It's BA-ACK! Halloween Candy

Despite the 90 degree days we are still having in Texas, the calendar tells me it is already OCTOBER. Of course, the grocery stores have been featuring HALLOWEEN CANDY for nearly a month already! Did you resist? Or are you tossing in a bag of bite-sized candy on impulse as you check out?

If so, it's high time to realize that we are now officially in what I call the "treat yourself" season, as we hit the trifecta of food oriented holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah. We tend to celebrate with nonstop EATING, and then what do we do every January? That's right, make New Year's resolutions where LOSING WEIGHT tops the list!
This year, let's THINK AHEAD...

Let's SAVE THE HALLOWEEN CANDY for...yes, HALLOWEEN! Start in the grocery store. Do NOT BUY the candy till the DAY BEFORE Halloween. It's way easier not to eat it when it is still sitting on the shelf in the grocery store, rather than sitting on your desk at work or your kitchen counter top. We all grab a small handful of treats when they are openly displayed in front of us.

Do the calories add up? You bet. Here are some of my favorites: Snack Size Butterfinger: 170 kcal, Fun Size Kit Kat- 50 kcal, and ONE single, plain M&M-4 kcal. Now, if you stop at ONE, it's really no big deal. but if you eat a handful of M&Ms each DAY for the next few weeks, or grab a couple fun size chocolate treats, BOOM-you will gain a pound right there. (Remember one pound is 3600 kcal- do the math.)

BOTTOM LINE: Don't wait for NEW YEARS to make a resolution for better health- start NOW by limiting Halloween CANDY to HALLOWEEN DAY!

PS. It's a new month, so CHANGE THOSE AIR FILTERS!

My Halloween TRICK for Treats

Can you believe that Halloween is right around the corner? We are officially in "treat yourself" season, as we hit the trifecta of food oriented holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah. We tend to celebrate with nonstop EATING, and then what do we do every January? That's right, make New Year's resolutions where LOSING WEIGHT tops the list!
This year, let's THINK AHEAD...

Before you toss that bag of yummy Halloween candy in your grocery cart this week, recognize that Halloween is still four weeks away. Will that bag still be around at the end of the month? Come on, now, you know if you are buying it now, you are going to be eating it sooner than later. So, let's SAVE THE HALLOWEEN CANDY for...yes, HALLOWEEN! Start in the grocery store. Do NOT BUY the candy till the DAY BEFORE Halloween. It's way easier not to eat it when it is still sitting on the shelf in the grocery store, rather than sitting on your desk at work or your kitchen counter top. And forget the excuses here: "if I don't buy it now, they wont have my favorite kind", "I wont remember, then we wont have candy to give out", or "but I LOVE those little chocolate candy bars- how many calories does just one have?"

Okay, you asked, so here are a few of my favorites: Snack Size Butterfinger: 170 kcal, Fun Size Kit Kat- 50 kcal, and ONE plain M&M-4 kcal. Now, if you stop at ONE, it's really no big deal. but if you eat a handful of M&Ms each DAY for the next few weeks, or grab a couple fun size chocolate treats, BOOM-you will gain a pound right there. (Remember one pound is 3600 kcal- do the math.)

BOTTOM LINE: Don't wait for NEW YEARS to make a resolution for better health- start NOW by limiting Halloween CANDY to HALLOWEEN DAY!

PS. It's a new month, so CHANGE THOSE AIR FILTERS!

Halloween Hangover

REMEMBER, GO EXERCISE YOUR AMERICAN PRIVILEGE AND VOTE TODAY!!!

Okay, tell the truth...how many times did you grab a piece of Halloween candy yesterday? If it's sitting out in a bowl (or in your kids' pumpkins) easily accessible, chances are you nabbed a piece or two each time you walked by. I will be the first to confess that I managed to top off my completely nutritious breakfast smoothie (yogurt, banana, and frozen strawberries, mangoes & peaches) with both a Reeses cup AND a "fun size" Milky Way. And all that before 6:30am.

Now, is it the end of the world that I had a breakfast dessert? Of course not! But, if that happens three or four times per day until that whole bag of candy is polished off, I'll be wearing several new unwelcome pounds around my belly. What's the solution? In our house, we let the kids have a few pieces of candy per day for a few days, then we donate the rest of the candy to a food distribution charity. I'm actually always surprised how this is really "NBD" (no big deal) to our kids, especially since we do not keep any candy in our house on a regular basis. Mind you, we always have homemade cookies on hand, but we do not stock candy.

Before I leave the whole Halloween scene, let me point out that candy now comes in a ton of different sizes, so beware of "serving size" when you are assessing calories! There is bite size, fun size, snack size, mini-size, regular, king and movie!

BOTTOM LINE: Enjoy the Halloween treats for a day or two, then if you don't need the extra calories, pass it on so your Halloween candy hang over doesn't increase YOUR "bottom line"!

Trick or Treat? Kid Stuff!

