Dear ,
Do not read this if Halloween candy is not a temptation for you.
If you are like my sister, who, when I go for our summer visit in Ohio and I look in her candy jar (five minutes after arrival) and it is chock-full of untouched candy from Halloween the previous fall,
then skip this article as none of it will make sense.
On the other hand, maybe you are like me and dole sweets out in the "one for you, three for me" method of sharing.
I'm ashamed to say I will eat any candy, even candy I don't like, even candy with coconut, even stale candy that's been abandoned in a candy jar for ten months and even when the tootsie rolls are petrified to the wrapper and they practically break your teeth.
If any of this rings a bell for you,
then this article may be just in time to help you think outside the (candy)box for this weekend's sugary festivities.
I'm going to start by suggesting that you make an exception to my usual "only what you love" rule and advise you to only buy candy that you do NOT like. If you hate coconut, buy it. If nuts give you hives, think Reese's.
Also, mini-sizes are evil.
Sure, regular size candy bars have more calories (around 300 on average, most of which are nutritionally worth zilch and will also take you more than a half-hour of pretty hard cardio to burn off)
but who eats just one mini?
I personally would never sneak a regular size Snickers bar,
yet I cannot resist the temptation of the tiny size.
Then, once I have one, I have to have just one more,
then just one more
but for sure this is the absolute LAST one, etc.etc.
I love miniaturization; mini ketchup bottles, mini-dachsunds, mini-skirts,mini-liquor bottles.
The problem with candy is that once you get a tiny taste, the odds are against stopping with one taste.
The taste-bud dam springs a leak ,so to speak,
plus the brain starts rationalizing that you can have one more since they are so tiny.
Did I mention not buying your candy until the last minute?
And finally, make a plan to deal with your leftovers the day after.
At our health club we are holding a candy drive the day after Halloween so that our members can bring in their leftover candy which we will then drop off at a neighborhood homeless shelter.
This will require a pre-conversation with your kids about how you will handle extra candy. Some parents let their kids pick out a certain amount of "keeping" candy and then buy(read-bribe) the rest.
Throwing your candy away is a last resort if you cannot think of an acceptable way to recycle your leftovers but I tell my clients to think of their mouth as a garbage can. They can either throw the candy in the real garbage can or the garbage can of their mouth, both are a waste but if you throw it in your mouth you are going to be dealing with the junk in your own trunk for weeks to come.
I always say that five minutes of eating can undo five hours of exercise but when you are dealing with candy, you are probably talking about more like five minutes of candy consumption equaling seven hours of sweating. Now tell me, does ANY candy taste good enough to make it worth an almost full eight hour shift of exercising?
Often kids are not thrilled about giving up the majority of their loot
so I recommend talking to them every day this week about the plan that you've made and then stick with it.
Another suggestion that I have is to be accountable to someone. Tell someone who loves you how you plan to deal with the sweets and ask them to lovingly hold you to it.
Or if you'd rather, email me and tell me your plan and I will check in with you on Saturday and be sure you follow through.
Sometimes it gives you some extra fortitude if you know you have to file a candy report in the morning.
Finally, get a workout in on Halloween Day, no matter what. Waking up the day after and feeling good will make all your effort worthwhile.
Heading into the holiday season is a great reason to stay strong through Halloween. You will've set the tone for the challenges ahead in the upcoming holiday season.
Ho-ho-ho
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