Snacking your way to success......

It will be hard, but you can fight the urge to save the snacks in your pantry or think you need to eat them all. Forgive yourself for wasting that bag of cookies or the potato chips. If they aren't in your house, you can't eat them.

Cold cuts, cured meat, cheese. All of these have fats and proteins, but no carbs, so go for it. Just leave out the crackers and the fruit (e.g. no dried apricot or grapes, no hummus, no honey). Just meat, cheese, veggies or pickles. Remember that tomatoes are a FRUIT, not a veggie, they have a lot of carbs.

Buy vegetables in bulk. I usually buy 2 heads of lettuce and one of cabbage at the beginning of every week. You may prefer bagged salads. If you're going to make it through the 3 weeks, you'll need a good amount of salad (and your favorite dressing). You will be happy you have it when you are craving a snack.

Good Snacks that last a while. Go to Costco or your grocer, buy a bunch of tuna cans and chicken breast (which you can freeze). On any given weekend, make yourself a salad that will last for the week. It is easy to grab a bowl full and just eat with a spoon or veggies. You can use a pressure cooker for the chicken to get it tender (1 cup of chicken broth per pound at 10 mins.), then let it cool and break it apart by hand. For both my chicken or tuna salads, I use vinegar, mayo, chopped celery and red cabbage, salt, pepper, onions

Quick list of some staple snacks that I have handy during the diet:

• Pickles (avoid bread and butter style since they have added sugar)
• Pepperoncini, green olives, Giardiniera
• Raw veggies (peppers, celery, cucumbers)
• Nuts - Do not overdo it on nuts, they have carbs
• Block cheese or string cheese
• Pork rinds (chicarrones) - Not for everyone, but they are inexpensive and crunchy with no carbs