Every year there are a few special days where people feel the need to throw all common sense and self-restraint out the window and gorge themselves on mountains of unhealthy food. People seem to rationalize the fact that it is OK to eat pounds of desserts and drink bottles of alcohol. Then, looking back, people are usually frustrated and sometimes disgusted with how much weight they managed to put on in such a short period of time. This mentality needs to be addressed and ultimately fixed in order to create a healthier and slimmer society.

The holiday that kicks off the fall/ winter festivities is Halloween and the bowls of candy that go along with it. Halloween is innocent enough on the surface. What’s not to like about hundreds of cute little kids wandering around neighborhoods dressed up in all sorts of goofy costumes? Unfortunately big business, namely candy makers saw it as an opportunity to make a considerable amount of money. It has become standard practice to offer mounds of candy to each kid that knocks on your door. This creates a problem on two ends. One we are teaching our kids that it’s not only acceptable to eat pillow cases full of candy, but it’s also fun. From an early age kids learn to associate sugary candy as something fun and desirable. This sets our youth up for a lifetime of poor nutritional habits. The second problem is all of the leftover candy at the end of the night. In my experience my family always managed to have more leftover candy than we actually got on our candy quest. Whether this was strategic planning by my mother or not, that candy sat around the house waiting to be eaten. This can lead to constant temptation that most people will struggle to resist. The good news is there are things you can do to avoid the candied temptation that is Halloween.

I remember my sister and I dumping our bags of candy out on the floor and spending the next few hours generating elaborate trades to get the candy that we liked the most. If only there was a way of investing for retirement through the trading of candy, everyone would be set. The point is that we took our candy consumption very seriously and learned to go to great lengths to get the candy that we wanted. Kids these days are being fed sweet, highly processed foods at an increasingly younger age. Our society has become sugar dependant. It’s no wonder we face a mounting obesity epidemic.

Unfortunately most people haven’t developed the restraint and self-control to ignore all of the chocolate sitting in front of them. If people had this ability there wouldn’t be a weight issue in this country. There should be little debate that Halloween candy, or any candy for that matter, is bad for you. Candy is packed with high fructose corn syrup and all sorts of other goodies guaranteed to make you gain weight. The key is to learn to avoid consuming the candy through a few simple tricks or the worse case scenario, learn to choose slightly healthier options.

Whether your children have a surplus of candy that will never get eaten or the candy which you purchased didn’t get used, you need to find a way to resist the temptation of eating it. My first suggestion for the parents and friendly neighbors out there is to limit the amount of candy that you actually get. When you purchase your candy that you plan on giving out to passing children, underestimate the amount you actually will need. By underestimating the amount of candy you purchase you should be guaranteed not to have any candy leftover that will tempt you. Don’t try to justify the mass quantity of candy by thinking that there will be plenty of kids or that if need be you can have a little. I guarantee a little will turn to a lot and the weight will start pouring on. There are plenty of houses for the kids to go to that there will be no shortage of candy.

It would also be a good idea to limit the amount of candy your children get. Not only will this help to teach them moderation when it comes to sweets but it will also decrease the temptation for you to help them with their candy. Parents seem to develop the trash compactor mentality, where if it’s on the kid’s plate the parents need to eat it. Don’t give yourself the opportunity. Limit your kids to either an hour of trick-or-treating or a select number of blocks or houses. Instead of having the entire focus be on candy, have a Halloween party at your house for all of the neighborhood kids. Create fun another way instead of only being concerned about getting as much candy as possible. Allowing your children to spend hours searching for candy will only result in pounds of candy that will create additional pounds on you and your kids. Whatever your choice is, something needs to be done to limit the amount of candy that is in your house.

If, for some reason, you still end up with more candy than you want, or more importantly need, it’s important to find an outlet for the candy. Last year I had a client who was constantly snacking on all his leftover candy. He was completely sabotaging all of the hard work he was doing in the gym. I made him go home and bring back all of the Halloween candy he had in his house. Then I proceeded to give the candy to the people working behind the front desk of the gym. In a matter of hours the juice bar girls managed to polish of a grocery bag full of candy. I wasn’t going to allow my client to eat the candy and I sure wasn’t going to eat it. The key is to find someone who will gladly take the candy off your hands, preferably someone who hasn’t expressed their desire to lose weight. I would recommend taking the candy to a homeless shelter where people less fortunate can enjoy a little of the holidays. You could also take the candy to work and give it to another department, at least somewhere where you won’t be tempted to walk by and eat some of the candy. The key is to get it as far away from you as possible. Be creative and get it out of sight. I would always recommend giving it to a homeless shelter instead of throwing it away.

The next best option if you have resigned yourself to having leftover candy and your desire to keep it is to select the healthiest possible candy you can find. Instead of constantly snacking on all sorts of sugary concoctions there are a few candies that are moderately good for you. My top choice would be a Payday. Paydays are peanuts and caramel. The protein in the peanuts add a little redeeming nutritional value and the caramel doesn’t have as much negative ingredients as some other candy. My next choice would be dark chocolate Hershey Kisses. Dark chocolate actually has lots of good antioxidants that can improve your health. The key is not to overdue the portion size. By getting Hershey Kisses you are already limiting the portion size of the chocolate. The key is to avoid eating too many of them. I would recommend no more than three, just enough to get the flavor. The last option is to make caramel apples. In today’s increasingly paranoid society it may be hard to convince parents to allow children to eat your caramel apples but they are one of the healthiest options possible. The key is to avoid covering the apple with all sorts of other sugary candy. A basic caramel apple, maybe with some chocolate chips isn’t too bad for you, as long as you only eat one. The best possible scenario would involve you actually making your own caramel since that will allow you to avoid adding the high fructose corn syrup that is in prepackaged caramel. Find the healthiest possible candy and consume small amounts.

The last option is to be one of the households that always confuse the kids when they ring the doorbell. When the kids say “trick-or-treat” say trick, always guaranteed to leave the kids bewildered as the walk away from your door. Not only are you avoiding corrupting our youth with candy you are also giving them a little bit of a history lesson. A brief history lesson for you is that the practice of going door to door for candy originated hundreds of years ago in Britain as a means of impoverished people getting food. People would give food, actual food not candy, to avoid bringing bad luck upon their household. Over the years it morphed many different times until today Halloween revolves around kids begging for candy, just a little insight into one of our holidays.

The key to success with anything in life is to avoid justifying why doing something will be OK. In this instance it will not be OK to eat Halloween candy. Nothing good will come from it. People need to learn to create self-restraint and stay focused on their goal of losing weight and getting fit. Constantly making excuses will only produce more of the same results you have had in the past, in this case, gaining weight. We are entering a tough few months of temptations. Use Halloween to start improving your accountability and learn how to avoid the temptations or in the worst case make the best out of it. Two months from now when New Years rolls around you will already be much closer to your resolution.

Your mind has the ability to conquer many seemingly insurmountable obstacles while also allowing you to crumble at the smallest bump in the road. This capability will be there for the rest of your life. You have the ability to decide how you will use your mental and physical powers. Start today by no longer accepting your lack of willpower. Expect more out of yourself. You are capable of achieving anything you set your mind to. The key is making the choice and following through with it every single day. Be the greatest you can be. Good luck.

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