By Leighana Martindale

I’m someone who gets the munchies pretty damn bad when I smoke, and especially for sweets. I definitely will go through my unhealthy binges of sweets, chips, and other deliciously awful snacks. But for the most part, I TRY, keyword here: try, to eat the healthiest I can. In doing this, I’ve come up with a few tips and tricks I use to avoid unhealthy munching.

These may not work for everyone, and others may even have better tricks! If so, I’m all ears, I want to know and I think the rest of the world deserves to know as well!

Tip 1: DO NOT Shop High

Whatever you do, just don’t do this. Shopping high is the ultimate no no and how you end up coming home with 10 bags of Fritos, nacho cheese, and a galloon of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie. Shopping high is a dangerous path to walk on and I wouldn’t suggest it.

Tip 2: Meal Prep

One trick I’ve been attempting to get into the habit of is meal prepping. When you get in the groove of planning out the upcoming week’s worth of breakfast, lunch, and dinner’s it is amazing not only how healthy you can eat, but how much money you can save!

For me, prepping my meals, especially lunches, saves me a ton of money not eating out everyday! When you do have to eat out, it can become very expensive very quickly - and that’s money you could be spending on good weed or saving for that trip you want to go on.

Tip 3: Create A List

My advice is to always, ALWAYS create a grocery list before you go. If you meal prep this is essential for obvious reasons, but even if you don’t meal prep, this is probably the most helpful tip second to don’t shop high.

Creating a list is great because you can research (Pinterest is amazing!) and plan the best munchie foods to have throughout the next few days or week. Having the list to go off of in the store also keeps you from wondering what you’re there for and then getting home to realize you bought nothing you needed but instead got a bunch of half meal items that you can’t cook anything with.

Point is, lists are crucial to healthy munching.

Tip 4: Healthy Munchies

Now here comes the best part - what are some healthy munchies?

Carrots, hummus, pita, olives, celery & peanut butter. Fruits and veggies are always great snacks! But also, I feel you and know that most don’t want to/can just munch on pretty much raw veggies all the time. That’s why I’ve included a couple of my favorite and quick munchie recipes below (excluding chips & guac of course).

Zucchini Pizza Bites

1 zucchini | Tomato Sauce | Cheese

Slice the zucchini into quarter inch slices and place on a cookie sheet and brush both sides with olive oil. Broil the zucchini 1-2 minuets on each side. Top with tomato sauce and cheese, place in oven to bake until cheese is melted. Now go enjoy!

Hummus Avocado Toast

Slice of bread | Hummus | Avocado | Garlic Salt | Pepper

Toast your piece of bread and top with hummus. Top sliced avocado, season with garlic salt, pepper and nutritional yeast and voila! (Sometimes I add tomato).

Tip 5: Sweet Tooth Success

This tip, speaks for itself. If you’re like me you love sweets! Which can be troubling, so here are few things I do to curb the sweet tooth.

1. Dark Chocolate

Since dark chocolate is so rich, it usually satisfies my craving. I try to keep dark chocolate on hand so when I do get that sweet tooth, I can have a piece of that.

2. Plan Ahead

If I know my period is coming up or that I’m going to be home for a while I like to get something for the house so I won’t go out last minute and by something even more awful.

3. Try to bake your own sweets

By baking your own, you can moderate what items go into the sweets. For example, I like to bake with coconut sugar instead of cane, and agave nectar instead of syrups.

Check out a few links below to some seriously delicious healthy sweet options!

Healthy Snickers Pie (Raw, Vegan, Gluten + Grain Free, Refined Sugar Free)

Maple Vanilla Bean Meringue Cookies

Healthy Key Lime Pie

So now that you know all my tips or tricks on healthy munchies, I’d love to hear yours! Please feel free to reach out with your favorite recipes and munchie tricks you have.