you moved your workstation to a different room? Do you often drive by the same tempting spot with icy drinks? Consider changing your route. Or it may be as simple as getting rid of the secret stash of granola bars, trail mix, and more you keep in your office or classroom or wherever it is you spend your time! How can you put space between yourself and the snacks?

• Replace in order to remove. If you want to remove one habit, replace it with a better one! If you normally meet a friend in the break room for snacks, try a walk instead. Multiple trips to the kitchen a day? Instead of grabbing a new bag of snacks every time, commit to a few sips of water (or tea, electrolytes, you get it…) every time you step in the kitchen. Find something positive to replace your old snack habit, and you’ll be doubling up on the benefit!

Back to School + Busy Mom Tips

If back to school season is the culprit behind your snacking habit, I want you to take a beat. Remember: taking care of yourself and feeling your best is one of the most important things you can do for your family. When we prioritize our health, we teach our kids how to prioritize theirs as well.

Instead of grabbing a bar here, a coffee there, and a handful of something else along the way, I want to give you some resources to help you eat real meals, feel no desire to snack between them, and enjoy stable energy and mental sharpness all day long!

Here’s my toolbox for making healthy eating realistic, snacking a thing of the past, and life a little more *Fab*:

• Meal Prep Light: If you can’t quite figure out how to get healthy, nourishing food on your plate so that you don’t feel like you need to snack, then this is the article for you. It’s what I use as a busy working mama of three to keep my own health on track and my family’s, too!
• How I stock my pantry with the Fab 4: My pantry staples: Not sure where to start when it comes to foods that actually satisfy? Let me give you all the ideas!
• Fab 4 Fundamentals: My video course that teaches you how to use a flexible formula – protein, fat, fiber, and greens – so you never have to feel snacky again. 
• The Tiny Changes That Lead to Massive Results: This podcast will give all the motivation and practical application you need to make a new habit actually stick!
• Stock up on Protein Powder and Essential Amino Acids: Make it effortless to nourish yourself well. Make smoothies and daily lemon water that’ll support all day energy, balanced blood sugar and keep those hunger hormones in check. My products are the ultimate hacks for busy mom mode - I know because I created them for myself and use them everyday.