7 Whole30 Snacks to Keep in Your Office Drawer

So you’re doing Whole30. You are prepping your meals like you’ve never prepped your meals before; you are embracing your temporary sugar-free lifestyle — apples are basically candy to you now! — you have mastered the art of ordering at restaurants; and you’re drinking so much LaCroix you should probably buy stock in the company.

Congratulations! There is, however, one last frontier: desk snacks. Desk snacks, I have found, are difficult even if you are not on the Whole30. Luckily, there are a few on-plan options! Here are seven snacks to keep you feeling sated.

When it comes to a desk snack, you want something that is easy and not (too) messy. It needs to require no preparation, and it has to be reasonably shelf-stabilized — it’s gonna sit in your desk drawer, after all — but it also should be reasonably healthy, as defined by you not feeling gross after eating it. Add the Whole30 rules into the mix, and everything gets even more complicated. Goodbye, peanut butter! Goodbye, crackers!

And yet there are options! Technically, the program discourages inter-meal snacking, but this is reality. Also, having an option or two on hand makes it easier to say no when donuts, pizza, or cupcakes show up in the office unannounced.

Here are seven snacks to stash in your top drawer to keep you feeling sated in your new sugarless, grain-free world.

1. Seasnax Seaweed Snax, $13 for four, 2.16-ounce packs: The best thing about these is how much snacking you get out of a single packet. So much snacking! Truly, you can drag a pack of these out for hours (an hour?), and they are surprisingly irresistible, in an oceanic sort of way. Plus, they come in a whole bunch of flavors — wasabi, chipotle, toasty onion — and for once, they’re all Whole30-approved.
2. Santa Cruz Organic Apple Sauce Cups, $14 for 24, four-ounce cups: Per Whole30 guidelines, it would probably be better to skip the sauce and eat a whole apple instead. But apple season doesn’t last forever and you may find your Honeycrisps getting mealier by the day. Unsweetened applesauce is immensely snackable, and sometimes, we must work with what we’ve got.
3. Cherry Pie Larabars, $16 for 16: Larabars are one of the very, very few snack bars that are actually Whole30-compliant — at least, sometimes. Not all Larabars make the cut, thanks to renegade ingredients like chocolate chips and peanut butter. But a whole lot of Larabars are on-plan — including the fan-favorite cherry pie option. (Life Health HQ has a nice Larabar guide; also, read your labels.)
4. Nuts: A handful of almonds/pistachios/brazil nuts/pecans is satisfying, mess-free, non-spoiling, and non-refrigerated. If there is a caveat, it is that it is easy to eat more nuts than you meant to eat, so while you don’t have to count out your seven individual almonds Obama-style, you generally want to stay reasonably conscious of what you’re eating. Also, no peanuts, which, as we have all been told a million times by now, are actually legumes. Sorry.
5. Justin’s Classic Almond Butter Squeeze Packs, $12 for 10, 1.15-ounce packs: Speaking of nuts, if you’re interested in upping the creaminess factor, individual packs of nut butters are nice to have on hand for reasonably indulgent afternoon pick-me-ups or adding to basic fruits.
6. Brooklyn Biltong, $9 for two ounces at Barefoot Provisions: If you crossed prosciutto with beef jerky, you’d get biltong. This stuff is made from dried, grass-fed beef sliced ultra thin and seasoned without sugar. That’s the key here — while dried meats should be great Whole30 snack options (and they are, in theory!), it’s hard to find brands that don’t use sugar. This is one. (Epic is another; Chomps is a third.)
7. Oloves, $34 for 30, 1.1-ounce pouches: These packs of olives are more than just a clever name (although they do have a clever name!). They’re also flavorful and satisfying and adorable.

What is Whole30? It’s not a permanent diet; it’s not a prescription for eating. It’s just 30 days of eating whole foods and exploring a more purposeful, mindful approach to food. Read more here on what Whole30 is and how to follow along.