As spring quickly approaches, I am starting to get nervous about taking off my winter cardigan…

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….sooo to get back on track I am trying to focus on portion control. I’m getting to the point where I know what’s healthy and I try to eat a lot of nutrient-food. But it can be hard to stop at half of the bag.

One small change I’ve been working on lately is to split food items into small snack sized portions.

Just think of it as  200 100 calorie snack packs. 🙂

A second small change: my new visual for mealtime presentation.

I’m training my brain to think of  dinner portions like how they would be served at a fancy restaurant. Less food for me, please.

Sometimes it’s easy to get down on yourself for not following a diet 100% exactly like you think you should: i.e., number of calories, cutting out food groups or certain ingredients. When that becomes overwhelming (like it has been for me a little bit this winter) it’s important to change your perspective. Like focusing on a healthier lifestyle with one small change at a time.

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Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday!

What are some healthy food habits you’ve been into lately? 

Does your diet go through phases or are you pretty good about sticking to it?

For years I have been eating Clif Bars as a main snack staple.

Obsessed. I always have one in my purse, just in case hangriness hits and always eat one for my afternoon snack at work. They’re seriously my go-to. Clif Bars are definitely a good way to curb hunger and are a healthy alternative to eating chips or crackers when you need a little something to tide you over ’til dinner.

Usually I don’t care too much about calorie counting whenever I’m eating clean or training for a half marathon – because just fueling your body is often the most important thing in that case! But when I’m not running every day and my jeans seem a little tight I do feel the need to focus on more nutrition with less calories.

It is quite depressing when MyFitnessPal gives me a 1200 calorie goal for the day (though don’t worry, I usually consume much more than that! 🙂 ) and 250 of those are taken up by my little Clif Bar snack.

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I usually gobble them up in two bites and my brain is not satisfied by chewing up my snack before even realizing I’m eating it! Sometimes I exhibit restraint and eat half of a bar but then all you have is an open wrapper with a half eaten blob that ends up spreading stickiness all over your lunchbox. No thanks. 

A great solution to the slammin’-down-the-Clif-Bar-problem are the ever popular oat bites that are taking over the blogosphere. I LOVE these babies and make them occasionally on the weekend when I have extra time to spend in the kitchen. 

You can find my “No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites” HERE and my take on “No Bake Cookie Dough Bites” HERE!

The only issue?

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Truth.

Lately when I don’t have gobs of time to make gorgeous homemade bites I have been doing the next best thing.

Yanking apart clif bars and rolling ’em into the fastest health food balls ever created.

I usually split them into three or four chunks.

Some are easier to form than others! When going gets tough, there’s always the hang rolling pin technique.

It’s like a health food shortcut.

1 ball = 63 calories.

My afternoon snack just got a lot more interesting!

Tell me:

Do you eat an afternoon snack? What do you usually have?

Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday!