Snack Boxes

I noticed recently that snack boxes, sometimes called Bento Boxes were showing up online, as being on trend. Highly stylised instagram photos were featuring them heavily. For a while, I was ignoring them, as these extremely stylised instagram posts, are the opposite to the authentic photos of every day life that I prefer.

So, I was ignoring these healthy food boxes…….until I discovered how handy they were. My day time snacking had got out of control. It wasn’t that I was continually snacking, but I had gone away from the healthy snacks that I do actually prefer, to comfort foods and high carb snacks that are loaded with calories. These high calorie snacks, I did not need!

I gave the snack boxes a try and was surprised to find that they really work for me.

Advantages

What I like about snack boxes

• Variation of food – I can make up the snack boxes with any combination of food, depending on leftovers I have in the fridge or fruit that is seasonal.
• Promotes less snacking – The food that is in the snack box is the food I have for the day at work.
• Convenient – It’s so easy to put the snack box together the night before and grab it from the fridge on the way to work
• Encourages me to make healthy food choices – I wouldn’t feel right about adding unhealthy choices to the snack box. The whole point of the snack box is to ensure that healthy food choices are at hand when needed
• No need for multiple containers – This was the one that had me hooked. Previously, I went to work with three small containers which cluttered up my handbag.

Food Choices

I try to vary the foods, that I take to work. Because of where I work, it’s so easy to grab an unhealthy snack, if I’m not looking forward to eating food brought from home. However, my food choices are usually quite tasteless, as I prefer my food to be boring and bland. There are many more exciting and tasty options if that’s your choice.

• In the large section, I usually have either a sandwich, or salad, or often vege frittata. Egg salad is a favourite.
• One of the smaller sections would contain fruit that is in season, commonly, oranges, mandarins, strawberries, grapes.
• The second small section will often contain carrot sticks and snow peas, just because I really love them. Often I take nuts or mixtures of sultanas and nuts.
• There is also room in the box for a sweet snack such as a muesli bar, a home made sugar free muffin, or a banana.

In today’s snack box (pictured below), I have a cheese and tomato sandwich for lunch and mandarins, almonds and pumpkin seeds for snacks. On the days that I’m not working,  I also use the snack boxes as they help to keep me focused on being healthy.

All of the above is what I do when I’m being health conscious and when I’m organised. I don’t always make healthy choices and I’m not always organised. But I do try to make healthy choices most of the time. I especially find snack boxes really useful, when trying to get back on track after a bit of a break out. They tend to increase the focus on making healthy food choices.

 

Have you been tempted to use snack boxes. I’d love to hear about your experiences and will reply to all comments