The Curse of the Halloween Candy Hangover

Who has a Halloween candy hangover today? Anyone overindulge on their child’s stash or the trick-or-treat leftovers? Halloween isn’t just for the younger kids…it can be just as fun for the (much) older kids too!

Enjoying some seasonal treats can be great for the soul. For some people, once they start overindulging, they either can’t stop, or think that they screwed up their diet, so why not keep going. That’s the kind of all-or-nothing attitude that derails people struggling with eating healthy.

If you ate too much last night and feel like you blew your healthy eating habits out the window, don’t worry…you can use November 1st as your “get back on track” day. One day of overindulging or excess calories doesn’t make or break a diet. It’s what you do the majority of the time that counts.

We have to stop thinking of our “diet” as having a finite amount of time. It’s not something you should do for a couple of days, weeks or months. A healthy diet should be a lifelong journey. During that journey, most of your eating decisions should be healthy. And some can be unhealthy…just because you want to and will enjoy it immensely. Everyone needs those days sometime.

The other part of this equation is physical activity. The warmer months tend to increase the likelihood of people being more active. But just because it’s November 1st, it doesn’t mean that your activity should decrease as the daylight hours decrease.

As with your diet, a few lazy days shouldn’t derail your efforts of being physically active. Challenge yourself to find some new activities, both inside and outside, that will keep you moving all winter long.

Here’s a challenge for you: write down what you would like both your diet and physical activity journeys to look like. Next, write down some steps to help you achieve those goals. Lastly, go for it…and don’t give up! Don’t let the Curse of the Halloween Candy Hangover, or any other minor blip, derail your healthy efforts.

If you have any nutrition topics you would like me to write about or have a question you would like answered, email me at thedishonlcn@gmail.com. I would really like to hear from you!