By mid afternoon, energy drops and focus starts to slip. What you reach for in that moment decides how the rest of your day goes.
Are your snacks turning you into He Man or leaving you like Garfield after lunch?
In this blog, I will show you how to choose better snacks and why it matters.
What Your Body Is Actually Looking For Between Meals
Energy between meals comes from one of three places: carbohydrates, fats, or protein. Most packaged snacks lean heavily on the first one because it is cheap, it tastes good, and it sells. The problem is that carbohydrate-driven snacks produce a blood sugar spike that your body then has to correct, and that correction is what leaves you flat.
Protein does not work like that. It digests slower, keeps you full, and avoids the spike and crash. If you are training, protein between sessions supports recovery.
The snack that genuinely fuels you is the one that gives you protein first, keeps the sugar low, and does not come with a list of ingredients you need a chemistry degree to read.
Timing Matters More Than Most People Think
Eating the right thing at the wrong time is still a half-measure.
Pre-training: A high-protein snack 60 to 90 minutes before a session gives your body something to draw on without sitting heavy in your stomach. You want the protein to be available, not still being digested when you are mid-set.
Post-training: The window after a session is when your muscles are most receptive to protein for repair. Getting something high-protein within 30 to 60 minutes is not gym-bro mythology. The research behind it is solid.
Mid-afternoon: Mid afternoon is where most people slip. Lunch is gone and dinner is still hours away, so you grab whatever is closest. A high protein low carb option keeps the slump in check.
What to Look For on the Label
If you are picking up a packaged snack, flip it over before you commit.
Protein per serve: Aim for at least 10g, ideally 15g or more
- Sugar: Under 3g per serve for a snack that will not spike you
- Ingredients list: Short is better. If you cannot picture most of what is listed, that is a signal
- Artificial preservatives and MSG: No functional reason for either to be in a quality snack
The shorter the list, the less processing that has gone into it and the closer it is to the actual food it started out as.
Why Air-Dried Beef Works So Well Here
Biltong lands squarely in what a proper between-meal snack should be.
It is high protein, low carbohydrate, and made from prime lean beef, so the nutrients that were in the meat before drying are largely still there. Zinc, iron, magnesium, B12: the minerals your body actually burns through when you are training hard. Most snacks do not come close to that nutritional profile.
Protea Foods’ biltong is slow air-dried for up to a week at low temperatures, which keeps the meat tender and holds onto those nutrients rather than cooking them out. The ingredient list is what it has been for 45 years: beef, coriander, cloves, salt, pepper, vinegar. That is it.
No added sugar. No MSG. No fillers. Just beef that has been cured the traditional way and tastes lekker because it was made properly, not because something artificial was added to compensate.
If you are building a snack habit that actually supports how you train and how you want to feel, that kind of simplicity is exactly what you are after.
Building the Habit
This is straightforward. Stock something at home, keep something in your bag, and remove the decision from the moment when you are already hungry and reaching for whatever is closest.
Hungry and unprepared is when the vending machine wins.
A small portion of biltong, 30 to 40 grams, covers your protein needs for a between-meal snack, takes up almost no space, needs no refrigeration and requires zero preparation. For anyone with a busy schedule, that convenience is not a small thing.
Protea Foods biltong is available at Coles, Woolworths, and IGAs across Australia, and directly from the factory store in Cheltenham, Melbourne. If you have not tried it yet, that is where to start.
