Celebrating Halloween without Sugar Overload
Halloween is one week from today! What you need is a strategy to skip the sugar overload and subsequent guilt that follows. Check out this guest post with great tips from my friend Stu Lieberman.
To set up a strategy before the holiday season sets in, take advantage of my pre-holiday private coaching special going on now until Nov. 14, 2014. Space is limited.
https://www.totalhealthcounseling.com/pre-holiday-special-limited-time-offer/
Many neighborhoods go all out on Halloween. Houses are decorated with cobwebs, lights, mummies and skeletons. There are costume parades for the kids. And on Halloween night, parties are held in driveways, giving the “big kids” a chance to take a break from trick-or-treating with their kids and grab a grown-up beverage and some adult conversation.
But if you’re trying to stay healthy and eat less sugar, Halloween can be a challenge. There’s candy and other unhealthy temptations EVERYWHERE! Here are some tips to help you get through the holiday, without overdoing it on the sweets:
1. Don’t give out candy. No, you don’t have to be a scrooge or “that house” that turns off all the lights and pretends their not home. Instead, consider non-food items to give out to the kiddos. My kids were delighted to receive Play-Doh® from a neighbor one year. Other non-candy ideas are pencils, temporary tattoos, or those mushy, rubbery, stretchy items. On a recent trip to Target my kids were begging me to buy them the pack of mushy mice because they were so cool.
2. Buy candy you don’t like. If you want to give out candy on Halloween night, consider buying a kind you don’t like. That way, you’re less likely to dip into your own bowl. I used to buy a bag of Butterfinger® every year simply because I didn’t like them and knew I would never be tempted to eat one.
3. Get the candy out of the house ASAP. After a night of trick-or-treating my kids like to dump their candy collection on the floor to see how much they got. And it’s often a lot. I know I don’t want all that candy in the house, so I let them pick out a few of their favorite pieces and then bring the rest into my office the next day. Another idea is to donate the excess candy to charity. Many local organizations collect candy donations at Halloween time for care packages being sent to our military serving abroad. Two organizations to consider are Halloween Candy Buyback and Operation Gratitude.
4. Consider healthy treats. If you’re planning a Halloween party for your kids’ class, think about putting a clementine or tangerine peeled to look like jack-o’-lanterns at each desk. This is a healthy and festive snack that is almost mess-free. (Your kids’ teachers will thank you for that!)
5. Indulge a little. The good thing about most Halloween candy is that most of the bars are miniature. If you have a favorite, and are really craving a nibble, eat one or two of the bite-size bars. One Hershey’s® Miniature is about 40 calories. So even if you just have two, you’re still getting less than 100 calories.
No matter how you celebrate the holiday, I wish you a happy and healthy Halloween!
This article is written by + Stu Lieberman the writer for Nutri-Health.com, an online High Quality Probiotics and Health Store. Assisting people and helping them find quality natural probiotic supplements and health products online is what Stu has been doing for over 2 years. Nutri-Health.com carries Digestive Supplements to Probiotics to Joint Health.
