Be Merry Merry But Make it Healthy – Tips from Livongo

Hello my friends, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and was able to share fun and food with family and friends.

It was just the four of us and we recently moved into our “Forever Home” so we definitely had a lot to be thankful for. However, we were all still exhausted from moving so I didn’t cook a large meal nor did I even dress up and take a family picture.

While we were living in the apartment as our home was being built, I made some bad food choices, so now it’s time to get back into healthy eating, healthy snacking and healthy drinking especially as a Type 2 Diabetic.

Thanks to my friends over at Livongo, who are helping me stay healthy with great recipes and fun food choices and I wanted to share some of them with you today.

Healthy Grab-and-Go Snacks

Well-balanced snacks can help limit a rise in blood sugar between meals, prevent low blood sugar and avoid the mindless eating that sometimes happens when we get so hungry that we, say, scarf down a sleeve of cookies, instead of preparing a healthy meal. Be mindful of your portions—it’s easy for a snack to grow into a meal! Here are some delicious snacks to keep you feeling energized throughout the day.

Power up with protein:

1-ounce string cheese, The Laughing Cow cheese, or other cheese
one hard-boiled egg
1/2 cup tuna or chicken salad
cottage cheese
1 slice of low-sodium lunch meat (turkey, ham) rolled around a 1 string cheese
1 serving of beef or turkey jerky*
3 ounces leftover chicken breast or salmon

Boost your fruit and veggie intake:

a small piece of fruit (for example, an apple, orange, or pear)
celery with 1-2 tablespoons no-added-sugar nut butter or cream cheese
raw vegetables with 1 tablespoon hummus
steamed vegetables (except for starch-heavy veggies like peas, corn, beans, potatoes, and sweet potatoes)
1 large dill pickle*
cucumber or tomato slices with lemon and hot sauce
green salad without croutons or beans

Fuel up on healthy fats: