It’s that time of the year again. The holidays are starting, Halloween is just around the corner and our healthy diets are at risk of being sabotaged. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. We can emerge unscathed from this holiday season with a little thought and preparation beforehand.
When we were kids, we were afraid of witches, ghosts and goblins on this night. Now we’re afraid of the bags of chocolates, candies and gum. We are afraid of succumbing to the temptation of the candy. I remember when I was a kid, I used to have to work to get that candy. I went to house after house after house. I covered some serious ground. Now, I only have to hit the closest store to stock up on bags of the stuff. It’s so much easier now.
It’s true that some of us love getting our sugar fix at this time of year. The rest of us want to avoid the candy, but often succumb to the temptation of the bags of candy waiting for trick or treaters.
How can we forgo the temptation?
Unfortunately, giving in to temptation is all too easy. I know that if we don’t watch ourselves, we’ll eat all the candy, restock, and eat all the candy again before the first trick or treater can even ask us to smell their feet and give them something good to eat. To avoid that, I’ve come up with a four step solution. Here it is for all of you.
- Buy candy later: Do not buy the candy for the trick or treaters until a few days before Halloween. That cuts down on the time you have to eat the candy.
- Buy candy you don’t like: Make sure to pick candy that you don’t like. That way, you are much less tempted to eat the forbidden candy.
- Hide the candy: Put the candy in an inconvenient place to access. Hopefully, hard to get to candy that you don’t really like, won’t be as much of a temptation.
- Give the candy away: Give away all the candy, even if that means giving one of the late arriving trick or treaters a pound of candy. At that point, the candy becomes their problem and not yours.
The important thing to remember is that Halloween is fun because of the costumes, the movies and the parties, not the candy. The candy is for the kids. Let’s emerge from the fire of the trial of the first of the end of year holidays with our health and physiques unscathed.