Studying Snacks

what about celery and peanut butter?

If I want to eat pretty mindlessly, I make myself a big fruit salad. An apple with peanut butter should also give you lots of energy, but measure the pb out first. I also like hummus with some chips and bell pepper strips, but you should also measure the chips out first.

My usual go to study snacks are a sliced up apple or carrot sticks or if i need a hit of protein i add a light string cheese or a hard boiled egg white. if i need something sweet i grab a fat free 90 cal yoplait light or a half cup of chocolate fiber one cereal

I'm still having this problem myself.

My study snack fixes so far:
Rabbit plate (hard chew veggies) plus boiled egg, cheese stick (whatever in moderation plus a load of crunchy veggies)
Dry cereal plus a few tasties (like nuts/raisins) mixed in
Popcorn - maybe with a few tasties like above mixed in
Apple slices plus a tbs of PB or almond butter and a load of cinnamon (might put on side of another of above choices)
Big A Salad (huge salad with loads of crunch)

I try to think in terms of a "platter" of food I can munch slowly through with minimal damages


I tried to break the habit - I was so obsessed with finding food that I took twice as long to write a paper than I should. I need the soothing part of it apparently for me to focus? I don't know - but trying to cut it cold turkey was ugly.

To me....studying with snacks usually means having something to mindlessly reach for and munch on while working. This might be a habit to try to break, as there are very few things you can eat a lot of mindlessly without ingesting lots of calories. One of the habits of many people who find weight loss success is "mindful eating", meaning, pay attention to each snack and meal, and not using food to just fill a void.

Having said that...sometimes you just need something!

Mini pretzels...you still have to pay attention to portion size, of course, but bc they are little, if you eat them one at a time, that's a decent number of pieces.
Popcorn...again, watch portion size but you can eat several cups of popped popcorn for a couple hundred calories.
Baby carrots, celery sticks, cut bell peppers, cucumber...and dip. You can make great dips with fat free plain Greek yogurt.
Pita chips and hummus or dip. If you take a pita, open it and split it into the 2 sides, then cut it into triangles (the way you'd cut a pizza) and put them in the toaster oven, or regular oven, and viola, homemade pita chips! (Joseph's oat and flax pita are only 60 calories)

i heavily associate snacking with studying, and have found that one of my favorite things to snack on is fresh raw green beans.

YES! Gum. Works for me part of the time. I have been using it for some of my study snacking successfully. My mouth just needs to be involved to concentrate maybe?

Oven baked kale chips
Look up a recipe on Google. It's good stuff!

Edit (added recipe):
http://www.ivillage.com/baked-kale-chips/3-r-153632

1st of all, absolutely noting wrong with snacking if that's what suits you, and you account for it etc.

Snacking only when studying though - I agree that it is a habit that could be broken. I've recently had an intense period of studying/exams, and was a bit worried I'd be constantly snacking throughout. Normally I'm a lunch + dinner and after dinner snacking only girl. It's funny how much I've noticed other people talking about it, talking about the chocolate they've stocked up on, or how they've done an hour of study, so time for 3 biscuits, or whatever. It's so easy to fall into that mentality, but really, it is just a habit. I've just stuck to my normal eating pattern, and it's been fine. I've drunk a bit more coffee than normal, but that's it.

BUT like I said, nothing wrong with snacking if you really want to, or it genuinely helps you concentrate. If I was going to do it, I'd probably stick to popcorn, sunflower/pumpkin seeds (make sure you weight them out!) or kale chips.

Sugar Snap Peas are also great, a little sweet, crunchy...great w/a LITTLE hummus.