Halloween is around the corner: time to assess your fear factor! And just how fearful are you? Not so much? Well, friends, my advice is to be afraid. Be very afraid!  You are about to face the first challenge since the final summer barbecue. I don't know about you, but hot dogs do not have the same hold over me as a silky piece of rich dark chocolate! For that matter I'll take a chunk of white, milk, bittersweet, or semisweet chocolate over all the hot dogs in the world! The next two weeks are what I refer to as the first round in the chocolate eruption.

I get the whole Halloween thing, and I have participated all of my life in this remarkable holiday.  When I was young, we would spend the first weeks of October searching for that perfect costume and anticipating that glorious day when we would be allowed to eat as much candy as we could collect, and then some!  And we did. We overindulged in a way that no self-respecting parent today would ever allow her child to behave. Back in the day, what was the harm?  It was just one day, right?  Well, back then, other than Valentine's Day, Halloween was the only candy-oriented holiday, and it was for children who pretty much ate themselves sick and didn't look at candy again for a very long time.  But now, every month from October until Mother's and Father's Day you will see aisle after aisle stocked with enough chocolate to feed a small nation. We will not get a reprieve until July!  Honestly, is it really necessary?  With the epidemic of diabetes, not only in the elderly, but now in our children, it is sinful to watch what is going on and see what we are allowing as a society!  I get infuriated when I think about how certain retailers peddle their poisonous products despite the clear and certain health problems the products produce in the consumer.  They care nothing about our health, our children's health, or the health of our nation!  Really, it is that dire a situation.

But, alas, it is October and the only legitimate, so to speak, candy holiday of the year.  What do we do?  We are faced with a dilemma, and I include myself in this since it is an issue every year for me, as well!  After I stop getting angry at the absurdity of the holiday, trying to figure out how to opt out of participating in it, I have to accept that most of us will succumb, at least on some level.  We must, therefore, have a plan.  If there ever were a time for planning it would be now, and for the next 4 months!!  Oh yes! It is battle time girls, and if we don't suit up and get on our high horses, we'll be trampled. 

So, what to do?  Let's take this all one day at time.  The stores might be full of candy and chocolate, but you don't have to buy the stuff early!  You can actually wait and buy it all on Halloween day, discounted, if you're really lucky.  If you avoid buying anything until the last possible second, you effectively avoid opening one of those bags late one night to have a little treat; you know, the "just one and then I'll stop" treat. We all know what the end of that particular beginning looks like!   

Next, try to remember that you can buy chocolate at any time of the day or night. In fact, you can run out and do it right now if you wish.  For some reason, just because it's October, we get the sense that candy becomes "free food"; you know, no calories and okay to eat just because it's everywhere and everyone is eating it!  Do not succumb! Thus, if you are going to participate in Halloween activities, follow the first rule and don't buy anything early, and then follow the second rule and only buy what you will need for the children. None of that picking up an extra bag or two, "just in case"! Third rule: buy candy you don't like.  It is way too tempting to have a bucket filled with your favorites! 

 It goes without saying that if they are not going to come, you should not build it! I used to live on a cul-de-sac with only one other house, and no child ever trekked up our hill to hit two dark lonely houses, yet every year I bought lots of candy. When the kids didn't come, I was stuck eating it! If you honestly only get a few trick-or-treaters, then please buy just enough. If you run out, turn out the light, lock the door, and call it a night. If you get a ton of kids, as I do now, the same rule applies: get just enough for the majority of the evening and when you run out, close up the house and be glad the temptation has passed! 

For those who really don't trust themselves at all, you could go the route of Trick or Treat for UNICEF, although this is not as big as it was when we were young.   Alternatively, you can also just go out and choose not to participate at all-easier done if you don't have a bunch of kids who have been waiting for this day all year long!

Assuming you manage to get around all of the holiday traps, remember you are not safe--not by a long shot! Wherever you go on Monday, you will inevitably be faced with the temptation of the leftovers. There are always those who bring to work the candy they didn't give out-teachers and nurses are big offenders here!  But honestly, on every receptionist's desk from coast to coast you will encounter enticing bowls of candy and chocolates!  How to prepare? 

Anticipate that it will be there and avoid the counter or the lunchroom, or wherever the stuff usually ends up.  To be honest, if you really want the candy and avoiding it is too hard, you can always toss it!  When no one is looking, give it the old heave-ho!  Really, the entire office will inwardly thank the person who did it, just as they were inwardly cursing the person who brought it in.  Another strategy is to ask your coworkers to stash their sugar out of sight and keep it for their own enjoyment.  However you decide to deal with this problem, have a plan; it will take you a long way. And obviously, don't be that person who brings the unwanted (or very much wanted) candy to the workplace.  It's not fair to everyone else, and no one will appreciate your thoughtfulness!