Snack Attack

How about that severe winter weather we are having here in the Sooner state. They were so sure that the weather was going to be this bad yesterday the university sent me a text message, a voicemessge and not one, but two e-mails around 4:30 letting me know that the campus would be closed today. The messages also let me know that if they decide to close campus tomorrow due to the weather they will let me know by 4 p.m. today. How very nice of them to keep me in the know.

I am not ever one to complain about having a day off, but people are crazy. I haven't really been grocery shopping since I've been home from Christmas break so I figured now would be a good time right, uh no wrong. Everyone was acting like the Y2K scare all over again. The isles were almost completely bare at Wal-mart and to be honest with you I didn't want to deal with the lines reaching almost all the way back to the electronics department. So what did I do? Well I bought Jurassic Park for $5 and my bff Eric's birthday present then went on my merry little way.

What about my grocery situation you may be wondering. Well once I left I ran up to campus with my friend Chrystle and thought very seriously about what I was going to live off of while I was snowed in. I decided that food was going to have to happen, so I ran to Homeland and got some milk because I have lots of Special K at the house. Everything was too picked over to be able to really shop. I try to avoid grocery shopping at two times, one pending ice storms and two the first of the month when everyone gets their food stamps. These are not good times to try to fill your pantry.

The problem with getting snowed in is boredom. It makes you want to really do nothing but lay around. I don't know about you, but when I lay around and watch TV for some reason I think that I need to snack and that is when I catch myself in what I like to call bombarded with the snack attack. Chrystle brought pretzels over and I'm pretty sure between she and I were ate about half of the bag last night. So since I was thinking about snacking I figured I would look up health araticles about it.

My friend Tiffani told me about a Web site that I should look at called http://www.livestrong.com/ so I did. One of the things I came across was an article about snacking and if done right not only will it help you maintain your weight, but if you're dieting it will also help you lose weight. By choosing the right snacks like fruits and vegetables you are giving your body some of the nutrients that it really needs. In fact according to this article, a study that was published in the Health and Education Journal in 2005 it was found that teenagers, especially teenage boys had a boost in their intake of needed nutrients such as zinc, iron and calcium. All of this just because they snacked smart during the day.

Some people, especially those who are elderly tend to have this problem called early satiety. This is where they feel full before they have met their nutritional and coloric needs. I know this is a real thing because my Papa Gene is always full pretty quick these days and it barely looks like he's touched his plate. This is odd because he's always had a pretty good appetite. Well a fix to this problem would be to eat smaller meals and snack throughout the day. Not just old people benefit from this, people who suffer from heartburn or gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) also tend to suffer less severe "flareups" while eating this way.

So basically what we have learned from this article is that it is OK to snack, if you snack smart. So what I suggest to you all is that you enjoy this break of a day and feel free to snack around, but make smart decisions while doing it. I don't really feel like cooking or having to clean up on my day off so I'm probably going to snack on my Special K...lol. Enjoy your snow day and tell me what you're doing today. I need some suggestions. It's only 1 p.m. and I've been up since like 7 a.m. I'm seriously running out of things to do...lol. More to come tomorrow. I let you know what I end up doing to fill my time. Also I would like to take this moment to thank Tiffani for showing me this awesome Web site. I also encourage you all to look at it too!