Unlock the secrets to a sharper mind and a more energized body with Tracy Stuckrath from the Eating at a Meeting podcast, who joins us to reveal how smart snacking can revolutionize your well-being. From the boardroom to your living room, Tracy lays out the roadmap to maintaining focus and vitality through food choices that cater to your mental and physical health. Amidst our engaging conversation, we uncover the transformative effects of carrying along hard-boiled eggs and carrots, and how a trusty portable blender can whip up wellness in a flash.
As we navigate the aisles of healthy snacking, I get personal about my mornings punctuated by the simplicity of oatmeal, and my penchant for Ithaca hummus's clean ingredients. Tracy and I also highlight an array of convenient snack options that keep diet diversity in mind, perfect for those with an on-the-go lifestyle or anyone seeking to please a crowd with varied dietary needs. And for a sweet bonus, we share an irresistible homemade no-bake date balls recipe, proving that nutritious can also be delicious. Follow along for this palate-pleasing journey and be inspired to join the movement advocating for more wholesome choices, wherever your appetite takes you.
Unlock the secrets to a sharper mind and a more energized body with Tracy Stuckrath from the Eating at a Meeting podcast, who joins us to reveal how smart snacking can revolutionize your well-being. From the boardroom to your living room, Tracy lays out the roadmap to maintaining focus and vitality through food choices that cater to your mental and physical health. Amidst our engaging conversation, we uncover the transformative effects of carrying along hard-boiled eggs and carrots, and how a trusty portable blender can whip up wellness in a flash.
As we navigate the aisles of healthy snacking, I get personal about my mornings punctuated by the simplicity of oatmeal, and my penchant for Ithaca hummus's clean ingredients. Tracy and I also highlight an array of convenient snack options that keep diet diversity in mind, perfect for those with an on-the-go lifestyle or anyone seeking to please a crowd with varied dietary needs. And for a sweet bonus, we share an irresistible homemade no-bake date balls recipe, proving that nutritious can also be delicious. Follow along for this palate-pleasing journey and be inspired to join the movement advocating for more wholesome choices, wherever your appetite takes you.
Speaker 1:
I love that message. It is all about getting unstuck, and that's what we're doing today with Club Ichi, with all of our wild and crazy ideas and amazing content. An entire day of content, camaraderie, conversations. And I am so ready to talk to Tracy Stuckrath with Eating at a Meeting podcast. I have been a guest on her podcast, she's been a guest on ours and now she's here to tell us how to snack. Well, hey, tracy, over to you.
Speaker 2:
Hey everyone, how are you? I am Tracy Stuckrath, founder of Thrive Meetings and Events and the Eating at a Meeting podcast, where I talk about all things eating at a meeting, and from dietary restrictions to what we're going to talk about, to dietary restrictions, menu planning, etc. And then to what we're talking about today is snacking. A study came out this summer from the International Food Information Council and it said that 74% of people believe their food and beverage they consume has a significant or moderate impact on their overall mental and emotional well-being. And when we're responsible for food and beverage for thousands of people, hundreds of people, we really need to think about those statistics and what we're providing our attendees at our meetings and events. But we also have to think about and Nicole and Liz, you should be incorporating these snacks that I'm going to show you today, all day long today, because you need to be eating and you need to be hydrating and you need to be going to the bathroom as well. So let's think about how we can incorporate all of those things. And another statistic from that same study was that 61% believe that their overall mental and emotional well-being has an impact, or significant or moderate impact, on their food and beverage choices. So it's really kind of this mesh thing that we have to work together is to get the food and beverage to work for us, and then that our overall food, our overall choices, are dependent on what moods we're in, etc.
Speaker 2:
So a couple of things that I want to show you today. I have my vitamin or I don't have my vitamin mixed with me, but I do have my blender, and I am not in my own kitchen, so I don't have all of the bells and whistles that I have at home. But one of the things that I do travel with now is my own little mini blender. This is from Blend Jet and I took it. My first trip that I took it on was from iMacs and it was great and it is powered up by our own little cord here, usbc cord. It's powered on like that and you put whatever you want in. Here. I was doing berries and what did I have in there? Oranges and spinach and then I took, put a protein powder in there as well as like an oat milk in that in my hotel room and I just turned it on and I'm not going to do that today, but I'm going to show you how you just turn that on and it's very, very powerful and it will blend your drink in 30 seconds. It's really a lot of fun. And a lot of fun to make sure that you're staying healthy while you're on the road, because sometimes we're not getting that when we're eating at a meeting. So a couple of things that I love to keep in my travel pack, and if you know me well, you I travel with a carton of hard boiled eggs. I travel with my own bag of carrots, my own little packets of peanut butter or almond butter, and I also go to Whole Foods or to the grocery store the closest grocery store to me to get my own snacks and carry them with me, so that I know I'm getting something healthy. And so let's talk about a couple of those things.
Speaker 2:
In the morning, I love to have some oatmeal, and this is a great snack in mid morning to have and this is an easy, you know put some boiling water on this. You can use that hot tea that we're paying for with the coffee to make the oatmeal. Instead of buying the big jar of oatmeal, have allowed people to make their own individual packets of oatmeal. You can have a variety of different flavors with them. This is my purely Elizabeth classic cinnamon on there.
