Healthful Snacks before (or after) a Work-out!

A typical day in a special education preschool classroom means eating your lunch with the students.  At my table I have 4 very needy children.  Two are speech/language delayed with one of them being hyperactive and the other one being emotionally disturbed.  The other two are mainly non-verbal, one with autism and the other with Down Syndrom.  The Downs boy signs and uses a pec system.  The autistic boy is just starting to point to items he wants to eat.  This basically means, I try to wolf down the lunch I brought but more often than not, I nibble and try to eat it on the days I have a break.

In summary:  I am HUNGRY when I get home by 3:30 pm.  So I have learned to eat  healthful snacks plus drink extra water (I carry a 32 oz camelbak insulated water bottle...highly recommend!!  They are easy to wash out and refill for the next morning).  A friend of mine was asking about what snacks are good for before a work-out (I work out 4 days a week after work and once on the weekends) I'm going to share the ones I like (most have protein and low sugar)

• 1/4 cup of almonds and blueberries (or blackberries)

• 1 piece of flaxseed whole grain bread toasted and lightly topped with sunflower butter (and sometimes a light spreading of raspberry or boysenberry jam) Sunflower butter has no fat and much less sugar than peanut butter.  ,

• 1/2 c. grapes,  1/4 sunflower seeds and/or lightly salted pumpkin seeds

• 1 Clif bar (I like the Almond butter or Hazelnut butter ones)

• 1 clementine and 2 slices of cheddar cheese

• 5-6 -vegan crackers (I like the multi-seed ones) and sliced apple or pear

• 1/4 c. hummus (my faves are roasted red pepper or garden veggie) with 1/2 c. baby carrots, sliced cucumbers or green/yellow/red pepper strips

• 1 Kind bar (I especially like the dark chocolate nuts and sea salt ones)

• 1/2 c. of pumpkin flaxseed granola cereal and unsweetened almond milk (or any whole grain cereal of your choice plus milk of your choice...I no longer eat dairy butter, peanut butter, cow's milk (except skim in my coffee), or yogurt.  Unsweetened almond milk is smooth and lasts longer than cow's milk and has NO fat or sugars!!  TRY IT!!

These are my "go to "snacks and they really do take the hunger pangs away enough for you to get your work out in, and keeps you from being hungry until time to cook dinner.  On the days I have these snacks, I also drink 8-12 oz of water with it and then more with dinner.  I like to slice lemons, limes or oranges and place in my water.

How about you?

What's your fave work out snack??