MANILA, Philippines?If you are ready to embrace a healthy lifestyle, eat low-calorie foods. To start your day right, have a bowl of cornflakes with low fat milk or a slice of wheat bread with sugar-free spread. For lunch, you can have rice and grilled or steamed fish or skin-less chicken with vegetables.

As 3 p.m. strikes, you can have snacks but this might make or break your health and fitness goals. Snacking is usually influenced by our moods, degree of satiety and the people around us.

Here are the most common high-fat, high-calorie snacks and strategies you can apply to finish your day right.

Coffee and sweet delights

The coffee and sweet afternoon habit can be managed by just ordering coffee or having a fruit before you go to a coffee shop. If you don?t have self-control over the coffee and sweet treat, find other places to have your snack.

Deep-fried snack foods

There are lots of vendors selling fish balls, squid balls, battered quail eggs and calamares. A tablespoon of oil is equivalent to 135 calories. Imagine how much oil these deep-fried foods contain. Look for other low-fat snack alternatives like saging na saba or boiled corn. Or whenever you eat turon, remove the wrapper and just eat the banana.

Cold treats

Many use hot weather as an excuse to eat cold delights like halo-halo and ice cream. But if you want to shed your extra fats, make or buy fruit shake without sugar or artificial sweetener. It is better to combine it with carrots or other veggies. A low-fat yogurt is also an alternative to ice cream.

Salty chips and nuts

Fifteen pieces of potato chips is equivalent to 150-160 calories. Even if you buy its baked version, you can only save 3 calories per piece. A cup of nuts is almost equivalent to more than 500 calories, so just try to have a tablespoon or two.

Have a cup of air-popped plain popcorn (23 calories/cup) or low-fat crackers to satisfy your salty cravings. Add fruit or a piece of bread to make you feel full.

Carbo-loading

Eat snacks to stay energized and prevent overeating during the rest of the day. A cup of pancit plus two slices of 18-inch pizza and a slice of cake is definitely more than 1,000 calories.

Consume not more than 400-500 calories in a snack. You can only do this by eating the right amount of breakfast and lunch so you will not be tempted to overeat, especially during parties.
If you will be the host, order one carbo treat and the rest low-fat protein foods like grilled chicken barbecue.

E-mail the author at mitchfelipe@gmail.com