Halloween is when the kids go door to door to collect as much candy as they can, running full speed, burning calories with sheer excitement.  As an adult, it is not such a calorie burn.  We drive to the store, buy bags of all our favourite candies and then sit in our homes nibbling on our goods until the children stop coming.  Then we find ourselves with bags of extra candies (because we over-purchased in fear of running out) in our snack cupboard, sabotaging our efforts to eat well and stay lean. 

Here are some strategies to help you survive Halloween without too much candy.

1. Don’t buy your candy early.  Get it the day of.  You may even get a break on the price.
2. Consider other things to give out than candy.  Pencils, erasers, toys, tattoos, bubbles, glow sticks, mini cereal boxes, stickers, sugar free gum, small bags of nuts, box of raisins, trail mix, cashews, healthy baked chips, juice boxes, microwave popcorn, crackers, pretzels.
3. Buy candy you don’t like.  That way you won’t be tempted to eat it if there are leftovers.
4. Make sure you eat dinner so that the candy lying out isn’t as tempting. 
5. Don’t empty the candy into the bowl until they just start arriving.
6. Keep the candy bowl at the front door and go sit somewhere else so you can’t see the candy.
7. Wear a mask or gloves to make it hard to eat candies.
8. Keep all your candy wrappers so that you can keep track of how many you have eaten.
9. Set a limit of how many pieces you will eat before you start eating and stick to it.  You are the boss.  You are not a human garbage bin.
10. For the days to come if you have some leftover, consider freezing some to bring out when kids visit or just take it all to the food bank.
11. Take some to the office.
12. Be mindful when eating it and enjoy it.  Try not to eat mindlessly in front of the TV
13. Don’t stock up on Nov 1^st.  You don’t need more.

Happy Halloween!