Snacking

So recently I have been thinking a lot about snacking. I used to always pack a mid-morning snack to have at work, because if I didn’t have anything then I would find I would be so hungry at lunch, and get tempted by staffroom biscuits before eating my lunch.

But then I would have a snack after work, and then maybe one later on after dinner too (which was getting expensive but also I felt it was a bit too much for me), and so recently I have been having a slightly bigger breakfast. This has linked with a change at work where I have been finding that I don’t have time at break time to have anything to eat, so the bigger breakfast has really helped to get me through to lunch.

I signed up to the Super Conscious Living Programme (by Laura) last month, and started to notice some interesting patterns. Although for the last two weeks work got so manic I didn’t fill in the diary, so I am going to start with that again tomorrow for the next two weeks and see how I get on.

I have noticed that with a bigger breakfast I am not often hungry at break time, but I am hungry by lunch time (which is good!). I have noticed that I tend to prioritise work and promise myself a break “in a minute” which often never materialises. For example once the kids have gone home I will say to myself “you can make some tea once you have marked those books and replied to those emails” and then I get distracted with other things that need doing, and before I realise it is 5pm and I still have not even stopped to go to the bathroom. In turn this would make me feel stressed- especially on days when I have something to get to in the evening- on a Wednesday for example I like to have a snack before going running with Sweatshop, so suddenly I would be stuffing down my food to make sure it had time to go down.

At the end of the day I started going to the staffroom and making a tea (Pukka Three Cinnamon is gorgeous, as is their Earl Grey if I feel I need a caffeine fix) to take back to my classroom, and have alongside a snack. This in turn helped me feel less stressed, and most probably made me more productive in my work. This is something I need to make sure I continue as in these last two weeks the stress levels have gone up again as the time for these little breaks has gone.

While I was thinking about all of this, I was sent an email from Popchips all about snacking. I tend to have Popchips as a weekend snack (love the salt and vinegar ones) as I think I like something salty like that after a longer run. I thought the research contained some interesting bits and bobs:

Excitingly, popchips has recently revealed that we are a nation of ‘snackered’ workers(knackered + in need of food = snackered), meaning that the average worker is reaching for the snack cupboard at least twice a day to keep them going. ‘Snackered’ workers are tucking into a pick-me-up at 11.30am – and again by 3pm, and over three quarters of Brits agree a snack helps to boost energy levels!

Some other interesting stats from the study include:

–          One in ten sneaky employees admitted that when previously experiencing an energy slump they have faked an illness so they can go home early.

–          Fifty five per cent of Brits agreed that eating smelly food is the number one bad habit closely followed by noisy eaters (40 per cent).

–          Six per cent choose to hide and snack privately in the bathroom or toilet.

I must say I agree with the smelly food thing, but I can’t imagine anyone at work going home early because they are just tired! And I can’t think of anything worse than eating food in the staff toilets! I think if I worked in an office it would be different, but the nature of working in a school means set break times anyway so even if I was starving at 11.30am I would not be able to eat anything.

How often do you typically snack in a day? Do you snack differently at work to the weekends? What are your favourite snack foods? I tend to favour cereal bars for work because they will survive in my bag in a warm classroom, and won’t go bad if I don’t choose to eat it that day.

PS This week I ordered some Clif bars from wiggle as they were on offer- £10 for a box of 12 is the cheapest I have seen them anywhere.

*Popchips have offered to send me some popchips in exchange for posting the research, but all the opinions are my own. Also, I asked if they knew when the Sweet Potato popchips were coming to the UK but sadly they didn’t know.