Low calorie candy/snack substitutes!

hey! so, i just started grad school this year and i've gained ten pounds so far! i want to get back to my old weight/stop school-related bad habits (sedentary/constant stress snacking).

my big problem is i have a HUGE sweet tooth. i am always eating candy or cookies. i just moved from super vegetarian friendly texas to way non-veg-friendly connecticut (i know, not what you would think), so it's not as easy to find quick meals that i can eat on the go. i keep just grabbing a cookie (or 3). anyone know good low-cal candy or better yet, alternatives that will curb the cravings for sugar?

 

thanks!

Hmm well this might not sound so good but if you try it I swear it tastes delicious! The other night I was snacking on some oranges but they were really sour, so I sprinkled some Splenda on top of them. It actually tasted really good- super sweet but low in calories (the only calories are from the oranges). You should try it!

me too hun, me too. I have the biggest sweet tooth EVER. when I'm really just itching to grab that chocolate bar in the pantry, I Itry to go for this instead:

swiss miss diet cocoa!

It tastes pretty nasty in water, but I've never enjoyed hot chocolate made with water.

Instead, I'll put a packet into a cup of skim milk. The swiss miss itself is only 25 calories. Good deal. And it's sooo chocolatey. I love it.

I alwayshave a ready supply of sugar-free Jell-o on hand! It has 10 calories per 1/2 cup serving (I usually have more than that lol) and to my surprise, I found it to be rather filling!

Also, Weight Watchers has some low-fat icecream bars that are pretty darn good. ;)

Yummm...sugar free jello and cool whip free.  25 calories for both together.  Have 2!

omg, slimfast peanut butter crunch bars (120 calories per bar) taste EXACTLY like butterfingers.

Bear with me, I love to write, the only reason it looks so long is because I'm giving recipes with step-by-step instructions. Yum!

Oh gosh I have so many :p But my favorite one is only one word: CARROTS. I am an absolute baby carrot fiend! Maybe not the first time you try them, but after a few days carrots seem really sweet, and now I can barely even stand the sugary stuff! (About 5 cals per large baby carrot, but they're negative calories, so you don't even have to count them if you don't want ;) The perfect binge food.) I usually have carrots and cherry tomatoes (5 cals each, but negative calories also), sometimes celery as well (10 cals per large stalk, also negative calories) with salsa (depending on the type - I like peach or mango myself, because they're sweeter - 10-20 calories per 2 tablespoons. Well worth it). Snack total: 10-20 calories for the salsa, and all the rest are negative calories! It's not super sugary, but it nearly always busts my sugar cravings. And I have a MAJOR sweet tooth ;)

Other favorites:

• Mash a banana in a bowl, and mix in some cinnamon (to taste - I love cinnamon so I always end up using a ton, but it's only 6 cals per tsp, so I don't worry about it). Freeze. When it's sufficiently hard, drizzle some honey on the top (optional, but delicious). It will harden in about 45 seconds. Enjoy! Snack total: 110 calories (130 with a tsp of honey on top). Very sweet, sort of tastes like ice cream.
• Heat 1/3 cup frozen mixed berries (unsweetened, just plain ol' picked and frozen) (I like the raspberries/blueberries/blackberries mix you can get at any grocery store) in the microwave for about 30 seconds (stopping every 10 seconds to stir and check the temperature) or until they're pretty hot. Mix in 1 cup of Fage 0% Greek yogurt (cold). I like heating the berries in a glass cup and then eating it in the cup (the berries will give off a lot of juice when they're heated, so the cup works best, and that way you don't have to transfer to a bowl and clean TWO dishes. I guess I'm just lazy...). Plus, I like seeing the berries/yogurt when I mix it, because the yogurt turns pink and it makes me happy :) Haha anyway, snack total is about 150 calories, depending on the berries. Fresh berries are also very tasty, unfortunately they don't heat very well (at least in my microwave), and I like the hot/cold combo. You can really use any yogurt, but the Greek ones are very filling, and Fage is the sweetest/ tastes the best (in my opinion) of all the brands I've tried (and that is a lot; there was about a 10 month period last year where I think I had at least one yogurt a day. I must have had a calcium deficit or something).
• I have quite a sweet tooth, in case you didn't notice...

I have so many more, but I'm afraid people won't read this if it gets too long! Message me :) Bon appetit!

<3 Kat