healthy snacks for kids to make, lunches, parties, on the go

Help! This is my S.O.S.  I am 28 years old, and I think I may be a compulsive overeater.  I called one of those community recording services some areas have to listen to their definition of a compulsive overeater, and I score dead-on with most of their categories and can't honestly say I don't fall into the rest. I have been overweight since the age of 9.  Until I was about 8 I was actually a bit underweight due to frequent childhood illnesses.  Since then I've struggled with what I can only describe as a food obsession or even food addiction, if such a thing exists. I'm almost 5' 4 and weigh in at around 190 - maybe more, maybe less (I don't weigh myself if I can help it, too depressing).  Although I am not exactly svelte at 130, that - or even 140 - is my goal weight.  Most people looking at me would think me overweight but would probably not guess it's as bad as it is, as I carry my weight very well. But weight is not really the problem, I don't think.  I have dieted off and on since I was a teenager.  The last real diet I went on was two years ago. Having learned through bitter experience the folly of fad dieting, I had devised a simple, low-fat diet for myself which included a multi-vitamin, plenty of water, and a combination of aerobic exercise and strength training at a local gym.  I did not skip meals, either, and when I was attacked with a craving substituted a bad food for a good one, or at least a better one.  I lost about 25 pounds in about three months - not nearly so quickly as I would have liked, of course, but safely and healthily.  I felt very healthy and energetic, too, and was proud of myself even though I had about thirty-five pounds to go. But what happened before happened again: I went through the familiar and painful cycle of boredom, frustration, and laziness, and two years later finds me back up to my old weight plus ten.  What on earth keeps going wrong?  I know what I need to do; I know how to do it; I know from experience that doing it makes me feel better physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and yet I always fall back into the old patterns of binging and indulgance.  Why? I suspected it for years, but I only began seriously wondering if I had some kind of problem about a year and a half ago.  What got me were the ads for appetite suppressants you see on TV.   Hunger control, they called it.  Damn! I thought.  If I only ate when I was hungry, I wouldn't *be* overweight, or at least not as much! But the thing is, I'm *obsessed* with food.  I think about it all the time. When I'm on a diet, I think about food n_onstop_.  When I'm not on a diet, I either think about food, or how miserable I am that I'm so overweight, or that I should be on a diet.  I envy people who turn down a sweet or refuse dessert because they don't feel like it, are not hungry, or just plain not in the mood.  How wonderfully normal that sounds!  I, on the other hand, feel ruled by food, or at least by the thought of it, and I think I hate that even more than being overweight. My job offered an employee-counselling service, so after doing little research, I made an appointment with a shrink.  I told him what I thought, and he told me Well, I'm not an eating disorder counsellor, but we'll give you a diet plan to follow.  Impatiently I discarded the idea of therapy.  I felt like saying, Hey buddy, I *know* how to eat right...what I needed you for was to help *think* right.  I figured I could get more support from other folks like me, so here I am. Part of me isn't really sure I *have* an eating disorder.  At least, not a *real* one, like bulimia and anorexia nervosa.  Those have gotten a lot of attention over the last ten years or so, and people have sympathy for those who suffer from these painful disorders.  But compulsive overeating?  If I told my mother, she'd snort and say a lack of control is my problem, which is a shame because you'd-be-such-a-pretty-girl-if-you-only-lost-a-few-pounds.  Naturally she's full of all kinds of un-asked for suggestions on what to do and how to do it. I'm married to the man of my dreams, and though I often can't understand why, he loves me and thinks I'm beautiful.  But not even he knows my secret.  How do you tell sometime - including yourself - that you're a food addict?  You know, I almost envy alcoholics.  When they swear off the sauce, they do it forever lest they trigger a relapse.  A food addict can't swear off food, unfortunately. So there's the story.  Please forgive me for rattling on so long; this is the first time I've been totally honest with anyone about my problem and my fears, and it felt oddly good.  I'm going to try to remain a regular member of the group, and if anyone has suggestions, they're more than welcome.  My one hope is to be normal, and seeing the word recovery in the group's _title_ gives me new hope. Hasta, Fawn