One of the best traits I picked up from joining Nuffield Health’s Healthy Weight Programme last year was to incorporate healthy snacking into my daily routine.
I’d never been big on snacks as I always saw them as “wasted calories” (why have an apple when you could have MORE DINNER? I would argue) but my nutritionist convinced me to give healthy snacking a go and it turns out she was on to something. I haven’t looked back. (Just to be clear here, I have always understood the virtues of snacking endlessly on salt and vinegar crisps and buttered toast, it was the whole “healthy snacks and weight loss” that I struggled with).
Since snacking more – on the right things – I have noticed a huge improvement in my energy and concentration levels. It would appear that work is substantially easier when you’re not starving hungry or in a sugar coma, who knew?
But it’s not always easy to find healthy snacks. There are plenty of low calorie snacks, sure, but as you’ll know if you read my weight loss post here, I’ve been trying to be more mindful about what I eat and “low calorie” doesn’t always mean “healthy”. Whilst I’m by no means some raw food fruitarian expert, I know that a banana is better for you than a bag of skinny popcorn. It’s common sense.
I have the luxury of working from home most of the time so I can whip up healthy snacks easier than most (there are many perks to having your desk right next to your fridge) but I am always on the look-out for portable EASY snacks that are as delicious as they are virtuous. Things that you can shove in your handbag or keep in the glove box to stop you from buying YET ANOTHER Twix at the garage in a desperate panic.
So it was with great delight that I was contacted by Wild Thing to see if I’d like to try their Organic Paleo Bars. I’d seen them in Planet Organic but hadn’t actually tried them until recently…and now I’m hooked and feel incredibly smug whenever I eat them. They tick a lot of “trendy” boxes: they’re gluten free, they’re organic, they’re raw, they’re vegan and they’re paleo, but most importantly for me they’re really rather scrumptious.
I can’t pretend to be attempting a paleo lifestyle, as a vegetarian I know I couldn’t manage more than a few days of being paleo despite people pleading with me that it can be done, BUT I can see the sense in following a paleo diet. And I can certainly see the sense in snacking on a Coconut and Chia Wild Thing bar over a packet of Chipsticks.
The Coconut & Chia flavour is probably my favourite actually. Made with just five organic ingredients, it’s a blend of dates, cashews, coconut, chia seeds and acerola powder and it’s completely delicious. The Nuts & Seeds flavour is a close second for me and then there’s the Cacao & Almond (YUM) and a spectacularly fruity Berries & Seeds flavour. The berry one is perhaps a bit too sweet for my taste but I love the texture of it, it’s studded with pumpkin seeds and looks convincingly home-made thanks to the fact you can still SEE all the ingredients squished together.
What I like most about the bars though is that they’re really easy to eat. That might sound a bit ludicrous, but if you’re a fan of energy balls and protein bars then you’ll be familiar with the jaw-ache that can accompany chewing through one. I’m convinced you burn more calories from the chomping than you gain from the swallowing with some brands. The Wild Thing bars are thin and relatively soft. You could break off a bit to give to a friend (if you’re nice like that and know how to share food, not a skill I’ve mastered) and you can shove them in your gob whilst simultaneously running for a bus, as I have done on numerous occasions.
If you bulk buy a box they’re less than a pound each (you can currently get boxes of 20 for £15.37 delivered on Amazon) or you can buy them individually from Planet Organic and health food stores.
I should probably learn how to make my own snack bars like this but until then, these are great to have on standby. And they make a welcome change from “oh okay I’ll just have another apple”. I was at risk of turning into a horse.
This is a sponsored post but all views are my own. You can read more about how I work with brands here.
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