Halloween can be sheer hell for food addicts handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. Yeah, you’re supposed to hand it out, not turn out all your lights and sit there in the dark and eat it yourself.
Halloween is one of the few opportunities some of us get to interact with real people, and children at that. Few things are more entertaining than watching children enjoying themselves.
The smiles, the big eyes when they get to choose their favorite candy all by themselves, the shrieks when an older ghostly creature jumps out of the bushes and scares the crap out of them, and the sweet, distracted “thank you” at Mom and Dad’s urging. It’s just too cool.
True, all that candy can be tempting, but I have noticed that I don’t feel overly emotional or stressed out waiting for the trick-or-treaters, so I don’t have any addictive cravings. That doesn’t mean that I won’t eat candy corn or M&M Peanuts but I just don’t go nuts with the stuff.
I’ve had 4 bags of candy stashed in the corner in a tightly-tied plastic bag for three days and I haven’t been tempted once. It actually feels weird. And just try to journal your feelings when you don‘t crave the addictive food!
My food addiction plan is in place. I expect to eat some kind of candy, so I’ll keep a couple of fat blockers on hand, but my plan is what will save my bacon.
I plan to enjoy every single bite of Halloween candy I eat–every morsel. No negative self-talk about shoulda, coulda, woulda baloney. Of course, I will drink lots of water to help flush the fats from the Snickers, Tootsie Rolls, and Peanut M&M’s, should the kids leave any for me.
And my surefire backup is a group of teenagers who come by around 9:30 and are happy to see a smiling face after being run off by some of my neighbors who close up shop by 8:00 PM.
Not only do we have a nice conversation, but they know that Ms. Bernie will give them the rest whatever candy is left over at the end of the night, so they really look forward to that.
Little do they know that they are helping me more than I am helping them. I’ve learned that when all is said and done, people are the absolute best rescue remedy for any food addiction, any time. Count on it.