Snacking – Getting Ripped For Bodybuilding Contests!  While year-round healthy eating is a must for maximizing your muscle gains, it’s an absolute must if you plan on stepping on stage and competing. Only ripped and striated physiques are winning bodybuilding contests these days. Many bodybuilders still associate healthy eating with what you do at home around the kitchen or dinning room table. But just think about how many times during a typical week that you eat at school, work, or in the car? Eating “on the run” has become a fact of modern day life and with time being as strapped as it is, we often take the easy way out and fall victim to food that’s easy to grab and go. The important thing during these episodes of mad-chaos is finding food that is healthy. Fast food is just that – a fast way to thicken your midsection and clog your arteries.   Over the course of human evolution, our ancestors developed these storage mechanisms to get us through long periods without food. Our cave dwelling ancestors sometimes went days if not weeks without bringing down a large animal for food. Thankfully those days have past and most people in Western society have ample food. But we still possess these storage mechanisms, and the worst part is they kick in after only two to three hours without food. Then when you do finally eat, more of the food is stored as fat. Bad as this is during the off-season, it is death to a competitive bodybuilder, as you’ll never get your bodyfat percentage low enough to look lean and striated. The best way to get around this though is snacking.   Now snacking does not mean “junking out” even though most people closely associate the two. We can thank the fast-food industry for tarnishing the practice of snacking. By fast we mean chips, candy bars, deep-fried anything, soda drinks, etc. Instead you want to eat fresh vegetables, fruits, and other low-fat fried foods. By eating a healthy snack every couple of hours you can keep those fat-storage mechanisms turned off. In fact eating every couple of hours will keep your metabolism revved up and provide the nutrients necessary to maintain all that muscle mass you’ve gained from your intense bodybuilding workouts.   They key to successful snacking is creativity. With a little bit of ingenuity you can prepare healthy snacks that are nutritious and easy to carry with you. What we’re talking about here are snacks that can fit into the top drawer at work or items that can be put into a knapsack. Yes, some of these items will require some preplanning. Some might even need to be placed in the refrigerator or special containers. But hey, they’re fast and easy and require less than 5 minutes to prepare. You’ll also save a considerable amount of cash over the year as most vending machine items cost $2 to $5. Do the math over a year and you’ll be surprised how much a junk-food habit and cost. Just think of all the great supplements you could buy with that extra cash? The following are some easy to prepare snacks. A few minutes preparation, a small container to store them in, and you’re ready to go. Celery sticks with peanut butter  Rice cakes with peanut butter Low-fat cheese cubes Half of a turkey or tuna sandwich on whole-wheat bread Cucumber slices (lightly salted or with nonfat Italian dressing) Low-fat Yogurt Granola bar Leftover chicken or turkey slices  Fruit smoothie in a thermos Tuna and cottage cheese in mini-containers Hardboiled eggs Mixed fruit cup (add some fresh nuts for a boost) Trail mix Small bag of raisins or other dried fruit Half a large whole-wheat bagel with light cream cheese Apples, bananas, strawberries Nuts or nut mix (stick to just a handful) Vegetable sticks with a little packet of lowfat dip  Broccoli or cauliflower bites Small bag of mixed berries  Whole-wheat crackers and low-fat cheese Small bag of mixed or single fruit     One great tip for effective snacking is to go shopping on Saturday or Sunday and have your snacks prepared for the following week. If you don’t have them already buy a few small-sized plastic containers for packing small portions. Take note of flyers for sales on healthy foods that make good snacks. Try to buy your fruits and vegetables fresh. Dried items can be stored for longer periods of time. Remember that snacking can be healthy, nutritious, and fun! We can’t guarantee that you’ll win the bodybuilding competition by snacking, but we are sure you’ll look and feel a whole lot better.