To ask for your healthy snacks to eat of an evening (that actually taste nice but will help lose weight )

[ItsAllBlahBlahBlah]

I'm at a loss. Baby born last year and I've lost no weight thanks to covid. I've basically been trapped inside with a 3 and 1 yo or toddling at 0.5mph. I'm about to return to work and with spring looming I just can't bear the thought of wearing anything that's not joggers and a jumper. I have a monstrous apron (thanks two c sections) and a terrible habit of snacking when the kids go to bed. I've just about got through the christmas food (EVERYONE brought us chocolate, biscuits etc this year) so I'm determined to not buy any myself and make a new start when I return to work (at home) to exercise where I can and stop the terrible snacking.

Any recipes, or ideas to step away from the packet of biscuits and still feel like I'm living (I'm not going to get excited about celery) please.

Thank you @HeadNorth

Frozen fruit
Sugar free sweets and gums (Aldi do some great ones)
Sugar free jelly with fruit in it
Rice cakes with chocolate
Some low calorie breakfast bars are lovely

I would also add in addition to brushing your teeth, use one of them mouth washes that linger for ages.

You definitely do not want to eat anything after that.

I second rice cakes.TBH I would have quavers or a mini fun size choc low calorie hot chocolate.
Healthy snacks are great but I reckon you would do it for a week then crave crisps choc etc.This.
My dh had to lose weight so I gave him similar stuff just less.
I would also find something to do like sewing,painting or the like.It is hard to snack while you are preoccupied with something.

I recommend yoga with Adrienne and Lucy Wyndham Reid for YouTube videos

Brush your teeth straight after dinner. It helps to reduce the snacking (because I'm too lazy to brush my teeth twice).

Just don't eat ANYTHING between meals. Drink water. Your body will get used to it, and you will lose weight.

I didn’t lose weight until I stopped breast feeding. I know there are some women who do but my weight dropped really quickly once I stopped nursing. I BF exclusively until they were 6 months, that worked for me.

Try and switch from cereal to porridge with a spoonful of raisins or compote. Super filling and much more nutritious.

And yes to the no snacking after supper, though that’s quite an early finish, so fruit and a nut or two for dessert before you clean your teeth is a good way to end the eating window

i save calories (i religiously use My Fitness Pal) and at around 7pm have a pot of quaker porridge - the ‘original’ one is 164 calories. if i don’t have this i find it really hard to get to sleep as i’m hungry.

i’m 45lb down since the end of November, so as long as i keep within my calorie and macro goals for the day it’s working. and i take a LOT of meds that cause weight gain and i’m pretty sedentary with arthritis.

i’m so so happy with my progress - i was offered bariatric surgery but really decided to see if i could do it myself. so, snacking seems ok for me as long as i’m strict about it. my stomach likes having a routine now all the biscuits have disappeared from my life!

I usually go for drinks instead
So if I'm craving savoury I have marigold bouillon
Sweet then something from bird and blend, like their Eton mess tea or the birthday cake one!

OK thanks @impostersyndrome that's a good point. DS1 has porridge for breakfast so I could double up and lower my sugar intake.

BTW the brushing of the teeth trick seems to have helped this evening!

Rice cakes
Apple with peanut butter
lo cal hot chocolate

Freeze a yoghurt! It takes so long to eat it turns into an hour long thing and you feel full after! Or frozen grapes (stick a few grapes into a freezer bag in the freezer the night before) or chopped up pieces of pineapple/apple. As people above say, if you go about a week without eating late at night you do get out of the habit, but in another way mindlessly eating while watching tv after a long day is necessary, like what are we here on this earth for, kind of thing so in that case, choosing a healthy snack over a packet of kettle crisps and some malteasers is definitely better!! Or as someone said above, keep it to the weekend.

Is it snacking or wanting something sweet to end the meal with? I like a tea after dinner and need something to go with it. Medjool dates with walnuts is delish. A handful of dried fruit also hits the spot. Dark chocolate as mentioned before, try that mixed with salted nuts and you have a brilliant combination. I wait for my tea to cool first and I stop eating once I’ve drank all my tea.

One of my friends managed to lose weight not by making drastic changes to her diet (she ate fairly healthy) but by eating before 7pm. Gave her body more time to digest the food.

I eat slightly later than you at 6pm so we have family time but I start getting ready for bed at around 9.

Fruit or one yoghurt if you have to have something, but the best thing to do really is not eat again after your evening meal. If it’s filling you shouldn’t need a snack.

Following for ideas please

I find cleaning my teeth immediately after I have eaten supper puts me off snacking.

I got a Reebok Step thingy and just (slowly) stepped up and down while watching telly... It was pretty good as is mindless, uses energy and makes it harder to snack

The only way I can avoid snacking in the evening is if I have a properly filling dinner with something sweet after with a cup of tea. I'd happily forgo breakfast and use the calories for a good lunch and a big dinner with a malteaser bunny after it. Although it really helps that I'm pregnant and don't drink any more, before we had glasses of wine creeping in most nights and where there's wine there's nuts and crisps.

Jigsaw? Sewing or knitting - then you don't want to handle greasy snacks.

Nothing. You need to eat a decent dinner then stop eating till the following day. No snacks help you lose weight.

I had a baby last year also.

We eat together every night, but at 6/6.30pm, 5pm would be too early. Can you shift dinner time back even a little bit? Move it to 5.30pm, and if they cope with that a few weeks to 6pm. Our 9 month old still goes up to bed by 7.30/8pm.

I signed up to ‘sweat’ last month also. I aim for 4-5 exercise sessions per week on that. Each one is 15-30mins only so I can do either when dh is around on weekend, when baby naps or in evening when he sleeps.

Walk more. 3 year old probably slows it down, but can they use a scooter? Or can you leave with your partner and do a fast walk either early or at the weekend?

Urgh so many miserable people here telling you not to snack. What the fuck else do we have to look forward to these days other than nice food? & they're totally missing the point of the thread!

Anyway, we snack on olives, rice cakes, Quorn cocktail sausages, fruit, carrots, yogurt, etc.

Are you breastfeeding? Healthy snacking is actively encouraged if you are!

Celery carrots fruit rice cakes popcorn