Did you think lockdown was bad on your weight? Of course it was: WFH was marvellous with the downside of being in easy proximity of the fridge and the food cupboards. Remember those quick packs of salted nuts to cheer you up before the tedium of the next Zoom meeting? And that’s before we even mention the booze intake.
So now it all should get back on track when we return to the office en masse, shouldn’t it? Hmm – don’t know. Wait till you start walking past Pret on your way to the office: quite forgot those gorgeous yoghurt covered raisins they do! Just a tiny bag for mid-morning. And one of those flapjack bars – surely they are not so bad… Then we’ll be popping down to the office cafeteria for lunch and hey! they do fish and chips again on Fridays! I’ll get that, and a pack of crisps for late afternoon to keep me going.
It looks like you can’t win. Snacking is a major culprit in the obesity cataclysm and the Brits are renowned for snackoholism. Who can possibly stick to three sit-down meals at regular times and ingest nothing in between? Only the French, it seems.
I am as guilty as anyone of snacking, even though I try to limit it to forgivable things like fruit, nuts and jelly beans (haha). That’s what I should also recommend (with the exception of the last item) if snack you must. With the return to the office, it helps a lot if you try to resist the lure of Pret and others, and bring your own, home prepared snacks and lunch. Anything you have made will be much better than shop bought nibbles, trust me.
Make your own flapjack and oatcakes. Breakfast bars will also be healthier if you bake them at home, gluten free rice bars or oats and dried fruit ones. Crisps are never guilt free unless they are ham crisps. Yes, you can buy those but making them at home will cost a fraction. Cheese biscuits instead of cheesy Wotsits. And you can even prepare your own maple roasted nuts.
What if you honestly, truly don’t have the time to prep fiddly things like those? Stock up on grapes, cherry tomatoes and pumpkin seeds on your way to the office, and learn to love dark chocolate.
Lunch will be also both better and cheaper if you bring it in from home, and I don’t mean sandwiches. The power of leftovers: cook a little too much orzo with mushrooms and pancetta for dinner and here comes the next day's lunch packed in Tupperware. Plus, salads like feta, grapes and walnuts or tomatoes and figs can be prepped in minutes.
And what about those still working from home? How to curb our snacking? Simple: just stop buying snackables. What if the kids demand them? They will be better off too given a bunch of grapes or homemade pretzels instead of a bag of Maltesers.
That’s me done preaching! Have a great week with some healthy snacking.