With the holiday season coming fast, it is all too tempting to get in the mood for sweets and gorge on the ever abundant decorative bowls filled with calorie laden candy. 

Holiday Temptations

Let me tell the story that most moms know all too well.  Your child gets in the Halloween spirit and innocently convinces you (the scrooge) to head to the local Target or Big Lots store to buy some decorative supplies for them to put up before Halloween.  So you shop and get some twinkly orange lights, festive decorations, and a cute costume with a pumpkin ruffle skirt.  While you are there you pick up several bags of Halloween candy so that you’ll be prepared and have something to put in a holiday candy bowl. 

Maybe you buy Snickers and Butterfingers.  In your head a little good devil told you to just get the butterfingers because you don’t like them and wouldn’t be tempted.  But you needed a mixture so you splurged and grabbed that bag of Snickers.  When you get home, your mood is uplifted because you are decorating your house and bonding with your family.  But then there is the candy.  You put a few in the bowl and notice that you’ve eaten three Snickers.  Then, you decide to put the bag away so you walk out to the garage and put the snickers bag out there.  By next day, you’ve walked out to the garage and gotten more candy and eaten three more Snickers.  Depressed because you know you are being bad, you start a bit of a downslide and just continue to nosh on the candy.  Since you’ve already broken your diet, you break it some more.

Take a Walk, Relax, Give yourself some Slack

Most women cannot avoid at least some holiday temptations. The main thing you need to do is relax, and allow yourself a little bit of slack. Accept that you might have a few treat transgressions. Try not to overdo it. Don’t get discouraged or be too hard on yourself.  Doing some moderate exercise through the holidays can definitely go a long way towards keeping your head in the right mind set.  Don’t eat junk food unless it’s the ultimate luxury.  Random junk food that you don’t even like does you little good so try to avoid it.  Skip the stuff that is not very tempting altogether, and when you do indulge, do it sensibly without overdoing it.

 
Now that we’ve heard that story let’s think of a few things we can do to prevent or avert this Halloween Candy temptation.  I (and I’m skinny) say, fight candy with candy!  Go to Sees and buy a small bag (not a box) of really good candy.  Bagged candy is simply not that good and generally not worth eating.  Promise yourself to eat the yummy Sees candy instead of the not so yummy Halloween candy during the week of Halloween.  Stick to your bag of candy and don’t even start on the Halloween candy.  Don’t eat any of it.  When your own candy is gone, you’re done.  Your bag of cheat candy should be more than one piece, yet less than a box.  Around a dozen pieces, maybe fifteen and no more sounds reasonable to me.  You need a limited but reasonable quantity of it.  You need enough to get you through the Halloween temptation days. 

My theory is that by buying better candy, you are effectively making the Halloween candy into candy that you don’t like anymore.  Try also to take a few short walks during the week which will help to purge candy wishing thoughts from your mind.  After the week is over, carry on with your good eating habits and thank Sees Candy for saving your healthy diet.

It is a trick or treat Halloween candy nightmare. The high calorie joke may soon be on you, your waist, your hips and your thighs! We all get tempted.