Happy Halloween!
It’s almost November. Wow time flew this past month.
I don’t know about you but I always like to welcome in the new month excited for what’s to come… and say good bye to the old month knowing I did the best I could. And with all that said the end of October is always a tricky time for me personally managing all the sugar so blatantly in my face everywhere I go and if you have kids….a tricky time for them as well!
So in typical Jenn fashion I’d like to highlight what’s so tricky and how to work past the tricks so you only enjoy your treats and not BE FOOLED!
This particular holiday always brings on the SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR and it truly comes in all shapes and sizes and liquids!
How about Starbucks Triple Pumpkin Sugar Coffee Latte?? Or the new Pumpkin breakfast bars on the shelves. I believe there is even a few “limited edition” cereals with pumpkin. You KNOW those are loaded with artificial flavors and most likely no real pumpkin.
(Amazing what modern lab technology can do to make our tastebuds think we’re eating pumpkin when in fact we’re not… but I digress)
Now given that I consider myself a recovering sugar a holic (for life!) and a sugar cravings expert, ahem, I always feel the urge this time of year to offer my tried and true tips as the sugar craze begins!!!
Now if you happen to be immune to all the EXTRA sugar lining the shelves of pretty much every store in the United States then good for you. This one’s for all those who see it, buy it, bring it home, swear they won’t eat it and then find themselves in a sugar coma of some sort and don’t know how to get back out….and quickly…
YES?
If you have kids like I do you may have prepared yourself for the sugar rush and all the other fun stuff that goes along with feeding kids WAY too much sugar in a short period of time….also known as trick or treating!
I don’t mean to be the party pooper by any stretch of the imagination on such a fun day of ghouls, goblins and professional football players (yeah that is what my son chose to be this year AGAIN!!) after all I enjoy a good treat now and again for sure!
The thing is that the stuff we hand out to children (which I no longer choose to do. I buy pretzels and playdoh and some cool organic lolly pops. If my kids don’t eat it, I don’t think it’s right to hand it out to other people’s kids!)
Before you judge that I’ve gone too far you should know I was the kid who ate rows of oreo cookies like it was going out of style pretty much every week and on Halloween and well into November I would eat myself into a sugar coma big time! Looking back I think I even went trick or treating in college so I could get my fix for free!!
But now as a mom of 3 kids I’ve come to realize that there is a time for eating candy and enjoying the fun that goes along with wearing a costume & trick or treating and then there is a TIME TO STOP.
I would like to focus on the STOPPING part today because that is where most of us have trouble – yes?
Soooo here are my 3 sweet tips to make this Halloween (and holiday season) more of a TREAT then a TRICK on you ….when 5 days after Halloween you can’t get your hand out of the left over candy bowl yet you feel so anxious and frustrated you can’t bring yourself to stop.
I’ve been there waaaaaay too many Halloweens so trust me, I know.
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How Not To Be Fooled This Halloween:
1. Get all the candy sitting out in the open at your house PUT AWAY until the moment the trick or treaters are showing up + when they’re gone GET RID OF THE REST immediately.
I know it used to be a habit of mine to break out the candy 3 weeks early and leave some in a little bowl on the kitchen table thinking somehow that would make my house more “festive”!
Stop the temptation. Get it out of your face up until the moment the trick or treaters arrive.
2. Halloween Day – eat a really good high protein breakfast, lunch and dinner to stabilize blood sugar and reduce the office candy temptation and whatever the kids brings home that happens to be your “favorite”.
Focus on you AND your kids eating good real food and let the candy be the “icing on the cake”. There is NO way that one day of eating candy can cause you to gain weight or make you feel that miserable..really. Have them enjoy the day and MOVE ONE.
Which brings me to my next tip…
3. The Day After Halloween – Have your kids and YOU pick your favorite 10 candies + get rid of the rest. And if you’re like me I don’t even have one piece therefore never tempting myself to have more. I simply abstain. It’s just not worth the crappy way I will feel in the morning and honestly I just don’t put garbage in my body anymore. That is not a treat in my opinion 🙂
Yup. Then with their permission either pay them for the extra candy or in my case I get rid of it slowly. They don’t notice and they don’t care or remember weeks from now. The last thing you need is to have your kids or you eating candy, like a slow IV drip, for the next 3 weeks. Get it out of sight, out of mind, out of body! You will be SO happy you did. After all sugar stores as belly fat very quickly and there are no amount of ab workouts that are making that go away. Abs are made in the kitchen baby!
And if that wasn’t enough reason sugar causes anxiousness in us and hyperactivity in kids but it ALSO compromises the immune system (why do you think everyone always “catches” the flu in January — too much sugar perhaps?). The last thing we all want is finding ourselves or our kids laid up with yet another cold or worse, the flu.
Last but not least, what if we focused on the laughter associated with Halloween? Who can have Halloween without a little LAUGHTER? After all isn’t laughter our best medicine? Here’s my and Joe dressed up like White Goodman (yes that’s me!) and Kate from Dodgeball. Super silly funny movie and I happen to be a Ben Stiller fan so there you go!
I truly hope this Halloween finds you and your family enjoying your TREATS without any tricks and for sure not being FOOLED!
xoxo
P.S. Yummy Earth brand treats have awesome chemical and dye free candy that are quite delish! I highly recommend them