Before I move off of our Halloween treats topic, I want to make a few suggestions for KIDS. Yesterday, I mentioned healthy fall food snacks (apples and pumpkin muffins) and today I'd like to make a pitch for a NON-candy treat to hand out on October 31st. Absolutely, part of the fun of trick-or-treating for kids is going door to door and collecting CANDY. You know you've scored when you go to that one house that hands out the FULL SIZE chocolate bars, right? Agreed. But there are plenty of inexpensive and still COOL treats you can hand out...

1. My kids' favorite: glow in the dark ANYTHINGs- bracelets & necklaces; some wear them as head bands! I love these, because they increase the kids' visibility, especially if they are a dark costume like the ever-popular vampire! These often come in a tube of a dozen, but it's fine to hand them out as a "single".
2. Stretchy stuff- skeletons, black cats & ghosts.
3. For girls: nail polish! (and yes, you can find glow in the dark nail polish, if you want to combine ideas...)
4. Halloween pencils & erasers or stickers- always a hit with the elementary school crowd!
5. Silly putty/slime/playdoh- all these come in cute Halloween "flavors"- including, you guessed it- glow in the DARK!

These all can be purchased on line or at your local craft stores or possibly grocery stores, but THINK NOW, especially if you are ordering on line!

BOTTOM LINE: Be creative this year, and hand out the coolest non-edible TREAT on the block!!

MORE Trick or Treat!

Ah yes, I am reminding you about MORE again...but really, the time to think about "New Year's Resolutions" and optimizing health and losing weight is NOW, BEFORE you weigh, well, MORE at the end of the holiday feasting season! (pardon the pun)
Today, though, I'm writing in response to yesterday's blog, where I suggest that we-gasp- SAVE THE HALLOWEEN CANDY for HALLOWEEN! I am ALL ABOUT Halloween, in fact, it may be my favorite holiday. My birthday is right after Halloween, so I grew up having costume parties and I have nothing but wonderful associations surrounding this festival. Our house is decorated with ghosts, pumpkins and skeletons from October 1st. I want to be clear that I am NOT saying "don't enjoy Halloween"- I am merely saying let's choose a HEALTHIER way to extend the celebration beyond one day!
So, what can you do if you are a Halloween candy fan? Number one: enjoy Halloween candy ON HALLOWEEN. This year, Halloween falls on a Sunday, so splurge all weekend if you'd like. Just do NOT buy the candy now, and have it sitting on your desk at work or out as "decoration" in your home. How about using some delicious pumpkin spice scented candles to liven up your surroundings instead?
If it's fall FOOD you are craving, whip up some healthy, delicious pumpkin muffins from a Cooking Light recipe, for example.
Enjoy the crisp apples of the season- maybe ONE with caramel wrapping and placed on a stick- but savor the season's fruit every day! We adore kitchen gadgets in general, and literally have three different apple slicers (pictured above). A knife will do the trick, but an inexpensive peeler/slicer makes apples so fun that every kid who visits our house asks to have an APPLE!
BOTTOM LINE: Celebrate HALLOWEEN with healthy TREATS, so you don't have to work to find new TRICKS to lose weight come New Year's.

Trick or Treat?

Can you believe that Halloween is right around the corner? We are officially in "treat yourself" season, as we hit the trifecta of food oriented holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah. We tend to celebrate with nonstop EATING, and then what do we do every January? That's right, make New Year's resolutions where LOSING WEIGHT tops the list!
This year, let's THINK AHEAD...
The great news is that the weather is generally BEAUTIFUL in the fall (at least here in Texas!) What better time to head OUTSIDE and go for a walk? If you're here in Austin, make time to head down town and stroll, walk or jog around Lady Bird Lake. Wherever you are, respond to that sweet tail wagging of man's (and woman's) best friend, and grab your dog's leash and start WALKING.
Now, here's the "hard" part- which really is not so hard. Let's SAVE THE HALLOWEEN CANDY for...yes, HALLOWEEN! Start in the grocery store. Do NOT BUY the candy till the DAY BEFORE Halloween. It's way easier not to eat it when it is still sitting on the shelf in the grocery store, rather than sitting on your desk at work or your kitchen counter top. And forget the excuses here: "if I don't buy it now, they wont have my favorite kind", "I wont remember, then we wont have candy to give out", or "but I LOVE those little Reeses cups- how many calories does just one have?"
For a great list, check out Daniela Knight, R.D.'s list on her website, http://www.austinnutritioneducation.com/Halloween-Treats.html, but the ones that matter to ME are Snack Size Butterfinger: 170 kcal, Fun Size Kit Kat- 50 kcal, and ONE plain M&M-4 kcal. Now, if you stop at ONE, it's really no big deal. but if you eat a handful of M&Ms each DAY for the next few weeks, or grab a couple fun size chocolate treats, BOOM-you will gain a pound right there. (Remember one pound is 3600 kcal- do the math.)

BOTTOM LINE: Don't wait for NEW YEARS to make a resolution for better health- start NOW by limiting Halloween CANDY to HALLOWEEN DAY!