Snacking on the QT

I like to eat every couple of hours. Well, actually I like to eat pretty much constantly but I try to keep it to every couple of hours. Three meals, two snacks. That’s the game plan.

Eating that way keeps my blood sugar steady and prevents me from getting SO HUNGRY that I go foraging for carbs. And not the good kind. If I were to eat lunch, work five more long hours, then spend another hour driving home, do you think healthy cooking would be uppermost on my mind when I got there? No, it would not. I would eat one of my dogs if they got in my way on the mad dash to the refrigerator.

Planning my snacks for the days I am at home doesn’t present any particular problem. Snacking at work? An entirely different animal.

The owner of the company where I work does not believe in eating at any time other than the designated lunch hour. And that must be done in the lunchroom. No eating at your desk. The quickest way to invoke his wrath is to be caught eating outside of the lunchroom before noon or after 1:00 pm. Although I will say he gets less angry if he catches you with an apple as opposed to cookies (he hates junk food).

So I need to keep my snacking on the down low – a low-profile snack that I can eat at my desk while hiding behind my ridiculously huge 1992-esque computer monitor. It must be a snack I can quickly shove under a pile of paperwork if the owner of the company happens by.

No spreading out of low fat cheese and high fiber crackers or apples and peanut butter for me. A bowl of strawberries and yogurt is sometimes tricky. And it cannot smell. Scratch soup, broth, hard boiled eggs, tuna and anything that has to be cooked. I MIGHT be able to get away with the broth if it’s in a Styrofoam cup and doesn’t require the use of a spoon. But that’s not exactly the kind of snack that will stay with you.

It all seems kind of ridiculous, I know; but this is how it is.

The morning isn’t particularly challenging. I can just eat a banana and be done with it. But the afternoon? Ack! That has always been my worst time and finding the right sneaky snack is rough.

So to recap – the snack must be portable, non-smelly, reasonably low-cal, and not require cooking or utensils. Oh – and it must consist of a protein and a carb.

I finally found the solution. Can you guess? It’s so simple, really – and one of my favorite foods – a sandwich! Perfect. I can wrap whatever I want into a low-carb, whole grain tortilla and then sneak some fruit on the side and I am held over until dinner.

Plus if anyone in a position of authority strolls by my office, it is easy to toss it into my purse without being too obvious. Ha. If I was this creative in my actual job, I would probably be making more money.