Halloween is just around the corner, which means…Halloween CANDY season is already in full swing.

From now until the end of the year, we’ll encounter far more sweets and treats than we do the rest of the year.

Here’s what tends to happen…

— Halloween candy is on sale so we stock up weeks before the actual holiday which means…an undisclosed amount of mini candy bars make their way into our daily diet.

— Weeks of pre-Halloween snacking leads up to the actual event which = MORE candy.

— And then we have piles of candy in our homes that will carry us through to Thanksgiving when the holiday feasting continues.

See the problem?

Remember, sugar is incredibly addicting. In fact, research has shown that it can be more addicting than cocaine.

Dr. Robert Lustig, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, wrote in The Atlantic that:

“The brain’s pleasure center, called the nucleus accumbens, is essential for our survival as a species… When you consume any substance of abuse, including sugar, the nucleus accumbens receives a dopamine signal, from which you experience pleasure. And so you consume more. The problem is that with prolonged exposure, the signal attenuates, gets weaker. So you have to consume more to get the same effect — tolerance. And if you pull back on the substance, you go into withdrawal. Tolerance and withdrawal constitute addiction.” (source)

So, let’s do our best to be mindful of our sugar intake this time of year so we can continue to nourish our bodies and feel our best.

3 Simple Strategies to Survive Halloween Candy Season

#1: Don’t start the party early.

Wait until the actual holiday to buy candy for your home. There’s no need to have it before then – unless you’re incredibly self-controlled and can trust that you won’t break open the bag before the trick-or-treaters arrive.

#2: On Halloween…eat the candy!!

Assuming you don’t spend the entire month snacking on mini candy bars, enjoy the candy on the actual holiday…guilt-free! One day of indulgence is not going to destroy your health, make you gain weight or ruin all your hard work. One day is one day – it matters more what we do the other 364 days of the year. So, enjoy a day of holiday treats…guilt-free!

#3: Give it away.

We all know what happens when we have bowls of leftover candy in the house, right? So, after the holiday, the best thing we can do to prevent forming a bad habit of late-night candy snacking is to get it out of the house. Donate the candy to a teacher to pass out in class or find a dental office that is hosting a give-back program. You can even participate in Operation Gratitude which sends leftover Halloween candy in care packages to deployed troops and first responders!

Do you have strategies to survive Halloween candy season without creating a daily sugar habit? Post them in the comments! 🙂

xo,

PS – As a mom to a kid with food allergies, I also love the Teal Pumpkin Project which encourages people to provide non-food goodies so that kids with allergies can enjoy the fun of Trick or Treating too.