Nutritionist Fiona Hunter and Life Coach Jenni Trent-Hughes offer exclusive tips on how to resist picking off the kids plates and kicking your snacking habit for good!

Do you find yourself picking at whatever the kids leave on their plate? Maybe you snack whilst you’re making the tea? Although tempting this snack-happy habit is probably not doing your waistline any favours and may even be stopping you from being as active as you’d like to be with your children. If all this is sounding a little bit too familiar don’t despair because we’ve got the solution to self-sabotaging snacking and we’ve got top nutritionist Fiona Hunter and life coach Jenni Trent-Hughes dropping in to tell you all about it.

Fiona is going to be talking about what snacks you can eat without destroying your diet and which foods you should definitely steer clear of if you want to stay on track. For some people giving up snacking altogether is unrealistic but eating the right snacks may make you less inclined to finish any leftovers your kids won’t eat. Jenni will be telling us how to approach weight loss on a psychological level and what kind of things you should keep in mind when trying to stick to a healthier eating plan.

The ladies will also be discussing the results of a recent Slim.Fast survey, which shows exactly what time we are most vulnerable to snacking as a nation and which snacks are our biggest downfalls. Research reveals that the average woman consumes an additional 73,000 calories over a year due to snacking. If you want to get back on track with your new year health kick, why not tune in and ask a question. All of your plate picking problems will be addressed and you’ll gain some valuable advice on how to stick to the straight and narrow when it comes to the nibbles.

Nutritionist Fiona Hunter and life strategist Jenni Trent-Hughes join us live online on Monday 11th February at 14:30 to discuss snacking and dietary advice.

H: Lis Speight, Host
F: Fiona Hunter, Nutritionist
J: Jenni Trent-Hughes, Life Coach

H: Hello and welcome to the Parenting Show, brought to you today by Slimfast Hunger Shots, I'm Lis Speight. Now, do you find that you're always picking from the leftovers on your children's plate, do you like to have something to nibble on when you're making the dinner? Well if so, all of that snacking, although it's very tempting, may be taking its toll on your waistline, and if you're carrying a few extra pounds well you might not be quite as active as you'd like to be with your children. If this all sounds very familiar then don't despair because we have here in the studio with us nutritionist Fiona Hunter, and also life coach Jenni Trent-Hughes. Welcome along ladies, it's great to see you today. Now Fiona and Jenni are going to be g iving us a few tips on how to keep snacking healthy and how to keep the munching at bay – we'd love you to get involved so if you've got any questions at all about diet or how to have healthy snacks then do get them in to us, all you have to do is to type your name and your question that's in the box that's on the screen, press submit, it'll come through to us here in the studio and we'll try to get through as many as we can, but let's kick off the show by talking a little bit about snacking, we all do it don't we, and recent research shows it's really rather common, isn't it?

J: Absolutely we really are a nation of snackers. 30% of people that we spoke to admit to eating two or more snacks a day

H: Which doesn't sound that many actually!

J: It doesn't but when we looked at the sort of snacks they were eating, no surprises really, crisps, chocolate bars, biscuits and that adds up to an extra 200 calories a day

H:Goodness!

J: Which can add up to 73,000 calories in a year which is about a stone and a half extra weight in the course of a year, so not surprising really that some of us, the snackers among us, are having difficulty controlling our weight.

H: And Jenni is there a certain time of day when people tend to delve into the crisps?

J: Yes for some reason that we're not quite sure of, 5 o'clock seems to be the magic snacking hour

H: Right

J: I know that when you're at home, because I remember when I was home you know with my son, that's when they're about to come home from school, you're going to have to deal with homework, you're starting to get the dinner ready, you know you're giving them their afternoon snack so you're having a bit of what you've given them and then you start nibbling while you're making the dinner, so you're just kind of – do a lot of snacking at 5

H: You start eating at 5 and you don't stop! Which leads us nicely into our first question actually and Mel has written in and she says “I try and wait for my husband to come home in the evening to have my meal, but he gets home so late, and the kids eat at 5 o'clock and I realise I just can't wait, so I snack on whatever they won't eat to see me through until the evening.” All those leftover fish fingers. What do we do about that? It's hard one isn't it?

F: Well it's a common problem Mel, faced by many, many parents. I think the thing is to sit down and have a snack with the kids, a sensible snack. There's no problem with snacking, providing we choose our snacks carefully and they're calorie controlled, so sit down and have a slice of toast with some reduced fat hummus for instance, some vegetable cruditιs, or a banana, something like that, so you've eaten, so that when your husband arrives home you're not over-hungry when you're cooking the meal, because that can be a real problem. A lot of women for instance will eat as many calories while they're cooking their evening meal as they do when they sit down and eat it, so small, snack with the kids, talk to them about what they've done during their day (yogurt would be another great choice, or one of the Hunger Shots from Slimfast) – and then have a proper meal with your husband in the evening

H: Well that's a good tip but at the other end of the scale Carla has written in and she wants to know “I used to wait for my husband to get home to eat but found myself snacking when the kids ate. I've now switched to eating with my kids but I now end up snacking on my husband's supper when he gets in! If I eat earlier I'm just peckish in the evening.” So you get that kind of thing you need to eat crisps about 8 o'clock. Jenni what would you suggest for that?

J: Well I'm going to give you a tip that a friend of mine did, which I felt was a bit odd at the time, but she lost a lot of weight and felt great and it worked – and what she would do is she would eat a small portion of food with her children, so she would eat the vegetables for example, which that was a good example anyway because you know they didn't want to eat their vegetables

H: That's a really good tip

J: And then when her husband came home she'd have the other half of her vegetable allocation and a meal, or sometimes she would eat a complete meal with the children and then she would just eat her pudding with her husband, and it really did seem to work

H: Ok that's quite a good – so almost like a split meal then?

