I don’t know why, but let’s say for some reason you went for that bag of potato chips instead of the carrots and hummus as your snack. All is not lost if you can find the time to burn off some of those extra calories with some additional activity. Just by spending a half an hour on the basketball or tennis court you could burn approximately 275 calories. You see, snacking in itself isn’t bad for us, as long as we’re mindful about what snacks we choose and how much of them eat.

As a rule of thumb, try to eat snacks that are low in fat, sugar and sodium. If you’ve been in the dark about how big a snack should be then you should know that about 100 calories is the norm. Doesn’t sound like much does it? Don’t worry, when you’re snacking on healthy food, 100 calories is more food than you think. For example, two Oreo cookies are about 100 calories. Twenty Lay’s potato chips (a serving size) add up to 150 calories. But healthy snacks that fit into the 100-calorie snack size include 1 cup of blueberries, a medium-sized banana, or a cup of carrots with 2 tablespoons of hummus for dipping.

Take the time to teach your kids to combine food groups in their snacks; this will add to a snack’s health factor. Protein and carbohydrates are a good pairing, think cheese and crackers, yogurt and fruit, because these types of combinations are filling enough to hold you over until your next meal.