Bariatric surgery can give us a new lease on life. Whether you’re currently recovering from bariatric surgery or currently discussing whether it’s necessary for you – adopting healthier snacking habits can help you keep the weight off and help you move towards your ideal weight.

There is no one-size-fits-all lifestyle that works for everyone which is why we’ve compiled a list of tips that should nudge us in the right direction. Let’s kick this off with snack substitution.

Tip 1: Snack Substitution

There’s nothing wrong with snacking in moderation. If we’re used to snacking, it would be difficult to kick the habit and depriving ourselves of snacking completely could make us eat more during mealtime. Our regular readers would know that small steps are key to shaping new, healthier habits instead of drastic changes in short periods of time.

The easiest way to immediately improve our snacking habit is through snack substitution. This means swapping our current snacks of choice with healthier alternatives. Typically, we would want to go for whole foods instead of processed foods.

Some of us might be thinking “Any food that’s packaged has been processed”. Yes, smarty pants, that’s true. What we would want to choose are the minimally processed foods because they tend to contain less salt, sugar and other additives that have no nutritional value.

For example, potato chips are super addictive because of the copious amounts of salt and MSG flavourings in it. Coupled with all the oil from the deep frying – it’s one of the poorest snack choices for our body. We could swap that with some roasted sweet potatoes which are excellent in terms of nutritional value with the added benefit of helping us feel more full for longer.

Tip 2: Smart Portioning

Portioning is crucial to ensure the extra weight doesn’t sneak back up on us. Many of us open a pack of chips when binge-watching our favourite series only to realise minutes later that we’ve finished the entire bag in one sitting – then we feel bad about ourselves. But wait – we can still gain that extra weight if we’re not careful with our healthy snacking portions. Snacks like fruits have lots of sugar so we still have to be mindful of how much we eat in one sitting.

Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us if we’re not mindful of our portions – especially when the unhealthy options taste so good and are so conveniently within our reach. This is why we want to take a point to discuss smart portioning and how we can better manage our portions when snacking.

We wouldn’t go so far as to say everyone should weigh all their food and meal prep strictly to account for all the calories and nutrition we require unless we’re advised by our medical professional/dietitian/nutritionist to follow a stringent diet. Realistically, that’s not something most common folk like ourselves can keep up with because of the time and energy it takes up.

Instead, make use of all tupperwares our mums have been hoarding. They’re an excellent way to manage the portion of the food we’re snacking on by keeping all snacks in appropriately sized containers for one sitting.

For example – we could keep some berries and fruits in small containers that we can take to the couch for snacks in one sitting. We still get the satisfying feeling of finishing a container of snacks, and we probably won’t want to get up to get another container the same way we don’t want to get up to switch channels with the remote.

If we don’t have access to mum’s collection of tupperwares, then it’s a good idea to invest in stackable air-tight containers, bento boxes (multi-compartment tupperwares) of different sizes to store different foods and snacks in our fridge to make healthier snacks more convenient for ourselves.

Tip 3: Healthy-to-Unhealthy Ratio

Some patients find it difficult to keep away from their favourite unhealthy snacks right off the bat, and we understand that a lifetime of habit doesn’t disappear in an instant without immense willpower. This is why some people can’t keep up with Tip 1 and Tip 2 after a few weeks of trying because it just amplifies the cravings. After all, it doesn’t quite hit the spot our favourite snacks used to.

If we’re having trouble switching over to healthier snack options immediately or have trouble keeping to just a small portion of the unhealthy snack because we don’t feel full enough, then here’s a little strategy to slowly adjust our tastebuds – mix the snacks.

Who doesn’t like potato chips? We do, and we know that snacking on an entire tube is no good. Instead, we can crack up maybe 5 potato chips and snack on them alongside a bowl of strawberries. Yes, strawberries are obviously not Pringles but they will keep us feeling fuller for longer and we still get to enjoy the taste of Pringles. The idea here is to allow us to still enjoy the taste we know we love while making the good decision to have a bowl of strawberries to keep us from finishing the tube of Pringles.

This only works if we discipline ourselves to only consume that tiny portion of our unhealthy snacks to a good-sized portion of the healthier snack to build the habit of eating healthy snacks and slowly weaning ourselves off the high-sugar, high-sodium foods that negatively impact our health.

Slowly but surely, we’ll be able to make the complete switch to healthy snack options. Speaking of which, that brings us to Tip 4.

Tip 4: Have Fun Making Healthy Snacks!

We’re not fans of eating straight-up raw celery sticks and carrot coins. We Malaysians like the flavour and seasoning in our food – and we’re sure everyone wants to enjoy their food too. Not everyone can live off celery sticks though we salute the healthy people who can keep their diet that clean.

One of the things that help when it comes to changing our eating habits and lifestyle is to genuinely enjoy it. Yes, hummus is healthy and overnight oats are a great breakfast but not everyone enjoys those particular foods. Therefore it’s a great idea to explore the various healthy snacks we can make from the plethora of healthy snack ideas that float on the wonderful side of the internet.

For sweet tooths, greek yoghurt with mixed berries and honey is a great snack that’s also good for our gut health. There are also plenty of recipes for low-sugar muffins and protein granola for example which are easy to follow and only require a few ingredients which means those of us who aren’t talented master chefs can still whip up yummy snacks that we love and even impress friends that come over. We’ve personally come to live roasted chickpeas, and we even turn the leftovers into hummus later.

It sounds impressive, but hummus is just blended chickpeas with tahini and citrus. Learning a few snacks that use ingredients that we like allows us to play around with different recipes and have fun with healthy foods. Not only do we end up eating much healthier – that sense of accomplishment comes with being able to cook well which comes with this new hobby.

The key here is to not treat switching to healthy snacks as a chore that we have to drag ourselves to do. Look forward to the adventure of exploring a whole new world of food that we can master and turn into our new favourite snacks!

Final Words

There we have it, four simple tips to keep the snacking under control. Every individual’s body is different and if anyone has undergone bariatric surgery, then chances are they’re under the advice of a bariatric surgeon and perhaps a dietitian/nutritionist as well. If that’s the case, be sure to be proactive in checking with them if our diet changes are in the right direction, and ask them if we’re unsure if we should be consuming certain foods.

We think it’s important to keep our team of medical practitioners in the loop to ensure we’re doing what’s right for our body, and that should not feel like it’s suffocating our lifestyle. The best patients we’ve worked with all develop a great attitude towards building a healthier lifestyle that they genuinely enjoy with their loved ones.

Life is wonderful, and we’d love to see everyone out there loving our life. Congratulations on taking a step towards a healthier life for ourselves and for reading!

If you’re wondering if bariatric surgery is for you or not, you can read more about it here.

If you’re not sure what steps you should take when preparing for surgery and post-surgery recovery, we’ve shared some thoughts here.We’ve also shared some thoughts on the right mindset for weight loss here if you’d like to check it out.