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3 Ways to Enjoy Halloween Candy (and not overdo it)
3. DITCH THE “DEPRIVATION” MIND SET:
Let’s make something very clear. You can enjoy treats! To create a healthy, long-term lifestyle and positive relationship with food, we need to allow ourselves leeway! Focus on maintaining a healthy diet 80 percent of the time and 20 percent of the time you can give yourself extra flexibility. You have dietitian approval to celebrate with your loved ones and enjoy! Drop the negative labels such as, “I was so bad I ate chocolate last night”. This guilt does two things: makes us feel rotten and it makes us want to eat more!
Additionally, to really enjoy your treats, you will need to slow down! Instead of scarfing candies because you feel guilty eating them, why not take your time and savour the experience? Bringing mindfulness to your eating means doing one thing at a time (eating), and becoming aware of the tastes and textures.
WHEN ENJOYING A TREAT ASK YOURSELF THREE QUESTIONS:
- What does it feel like?
- What does it smell like?
- What does it taste like?
This can also be an excellent opportunity to teach your child mindfulness while eating. This teaches us that we do not to eat just because it is in front of us but rather to savour and enjoy. Interestingly, a client of mine found her sweet addiction subsided tremendously when she took away the “bad” label and started allowing herself to enjoy and savour treats whenever she wanted them.
BOTTOM LINE:
This Halloween, enjoy your treats and follow the three simple tips to avoid overdoing it. Be sure to stock your kitchen with healthy items, have a balanced meal before enjoying your treat, store candy out of sight and be mindful to savour the tastes! No need to vilifying candy or other foods. Let’s enjoy it as a part of long-term lifestyle of enjoyment without restriction and labels.
Author
Andrea is a Registered Dietitian and owner of Dietetic Directions, a nutritional counselling and education company. Andrea's mission is to inspire clients through motivation and guidance to achieve life-long health behaviour changes. She has taken continuing education in the areas of Food Allergy and Food Hypersensitivity, Health Research Literacy, Motivational Interviewing & Coaching for Behaviour Change.
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