Happy Monday ya’ll! I’m so excited to share today’s post with you today because I get to let ya’ll in on a little secret of mine that I feel like not many people know about!

I’m the kind of girl that wants to have her cake and eat it too. I love snacks, I love sweets, I love pasta, and I love to eat. Truly, I know it sounds very indulgent, even while writing this I’m thinking about the cookies staring at me from across the Barnes & Noble cafe I’m currently writing at.

But what I know about food and diet and weight is one universal truth: that calories in = calories out. Meaning, I can’t eat all the things my little heart desires if I want to stay the same size I am today.

So with that in mind, I know food and diet can be a very touchy subject, but today I wanted to share a brand with ya’ll that I LOVE and have been using for literally a decade.

My First Discovery of Fiber

When I was in high school, I was a nanny for a family of four. They lived in a beautiful home, both parents worked full time, and the kids were in elementary school. They were my favorite family to work for and one of the things I learned while working for them is about the Fiber Gourmet brand.

The mom was in incredible shape. She worked full time and I had a particular interest in understanding what she did to stay in such good shape despite having a full plate!

Her focus was on nutrition and she was very mindful about the types of snack and food products she kept in her home. For example, no sodas, no artificial flavors, no plastic containers in microwaves, etc… If there was a traditionally “sweet” snack, it was sugar-free or made with natural sugar cane.

She kept her pantry well organized with the clear Oxo containers I use today (to help see portions), and one of the snacks she kept was the Fiber Gourmet Cheese Thinables, along with the Fiber Gourmet Cinnamon Thinables. They tasted like Cheez-its, but they were half the calories and half the carbs due to the fiber added to the products.

The Secret Behind Fiber

According to the Fiber Gourmet website, “Fiber is a carbohydrate that cannot be digested by the body but has numerous benefits. High fiber foods leave your body feeling full with “bulkier foods” that contain less calories and carbs so that you’re likely to eat less and stay satisfied longer.”

Other benefits of fiber include assistance with digestion, gut health, lowered risk for disease and life longevity. In case you weren’t aware (like me until very recently) our overall health has a LOT to do with our gut health.

In fact, check out this article to understand why and how.

My Go-To Pasta & Snacks

One of the ways I’m able to manage my food intake is by consuming lower-calorie, fiber dense foods that help me stay full longer. I eat Fiber Gourmet products almost daily.

Every day around 3 PM I get the itch to have a crunchy snack, and I keep Fiber Gourmet snacks fully stocked in my pantry. I love the jalapeno cheddar thinables because they have that spice and truly do not feel like a “diet” snack whatsoever.

What I love most is one serving of the cheese thinables is 60 calories and 6 grams of net carbs. And that’s for 30 crackers. Seriously ya’ll. Mind = blown. We can have our snacks and eat them too!? YES!

I also love pasta on a weeknight for two reasons: I can whip something up for John and me in under 20 minutes, and it just tastes so good. One serving of the Fiber Gourmet Light Penne Pasta is 130 calories, 23 grams of net carbs and 8 grams of protein.

I will add a “no sugar added” sauce and typically beef (because I’m picky and don’t like the taste of most ground turkey), top with some mozzarella cheese and it’s the perfect meal. The pasta is DELICIOUS and tastes very similar to any other store-bought dry pasta, but half the calories/carbs.

So, secrets out. I love snacks, I love pasta, and I get to indulge daily thanks to the Fiber Gourmet products.

If you’re like me and like to find creative ways to save on calories (because let’s just be real, eating less or cutting out the foods we love is so dang hard), you can shop my recommendations below. Just use my discount code “TCM10” to get 10% off:

Jalapeno Cheddar Thinables

Cheddar Thinables 

Cinnamon Thinables

Light Penne Pasta