Everyday Systems

What plans do you have for getting through Candy Night and the morning after?

Hi Maigret,

I'm sorry I didn't see your question sooner and hope you've successfully navigated Halloween so far. A few things help me keep candy under control for Halloween. First, it's gotten SO expensive to buy (have you noticed?) so I haven't been buying as much over the last few years as I've done in the past. Second, I've found that telling myself "I can have that on the weekend (S Days) if I want it" drains some (not all!) of the pressure to eat the Halloween candy with wild abandon right this minute until the bag is empty. For me, it feels easier to postpone eating something tempting than categorically deny ever eating it all. I'm definitely not perfect but this approach is helping more than any other diet I've tried in the past. Technically, today is an S Day, so Halloween candy could be OK.

BUT.....

You can also choose what you do with the leftover candy. If it feels too stressful to keep it around and you're worried that you'll succumb to temptation and gorge on it then feel shame, self-loathing, etc., then just get rid of it. Seriously. It's not a puppy, it's a bag of stupidly expensive cheap candy. I've done this too and darn the expense. One of my favorite life mantras is "make the decision that makes all future decisions easier". If you feel the candy will haunt you, throw it out now. Decision done and you'll never have to decide about that particular candy again. You deserve to feel better in life; if a bag of candy stresses you out, then dump it and treat yourself to something that makes you feel good.

One more thing. If you're not the only one with a say in whether the Halloween candy stays or goes, and you get overruled, try to give yourself a break about the whole thing. Anything you can do to lessen the pressure you feel around the candy will help you in the end.

I hope something in this helps you. Take care! Win

Love that attitude Win

Great advice, Win!

My Halloween behavior was definitely not exemplary this year, but some thoughts that have served me "well enough" in previous years (and will hopefully help with the small mountain of candy we still have left...):

1. Semi-joking: wear a rubber mask. I was a "wolf in sheep's clothing" (utterly terrifying to small children, but in a good way, I hope ) and physically unable mindlessly sample the treats I was handing out.
2. When the evening is done, fill a bowl with whatever is left (or some generous portion of it) and leave it outside your door. In my experience, ghosts (or teenagers) will make it vanish by morning.
3. Handing the aftermath with whatever you have left (the really tricky part): obey the "no repeats rule" you can sample (at most) one of each kind per day (S-days only of course)
4. this is karmically dubious, but bring the leftovers to work. I feel bad because of the temptations I might be inflicting on others...
5. Toss it! If it feels wrong, honor the spirit of Halloween by spinning your tossing as A Sacrifice It To the Garbage Spirits (imagine some Miyazaki no-face type creature in your trash can enjoying a good meal).

Great thoughts, Reinhard! Yes it's crazy expensive and I'm old enough now to be stingy ("In my day the moms gave out rice krispies' squares and those nasty red and white hard mints! Why do I have to pay for hershey's bars that should be a nickel each anyway?"), so that's a helpful motivator. So I bought way less this year with plans to turn off the porch light when we ran out. But for some reason there were a lot fewer trick-or-treaters this year.

In the end I asked husband / coach what to do and he hid the leftovers and took them to work with him Monday morning for starving students. Key there: don't think I have to pretend to be strong to look good to dh; he's my helper and not my judge.

But I like the "throw it out" plan also. Though I suspect the next morning would have had the trash can tipped and the neighborhood raccoons all sick.