Scary but True...October Is Here! What's Your Plan for a Healthy Halloween?

Yes, it's that time of year again, when ghosts and goblins creep from their lairs! For grown-ups, the scariest part of Halloween has to be the candy onslaught. Whether you love chocolate candies, sour candies, jelly beans, or the seasonal candy corn and mellowcreme pumpkins, there's a sugary treat for every taste bud.  

Or, perhaps you're fearing the tasty temptations that leap out from around every corner. Whether you celebrate or not, holiday foods and beverages are everywhere, from the grocery store to the workplace, to family gatherings and holiday parties.

So, what’s your plan for a healthy Halloween this year? Here’s a short-but-sweet list of tips I recommend, as a therapist, dietitian, and health coach, to help you stay on track with your healthy habits, avoid holiday weight gain, and have a healthy Halloween!

Five Tips for a Healthy Halloween

1.     Skip the early candy shopping. Do you buy candy early because it's on sale...then break into the bag before Halloween arrives? Do it differently this year, and buy shortly before Halloween.

Sure, you might save a dollar or two buying candy early, but consider: How much time will you need to burn off those extra candy calories? How much is your time worth to you? How much do you value your health?

If you have to buy candy early, choose candy you don't like. Or, take advantage of environmental control, and ask a friend to warehouse your candy for you. That'll reduce the likelihood of hearing the candy call to you before Halloween arrives.

2.     Steer clear of the scarcity mentality. It's easy to think "I won't see mallowcreme pumpkins again until next year!" or "The only time I have mini chocolate candy bars is during October," to justify candy cravings.

But the truth is, if you want candy corn or mallowcreme candy or mini chocolate bars, you can find them online whenever you want them. Don't fall prey to overindulgence just because it's the holiday season. The holiday season lasts for months—from October all the way to January!

3.     Make a plan to stay active in October. You can shorten the length or intensity of workouts, or choose to engage in lifestyle activity instead of your typical workout, but commit to being person who moves their body through space every day.

Physical activity not only helps you with weight management, it benefits your mind and your mood. So, find ways to keep moving--park further away, take the stairs, get up and dance at parties, walk your dog for an extra 15 minutes. Check out this blog post for more ideas!

4.     Focus on maintaining. If you're working on weight loss, consider changing your focus to weight maintenance through the holiday season.  Weight loss is challenging under the best of circumstances; it's downright difficult during the holidays. Maintaining weight, however, is realistic for most people. (If you’d like more information about how to lose weight healthfully, I teach an online weight management class. Click here for more information!)

If you’re maintaining your weight, October is the time to decide how you’ll maintain your healthy habits, which brings us to our final topic...

5.     Take some time to review, and if you need to, start keeping track. October is a great time to review your relationship with your mind and body. If you’re currently working on weight loss, now’s the time to consider shifting to maintenance, and planning ahead for how you’ll do that. If you’re maintaining, it’s time to take a look at what’s working, and consider how you’ll keep it going during the holidays.

Regardless of where you’re at with weight management, you’ll also want to explore the unique challenges of the holiday season, so you can start now with planning ahead. For many people, the season’s focus on indulgence is what gets them off-track. If you’re not ready for how you'll handle holiday temptations and challenges, now’s the time to plan!

And depending on what aspects of healthy lifestyle are important to you, I encourage you to consider tracking. If you want to track everything you eat and drink (and maybe your sleep, hydration, and activity, too!), it's challenging to do so, but it's worthwhile. The more you track, the more you know--and knowledge is power. Tracking is an eye-opening experience that’s well worth your time.

That said, you don’t have to track everything you eat and drink to benefit from tracking. You can choose to track only what’s meaningful for you. For example, in order to make sure I get my 30 servings a week to hack my health, I make a list of the fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes on my weekly menu, and then I cross them off as I eat them. Here are some other examples of specific tracking:

• Tracking the candy you eat out of the candy dish at work

• Tracking your water intake daily

• Tracking your workouts or your lifestyle activity daily

• Tracking the candy you eat while you’re at a trunk-and-treat or handing out Halloween candy

• Tracking what and how much you eat and drink when you’re at a Halloween party

  
  

Keep in mind that anything you do to increase your eating awareness will help you notice what’s happening. That knowledge will allow you to make changes before you gain weight, rather than after! So, it’s worth the time and effort it takes to track whatever aspects of weight management are important to you.

I'll be sharing more holiday tips in November, and again in December, to help you stay on track with your healthy habits through the holiday season. If you need personalized support through the holidays to maintain your physical or mental health, I encourage you to find a therapist or dietitian who can help you stay happy and healthy through the holiday season. You deserve to thrive!

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