Speaker 2:
The other thing in the morning I love having easy to eat food around the house, and especially when a lot of us are working at home. You know, is it an orange? Is it this little easy margarine orange, easy to peel, it's not super messy like irregular oranges and people could just snack on it while they're going. Like this is an easy snack to eat. Oh, there we go. Also having blueberries, and this is why I didn't want to blind them, because I'm going to show them to you but blueberries and raspberries, you know, having little to go cups of those easily available in your refrigerator or on your break menu in the morning. The other thing is we might not like crudité all the time, but we don't have to have it. Cucumber is great if we have little varieties of it and little tiny cups to go.
Speaker 2:
I here, I have sliced up some watermelon radishes. I love the color of these and the crunch. Did you hear that crunch? They're so good and they're really healthy. Same thing with the piece of celery, but having that with all my hummuses in the refrigerator.
Speaker 2:
I always go to the grocery store and I bring my own hummus as well. This will not go through the airplane or the TSA precheck. I usually take this container, which is 10 ounces, and I break it up into three ounce containers and take it through the TSA precheck or TSA so that I've got my snacks on the plane as well. Then here's some whole radishes as well. That's a really healthy hummus, it's a good protein, it's a good fiber, it's vegan and vegetarian and it's gluten free. So you've got those options.
Speaker 2:
My favorite brand right now is Ithaca, just because it doesn't have any citric acid in it. That's one of my things to do. Another thing that I am starting to carry with me are these packets of tuna. You can bumblebee and starkus seldom. This is my blue harbor wild albacore tuna. It has no water in it, so it's an easy to open packet that you can actually scoop out with a fork or a spoon and eat on the go while you're doing this. I love that option.
Speaker 2:
Having some guacamole and chips is an easy to go snack as well. The avocado is really healthy for you. If you've got not just tortilla chips like suppose, you can have a little bit of a little bit of a sweet potato, a purple one or an orange one, and eat and then cook those, roast those and eat that with your guacamole or your salsa. Anika says to me too she always shops at a local grocery store for the healthy snacks. It's really so much easier If you don't have a car to get there. Sign up for Instacart, or if it's a whole foods, have them deliver it to your hotel room. It's easy to do. Now when I'm in Vegas, I actually walk to the whole foods that's on the strip and then take the Uber back with my food so that I've got it there. I've got my exercise, my steps in before the show starts. That's an easy thing to do.
Speaker 2:
One of the things if you've got kids I don't have kids, but I know when you are at Starbucks or you're at anywhere else you've got the apples with the almond butter or the peanut butter. This is a great snack to have on site on hand for yourself. So just slice these apples up or just have a raw apple there for people to eat as well. When you do the apple with the almond butter or the peanut butter, it is a good protein with the fruit mixing into it. So that's a good thing. And then, jumping back to chickpeas Today I roasted some chickpeas. I just put them on the oven or put them on a sheet pan, dried them out, sprinkled with them with olive oil and sea salt and some Italian seasoning, and they're a good little crunchy snack to have on site on your desk to munch on, versus some Fritos right, this is much healthier than a bag of Fritos.
Speaker 2:
A couple of other things that I carry with me as well are these graham crackers. And talking about dietary restrictions, liz, I heard you're asked the question about the food truck things is we really do need to make sure that we've got options for our attendees that have different dietary restrictions. So if you're gonna do the apples with peanut butter, make sure you've got almond butter or make sure you have hummus, so you have other options, and make sure you're clearly labeling them On these. Here, these little packets of graham crackers they've got a peanut butter one and they've got a sunflower seed one, which is great for the people who are allergic to nuts. So making sure that you've got these options and these are prepackaged so it's easy to hand out and give to individuals when you're in your breaks and for you to carry with you in your purse.
Speaker 2:
Two things I'm also gonna pull out of the refrigerator real quick Are these? They're called date balls and I made them earlier today. They are no bake. This one is a chopped almonds with dates and ginger, minced ginger and a little bit of allspice. The you make these up in the food processor. You put all of the ingredients in the food processor, turn it on it's got a little bit of molasses in it too and then roll them into balls and they can see in airtight containers in your refrigerator up to two weeks. So go ahead and make a bunch of them, put them in your fridge or in the fridge in the airtight container, and then much on them as you go.
Speaker 2:
One that I have that's similar to that. This is an apple pie ball and if you have, you ever had a Lara bar? This is similar to a Lara bar. It's just a little bit crunchy because it actually does have some apple chips in it as well. But this is dates and dried apples mixed together and put into the food processor and then and that's it. It's a nice, yummy snack to have on site and on hand for you while you're working hard, and Lizzy and you guys could have been eating these all day long. Okay, tom Tammy, you're gonna need a snack for sure. You definitely need some snacks.
Speaker 2:
Carrie said, yes, order these from hotels for the participants. It's not on their menu it is. That is one thing that we really need to work on. We need to say, hey, we need these options. We're having a great conversation with the planner yesterday about this is what we need for our attendees. This is not an if or if you can't do it. Make sure that we have it. Take some recipes to your hotel and say can you make these apple pie balls? Can you do these things that are different? Some of these like once again bars are gonna be hard to get into the hotel because they're not in their pre-ordered package what they're allowed to order. But the more we request them, the better off that we are. So if anybody's got questions, check, chat with me in the chat and find me follow the eating at a meeting podcast on all your favorite podcast platforms. Thanks.