Even if you’re a grandma or grandpa and no one is bringing in huge sacks of Halloween candy to your house, it takes some planning to avoid the beginning of the fall/winter weight gain season (aka candy season). If you do have the thought of little goblins still impelling you to stock your shelves with candy treats, a little planning may decrease the resulting tooth decay, extra empty calories, diminished nutrition and likely weight gain.

It’s no secret that the ‘weight-gain’ season begins with Halloween; each year, many people discover that they’ve gained from 5 to 15 pounds from Halloween through the end of the New Year celebrations. I’m thinking that maybe you will enjoy a few hints of how to avoid the candy sabotage cycle this year. Planning ahead is really the most effective technique in not losing ground. Once you’re standing hungrily in front of a candy jar with no plan, it’s likely to be difficult at best to fend off dipping in for a sugar treat.

There are a couple of motivating thoughts that I can contribute:

1.     You can think about how hard you worked to lose weight and to eat a healthier diet and that you don’t want to fritter away all that effort – focus on your successes.

2.     You’ve been celebrating Halloween for long enough to realize that saying, “yes” with no restrictions to Halloween candy, is not saying, “Yes, for October 31^st” only. Halloween candy can loiter around for weeks and months. It seems if you give yourself license to start with no restrictions, it quickly becomes a habit (some even say addictive) then it’s like trying to stop a speeding train – and that’s not so easy.

Hints:

1.     One technique is deciding to set a limit; some ideas for limits are:

a.     Only allow yourself a certain number of grams of sugar; or a certain number of mini bars, or large bars of candy; or limit by the days, for example, Halloween and the day after or a once-a-week snack; a calorie budget is yet another way of limiting candy consumption (e.g. 100 calories a day for a certain number of days.

b.     Buy candy in the trick-or-treat-ready packages for portion control. You may notice that it only takes eight pieces of candy corn to add up to 50 calories. Two of those little packets and you’ve hit 100 calories. Those 100 calories are the daily limit of sugar that The American Heart Association is recommending for women (three packages for a man – 150 calories).

2.     Buy stickers, temporary tattoos, small toys, coins, etc. instead of candy.

3.     If you decide to buy candy:

a.     Buy candy that doesn’t call your name – that’s the kind you don’t really care much about.

b.     Avoid gummy or chewy candy to help keep kid’s teeth healthy.

c.     Buy the candy as close to Halloween as you can and don’t open it until the doorbell rings.

d.     You could consider giving the late trick-or-treaters the rest of the bowl, if you are not bothered by a double standard.

4.     Eat healthy foods frequently enough not to put yourself into a ravenous state. If you have not eaten within 3 – 4 hours, it is likely that you will be more inclined to give in to a sweet snack attack. As a young mother, I frequently didn’t take the precaution of a healthy afternoon snack (the piece of fruit or a few nuts that I eat now). As a result, I was often eating extra calories during dinner preparation.

5.     Plan a delicious meal for Halloween night before trick or treating – you and the kids will nibble/gobble less candy.

6.     If you do want to buy candy, you may want to watch out for hydrogenated oils (trans fats), palm kernel and coconut oil – not a great thing to eat if you want a healthy cardiovascular system. In addition, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a frequent ingredient in candy, is converted directly by the liver into fat. That fat is rapidly made into triglycerides and increases the victim’s risk for metabolic syndrome, diabetes and heart disease.

It’s not hard to find reports espousing the antioxidant benefits of moderate amounts of dark chocolate; but don’t forget that when you eat the part made from the cacao tree’s seeds, you are not just getting the benefits from the plant, but also all those sugar calories. More damaging, you are consuming fat and the calories that come with it. It makes sense that moderate consumption, not high consumption of dark chocolate may be beneficial. Many so-called chocolate candies do not use quality dark chocolate. If you’re eating a chocolate-coated sugar bar, there’s more to think about than the benefits of chocolate.

I agree that it was more fun to eat candy with the wild abandon of childhood – years before we knew the havoc it wreaked on our bodies. For me, the pre-planning is worth the effort; without planning, I begin to engage in Mindless Eating. With planning, I can  push the regrets of restraint down to those sugar-coated fat cells.  If they feel really sorry I don’t care. Let them go away if they don’t like it.