Quick and Easy Tips for Avoiding the Candy Binge during Halloween — by Catherine Morgan
1. What ever you do, DON”T buy all of the candy you like to give out to trick-or-treaters (not even a little bit). It’s much better to buy candy that you don’t like, to hand out on Halloween.
2. Don’t buy the candy too soon before Halloween. I often wait until the day before to buy the candy, and even then it takes all my willpower to not buy the candy I really like. This year I’ll bring my daughter, and she won’t let me buckle under my desire to buy Kit-Kats and Reeses.
3. Don’t keep a bowl of candy on your counter, keep it in a cabinet or pantry…Out of sight out of mind really does work.
4. Before your Halloween party or trick-or-treater frenzy, take some time to enjoy a healthy meal or snack. If you are not hungry, you will be much less likely to take the dive into the candy bowl (or you child’s candy stash).
5. If you find yourself unwrapping your favorite chocolate treat, before you bite into it, take a nice long sniff of it. This may be hard to believe, but there are actually studies that show smell alone can satisfy a craving. Smell it as long as you need, and if you decided not to eat it, through it away immediately so you don’t change your mind.
6. If there is no stopping you from having that chocolate bar and smelling it has only made you want it more, then try to only take one very small bite. And if one small bite isn’t going to cut it, then at least make a commitment to yourself to eat that bar of chocolate slowly and savor every bite. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you give into your weakness, don’t make it worse by beating up on yourself and feeling guilty about it. It’s not the end of the world.
7. Don’t tell your kids your favorite candies, and ask them to get you some when they are out trick-or-treating. I know, what kind of mom would do something so crazy? I confess, I’ve done it, and my kids were more than happy to bring me back my favorite treats.
8. Don’t search through your kids candy and take out all the stuff you like — Unless the plan is to through it all out so it won’t be tempting you over the next several days.
Which brings me to my last tip…
9. After a few days or a week, get rid of all the candy left in the house from Halloween. If you don’t want to through it away, then at least give it away.
So, those are my tips. Do you have any tips that might help me or other readers avoid the Halloween candy binge? If so, please let us know them in comments.
From the archives…
- Post from Halloween, 2009 — Avoiding Candy Cravings During Halloween
- Post from 2008 — Halloween Resolution to Not Eat Candy
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