With Halloween right around the corner, I thought it would be helpful to share some of the tips to stay on track, or as close to it as possible, with all this candy and treats around.

• Give away any/all candy that will tempt you once the trick or treaters have come and gone. It’s ok to have a few pieces, but keeping it around after the fact will just lead to more temptation. This also avoids that fun game of eating the whole bag to get it “out of my house”.
• Look for places that take donated candy or bring leftover candy to work to share with coworkers.
• When your kids/husband/wife/significant other brings candy home, keep it in an inconvenient place. Somewhere high that isn’t easy to go back for more, out of plain sight, and isn’t in reach of the kids.
• If you LOVE it, have some! If you don’t care so much about it, don’t waste your time or your calories. Consider giving yourself a “candy budget” or an allotted amount. Enjoy each piece and know that when that amount is gone, you’re done. The only thing you should avoid doing, is eating something just because it’s there. There’s always another opportunity to eat something you really do enjoy in the future.
• Lastly, if you can’t control yourself or it’s tempting you, just throw it out! Nobody needs that much negativity in their life, especially this year! Don’t set yourself up for failure or put yourself in a bad situation. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting rid of anything that will put additional stress on you mentally or physically.

I’m not going to be a fun-killer and post about the amount of X movement you need to do to burn off X candy, but I will remind you that consuming additional calories does impact how we look, feel, and perform. If you choose to indulge in some candy, just try your best to keep the rest of your meals healthy and nutrient dense. Oftentimes restricting ourselves from having a little bit of something (candy in this case), causes us to eat or overeat other foods while trying to fight or satisfy that urge. So if Halloween candy really is your thing, have a few pieces, really enjoy it, and get right back into “normal” eating the next day.