Halloween Candy and Fitness Goals: You Can Have Both

Halloween Candy and Fitness Goals: You Can Have Both

October is officially here, which means fall color, sweater weather, pumpkin patches, and apple cider.  It also means that Halloween is upon us.  Yay, right?  Halloween!  Costumes, ghosts, jack o’ lanterns, horror movies, and tricks and…DUN DUN DUNNNNN…treats!  EEEEK!

If that last part scared the bejeezus out of you more than the rest, you might be on a journey to lose – or at least not gain – weight this Hallow’s Eve season. Because we all know it’s not one day testing the limits of our willpower. It’s the whole month…and beyond!

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Here are my tips to keep Halloween candy under wraps, and in their wrappers, this month:

1. DO budget for candy in your diet

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I track macros.  The food freedom tracking macros gives me makes all the weighing and number crunching worth it – for me and my personality, in this season of life. If I want a damn candy bar, I can eat the damn candy bar and still hit my protein goal and stay under my calorie limit – no problem.  I just adjust the rest of my day, either before, after, or both, to balance it out.  Easy peasy.

Related: I Started Tracking Macros at My “Happy” Weight and Here’s What Happened

If you count calories, this is also easy to do.  Plug your tempting treat into MyFitnessPal and see what you have to work with the rest of the day.  Chances are, if you’re eating enough calories for sustainable weight loss or maintenance, you’ll have plenty of calories leftover after you eat that fun size Milky Way bar. And if you do go over your calories one day to enjoy your favorite Halloween sweet, it’s no big deal! This can be easily balanced out as your week continues. 

Related: Calorie Cycling: Why I Cycle My Calories and Why It Might be Right For You, Too

Even if you’re not a die-hard macro-tracker like myself, and hate counting calories, hopefully you at least have a feel for how you are nourishing your body.  Either by recognizing hunger and fullness cues, or simply knowing how well you’ve treated your body based on how you feel. Do you feel comfortable, energetic, and well? Or do you feel uncomfortable, lethargic, or sick? Your body is telling you what to do and what not to do. You just gotta listen.

Before I counted or tracked a single calorie or macro, I managed to drop 20 pounds by simply imposing a few daily or weekly limits for things like chips and sweets. For example: 2 servings of chips per week, or 3 pieces of candy per day. I simply kept a tally in a notebook.

Related: How to Set Fitness Goals and Actually Reach Them

2. DO enjoy candy in moderation

Cutting out sugar and forbidding any and all candy in an attempt to get you through the holiday unscathed is a terrible idea. Restriction and deprivation can lead to binging on the very things you tell yourself you can’t have.

Talk about your all-time backfires. You definitely don’t want to go down that road!

So please, let yourself eat the candy. Do so mindfully. Consciously savor each nibble instead of “doing so well” (aka torturing yourself) by abstaining. Your abstinence will be short lived. It’ll max out at a mere few days before you black out, eat all the candy, and subsequently hate yourself for losing control.

Enjoy your one or two pieces of deliciousness, and turn your back on the rest so there’s more to be enjoyed tomorrow. You’ll be satisfied and proud instead of sick and ashamed.

3. DO wait to eat candy until you can actually enjoy it

Can you really, truly enjoy eating a soft, caramelly pillow of chocolate properly when you’re shoving it down your throat headed into a meeting? Or trying to hide it from your screaming children? No. No, you cannot.  Believe me, I’ve tried.

Most days I save my most precious of snacks and desserts for when my kids are in bed for the night.  That way I don’t find myself having to sneak around, share, or deal with 1000 interruptions when I just want to relax and indulge.

When I focus my attention on how yummy my food is, I allow myself to enjoy every last morsel.  I don’t feel the need to eat a ridiculous amount of candy when I actually take the time to fully experience eating it. I’m not mindlessly inhaling little bits, pieces, and handfuls of junk throughout the day, because I’m consciously reminding myself those calories will be much better spent on my delectable, leisurely dessert later on.

So before you tear open and scarf down a few pieces of candy hustling from one stressor to the next, STOP and tell yourself it’s okay to delay that gratification. It’ll be worth it. You don’t have to choose between Halloween Candy and your Fitness Goals – you can have both!

Related: 10 Tips for Healthier Snacking

4. DO donate or drop candy off at the office after the holiday

You don’t need a shitload of candy sitting around, distracting you from finishing the year strong. Get rid of it.

My husband and I make a fun game out of dumping leftover candy, cupcakes, and cookies at his office breakroom. We each guess how long until that crap disappears – it’s usually gone by 10 am. 

You can also donate leftover Halloween candy to the troops here. Here are a few more organizations accepting Halloween candy donations, as well. 