J: Absolutely

H: It's a bit complicated, but if you can work that one out – there we are. It's worth a go isn't it? Now Jane's written in and she wants to know “I try so hard to resist snacking but I am permanently on a diet and permanently hungry” – we all know what that feels like – so “it is very hard not to graze, just to stave off the hunger pangs. Help”

F: Again, very common problem, particularly with people that are dieting – I've said before, snacks are not a bad thing and when you're dieting it can be very helpful to eat regularly, so 3 small meals and a couple of healthy snacks in between your meals, but you need to plan ahead so that you've got healthy snacks at hand, and we talked about what they may be earlier, but also make sure that you eat enough at meal times. What happens is – if you don't eat enough for lunch or if you skip breakfast for instance, as we know many dieters do, your body gets over-hungry, your blood sugar dips and you start to crave food, and if you haven't then got a healthy snack at hand, you end up choosing something like a biscuit or a muffin

H: A quick fix

F: A quick fix yes

H: Something that makes you feel full and makes you feel satisfied

F: It's much better for your blood sugar levels if you can eat little and often, so even if you have to set an alarm clock to remind you to snack, if you have your breakfast at 7.30 / 8.00, sit down at 10.00, have a small snack at 10.00, a cup of coffee and something like a banana or a yogurt would be good, then have your lunch at 12.30 / 1.00, have a snack in the evening and then your main meal 6 or 7 o'clock

H: So if you have a schedule then you're more likely to stick to it really. Now we're halfway through the show actually so keep your questions coming in. Liz sent one in and she wants to know “hi I know we're supposed to eat fruit if we eat a snack between meals but it always gets so boring eating apples and bananas every time I get peckish. Surely everything in moderation still applies, and as long as you don't pig out on crisps and cakes, the odd one isn't going to damage your diet?” Jenni

J: Well, it's the old, the odd one, the odd one thing. It's like have you ever met somebody who really does eat one biscuit, except for my mother whose very think, usually you sort of have one, then you have another then you have another. It's not – you can eat a whole range of snacks, but one of the things that I've learned from Fiona that's really been helping me is that there's a difference between snacks and treats, so things like crisps

H: Things we've got on the table here

J:Things like crisps, and biscuits and muffins, those are treats, so you have them occasionally. A snack is something – you're going to have snacks twice a day, a treat might be something you might have once a week, and so it's really important to learn the difference between them

H: so if you're going to reach for something, if you're feeling a bit peckish in the day then Fiona, which of these would be the best one to go for do you think?

F: Well fruit is good but you know I know fruit does get boring, particularly at this time of year when we don't have access to it –

H: You need stodge don't you in the cold?

F: Yes . Low calorie chocolate drinks are quite good for people who like a chocolate fix

H: Yes that's a good tip

F:Yogurt is good. Ideal combination for a snack is something that's low in fat, low in calories, you should be looking for between 50-100 calories, and high in protein, and high in fibre as well. If you can get that combination of protein and fibre, we know those snacks help keep you – make you feel full for longer, so again something like a Slimfast Hunger Shot will provide the fibre, the protein and it's all neatly packaged in just 54 calories, you can pop it in your handbag if you're going out, or put it in the glove compartment of the car

H: Ok and how do you stop yourself eating the kid's snacks, I mean that's quite difficult isn't it, if kids are having crisps, kids are having chocolate, it's really difficult to stop yourself digging into their stuff isn't it Jenni?

J: Well first of all the question becomes should your kids be having crisps and chocolate, because one of the things that you know that so many of us do, and when you think about it in relationship to whatever you're currently going through, if you're currently, as an adult, fighting a battle of how not to eat too many crisps and too many chocolate, too much chocolate, then it's not really a huge amount of logic in starting your children off in that way because then they're going to grow up to be the same age you are now, fighting the same battle that you are, and if you don't want that to happen, you need to teach them the things that you're now trying to learn yourself, so you kind of learn it together

H: So it starts in the shop then really, it starts with your shopping list

F: Absolutely. I mean as all parents will know, kids – particularly younger kids, and older kids need snacks, they're very active, they need something when they come back from school, but give them a healthy snack – peanut butter on toast, a banana on toast, hummus with vegetables. The after school snack is a good time for any parents that have got picky eaters, that's a good time to introduce new foods because kids are hungry, they're much more likely, much more receptive to new foods, so that's the time to introduce something that you really want them to eat

H: Ok now we're nearly out of time but just quickly before we go, just tell us top tips – top tip as to how to snack healthily?

F: Plan ahead, make sure that you've got healthy snacks in your cupboard in your fridge so you won't get tempted by the unhealthy stuff

H: Good one. Jenni?

J: And for parents at home, set up a reward system where you are actually rewarding your children for choosing the healthier option

H: Right

J: Then they save up the points and then they can use the points to buy activity treats

H: Well thank you very much coming in ladies, really interesting stuff. So next time you're thinking of reaching for that bag of crisps, why not try a banana or an apple instead? Well good luck with your slimming, good luck with your snacking, and for more information you can go to the website which his www.slimfast.co.uk and there are loads of practical tips in there and recipes as to how to have a healthy diet, and also tips from Jenni as to how to get your life under control so that you're not snacking quite as much as maybe you should be. Ok well thanks very much for watching and we'll see you next time, bye bye

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