It's Spooky Season!
But you DON'T need to fear the treats
It's Halloween week, and that means it's time for fall weather, planning costumes, and trying to avoid unhelpful messages about "staying healthy" and "not going overboard" in the face of trick-or-treat candy.
Friends, if you're a person who loves Halloween, GO OVERBOARD. With your decorations, your costume(s), and your candy consumption.
That's no trick. Holidays are for celebrating, not for stressing over and certainly not for "canceling out" with workouts. Enjoy your holiday, including treats, and move on with your life.
Here's what we SHOULDN'T be doing:
1) Skipping candy, candied apples, apple cider, whatever goodies we truly love because they're not healthy, they're not on our plan, or we "can't control ourselves" around them.
What if you just...allowed yourself to eat them, guilt-free? What if there were no mental calculations about how many calories you'd need to burn for every Kit-Kat and you just ate them?
In our culture, we are inundated with ads for all sorts of things. We are constantly thinking about them. Then when we tell ourselves we "can't" have them, we want them more.
Depriving ourselves makes us crave that particular candy or food even more, so when we finally "give in," we usually end up way overeating!
Give yourself permission in advance to eat the candy you like...but don't just wolf it down! Eat it slowly and mindfully so you truly experience and savor it. It will make it even more satisfying -- or might show you that you don't actually enjoy it as much as you thought!
2) Judging other people for their costumes (and their bodies)
I'm not talking about ranking costumes based on creativity or judging people for costume concepts that are in poor taste.
On Halloween, and every day really, we need to move away from judgments that sound like: "They shouldn't really be wearing THAT" or "That's a little too tight/short/revealing for them."
Let people live. What the person down the street wears to the Halloween party has nothing to do with you, and any thoughts and feelings you have about that say more about your own body image and insecurity than theirs.
For some reason it is "normal" in our society to have Best and Worst Dressed Lists and to judge people for what they're wearing and how they look in that clothing. If you find yourself having those kinds of thoughts this holiday, notice it and get curious about WHY you might feel that way. (And keep criticism to yourself!)
3) Eating candy just to eat candy
Back to the candy conversation, along with mindfully enjoying your favorite Halloween treats, you can avoid a stomachache and diet-culture-induced guilt by NOT downing any bite-sized treats within arm's reach and NOT raiding your kids' trick-or-treat bags when they're not looking.
If you're eating it just because it's there, you're not actually experiencing it or enjoying it. Mindless eating leads to overeating, and if you're not even paying attention to the taste and the texture, why even bother?
Choose the treats you actually do like and let the rest go, and encourage your kids to do the same. Let's be real, not all Halloween candy is created equal, so don't fill up on the stuff you don't even like!
4) Teaching our kids that candy is "bad" or "unhealthy" or should be restricted
Food is just food. Let's clear that up right now. Some foods have more nutrients than others, but food does not have any particular inherent moral value. Period.
Kids are sponges, and they pick up on what the adults in their lives say and do, even if the adults don't realize it! Comments like "I can't eat that" or "Ugh, I'm so bad for eating this" or "I'm going to need to work this off" can send kids the wrong messages about candy and treats.
That being said, we might want to limit kids' candy consumption somewhat so they're not running around amped up on sugar all night. You could let them go through their haul and let them choose which pieces they'll eat right after trick-or-treat and which ones they'll have later in the week.
If your kids are lucky enough to have multiple trick (or trunk) or treats and LOTS of candy, you can ask them to pick their favorites and then donate the rest. There are several organizations that will send unopened candy to troops overseas, and often local food pantries or hospitals will accept donations as well.
The most important thing is to be careful about how you discuss candy and treats so your kiddos develop the skills to enjoy them mindfully, rather than feeling the need to sneak or restrict them.
For more information on how to handle Halloween treats with your kids, check out this post from Kids Eat in Color, and follow @kids.eat.in.color on Instagram for more guidance.
The bottom line is that we're often tricked into thinking candy is bad, we need to work it off, etc. and it can ruin our enjoyment! It doesn't have to be that way. Halloween only comes around once a year, and allowing yourself to enjoy your holiday and your treats is part of having a healthy relationship with food.