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5. DON’T buy candy you like

It’s like when I buy Nilla wafers “for the kids” – it’s always a bad idea! They nibble a bite out of one and I chomp down the rest of the box like a fiend. 

Do yourself a favor and DON’T purchase your favorite candy “for trick-or-treaters” knowing full well it’ll make it that much harder for you to steer clear of it!

Don’t like coconut? Buy Mounds. Don’t like almonds? Buy Almond Joy. Don’t like peanuts? Buy Peanut M&Ms. Bonus points of you get those nasty black- and orange-wrapped peanut butter taffies ain’t nobody gonna eat.

There’s no sense in making the holiday more challenging than it has to be when you’re trying to lose weight or simply feel your best.

6. DON’T eat candy unless you love it

Don’t eat a candy you don’t love, just because it’s there. Consider this when you’re ransacking your kid’s plastic jack o’ lantern o’ goodies, or snatching up some shiny-wrappered yumminess out of the community candy dish at work. Don’t just pillage for anything.  Grab only what makes your mouth water just thinking about. Something you know you’ll be happy you ate. And if that candy isn’t there, walk away empty-handed and full of pride.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather leave a free piece of mediocre candy behind and keep to my goals than feel an ounce of eater’s remorse.

Eating something you don’t love just because it’s free and available in the moment isn’t going to satisfy the cravings for what you really do want.  Chances are, you’ll just partake of even more treats later to make up for missing out on what you do love. Just skip the less-loved crap altogether and save yourself for what your heart really desires.

Typically, I can take or leave things like Skittles and Starburst.  I’d just much rather have chocolatey, peanut buttery, caramely, nougaty candies over the sweet, fake-fruity varieties. Unless you asked me when I was pregnant with my daughter! ALL I wanted when she was in my belly were sugary, fruity things – Skittles, Froot Loops, and Spree, oh my! I simply could not get enough. So weird.

But, like I said, typically, I can leave that shit be. I don’t dislike it, I just don’t ever really want to eat it. So I’ll be damned if I’m gonna waste precious calories on Skittles when I could and would much rather have a Snickers.

7. DON’T set out candy dishes

Outta sight, outta mind! Keep it in a container, stored at the back of your pantry, behind a closed cabinet door. The more steps required to find it and dig it out, the better. Refrain from setting the glistening wrappers out in plain sight where they’ll catch your eye and test your willpower at every turn. 

I could even go one step further and add DON’T buy unwrapped candy to this list. Obviously, when a bowlful of loose M&Ms or candy corn is front and center, calling to you every time you enter a room, you’ll be more likely to grab a handful…or 3. It’s too easy to nickel and dime yourself into a hefty calorie surplus this way, without even realizing or enjoying it.

8. DON’T buy candy earlier than you have to

So, really, you could buy it the day of trick-or-treating in your neighborhood. That’s a good three weeks into October, at the earliest. Where I grew up trick-or-treating was always the Saturday before Halloween. Maybe that’s weird for you, but it was neighborhood-wide block party awesomeness for me. Save yourself weeks of the temptation, fat, and calories of having candy in your home by simply not buying it until it’s totally necessary.

Just because it’s on the store shelves in Sep-freaking-tember, doesn’t mean you should buy it then. You and I both know that shit ain’t gonna last til October 31st.

You’re gonna see candy sitting out at work all month long. There’s no need to complicate things by having it sitting around at home all month long, too. 

9. DON’T buy candy at all

Be the lame-o Halloween Scrooge who hands out pennies or pencils. On the plus side it gives the kids with allergies something they can keep. Maybe not enjoy, but at least keep. And well, you can’t eat it without there being deep psychological and gastrointestinal issues.

I mean, your house probably won’t get egged or TPed. And you won’t have to worry about falling off track.

Halloween Candy and Fitness Goals: You Can Have Both

I promise! I’m telling you, the feeling of knowing you can eat, snack, and indulge while still reaching your goals is the best. Setting yourself up for success with these handy dandy DOs and DON’Ts will have you feeling satisfied and proud. That breeds consistency. Consistency gets results. 

I’m consistent as hell with my fitness and nutrition, because my main goal is to be healthy, happy, and strong. By practicing moderation and mindfulness, I give myself the opportunity to feel my best and enjoy Halloween candy. Without deprivation, restriction, or binging. Just healthy, happy, and strong.

Related: How to Set Fitness Goals and Actually Reach Them

What Do or Don’t should I add to the list? Let me know in the comments! Connect with me on Instagram to follow my journey. Find out what and how much I eat every day in my food diaries. Spoiler alert: There is always, always dessert.

Thanks for reading Halloween Candy and Fitness Goals: You Can Have Both!

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