Eating Intuitively on Halloween When You’ve Got a Pillow Full of Candy

When I was little my cousins would come over with their pillowcases ready to fill up trick-or-treating each Halloween.

I was never much of a sweets kid, growing up. I’m still that way today… That said, there was a time in my life where I felt like I couldn’t stay away from the sweets — I felt they had total control over me. I’ll get to that.

My cousins would come over and our parents would take our photo in the front yard in the same spot each year. Then we’d hit the town neighborhood running. Candy would fill our pillowcases to the brim.

When we got home everyone would dump their candy, begin sorting it, and share what they didn’t like… and hoard all of their favorites to themselves.

Though I didn’t care much for the candy, I think I did this with my cousins anyway because I love to organize. Ha!

At the end of the night I’d have a piece or two and give the rest of my candy to my brother who loved candy. Probably because the dentist told him that in order to have better teeth he should eat less of it.

I on the other hand never had anyone to tell me how much to eat or not eat. My mom and dad let me make all of my own decisions about food. I never remember them saying “eat more fruit” or “eat more vegetables.”

Rather, my dad just DID cook with vegetables and to me, that was what food was. It included veggies and tasted delicious.

My cousin on the other hand wasn’t really allowed to eat much candy at home. So the first thing she’d do when she walked into our house was go to the fridge, grab the whipped cream, and do a good 5 second spray into her mouth — ha!

The point here is… I always knew I could have candy if I wanted it.

That is, until I found dieting at the ripe age of 14. Then, candy became off limits in my daily life (if I were “being good”) and Halloween became the day of full permission to devour as much as I could get in.

Do you ever feel like that around candy/sweets? Like, once you start, you just can’t stop (and part of you just doesn’t want to stop!). Do you ever promise yourself that the day after Halloween you’ll “eat clean” and “be better”?

Yeah, I used to do exactly the same thing. However, what that led to was a belly ache and a mind consumed by “Crap. HOW did I just eat so much candy? I can’t have this around the house! Get it out!”

Is that how I/we should feel on a holiday that is designed for FUN? Out of control and afraid of those little sugar-treats wrapped in plastic. I don’t think so…

I think we should have a blast focusing on the fact that we get to see friends, enjoy a fun night together, and see all of the cutest-little-munchkins dressed up and excited for a night filled with play/dress-up. (At least, that’s what I love about Halloween!)

So how can you focus less on the candy?

Have an abundance mindset

When we overeat on candy it’s usually because there is an underlying restriction going on.

Whether it’s that we think we shouldn’t be eating it or we’re pre-planning to only have “one or two pieces” we’re telling ourselves what we should do instead of asking ourselves what we WANT to do and how we WANT to feel.

An ABUNDANCE mindset sounds like this…

“Wow, Halloween always comes so fast!”

“There are SO many opportunities for me to eat candy, every day.”

“I can get candy ANYTIME I actually want it.”

“Look at all this candy… it literally never goes bad. This could last all year.”

“I can have any food that I want — even candy — anytime I want it.”

“There are so many holidays and opportunities to have sweet in this life. No reason to shove it all in now. I can have this food anytime I want it.”

See what I’m doing here?

I’m taking away the urgency. The “eat it all now!” and “be better later!” mindsets. These mindsets make it HARD to listen to your body, so ditch them.

POUR on permission and remind yourself that if you can TRULY have anything you want, anytime you want it, then there is no reason to shove it all in today and make yourself sick.

Do you want a piece of candy? Then go for it. Pop on in your mouth and truly savor it and taste it. Notice it. Do you like the way it tastes? What’s the texture like? Does it smell good? Notice it more than you ever have so that you can determine whether or not you even like it.

If you start to eat through your candy in a high-speed-pursuit, trance-like state… then acknowledge that there must be something going on. You probably don’t believe that you can have it ANYTIME you want it. Slow down, enjoy it. No one is going to take it away from you. NOT EVEN YOURSELF.

Think about what you DO want to focus on

If you’re not going to make CANDY the main focus, what ARE you going to focus on?

What non-food things are to be enjoyed for today. Make a tangible or mental list of these things.

Here are things to think about to shift your focus:

• Where am I going for Halloween? What am I doing? What can I focus on there?
• Who will be there? Who am I excited to see? What do I want to catch-up with them about?
• What do I have to talk/share about?
• When I’m having the most fun, what am I doing?
• How do I want to feel, physically, in my own body throughout the night? How do I want to feel when the night is over?

Make sure that you are biologically fed

One of the biggest mistakes we can make during the holidays is to “save up our calories” for the big meal.

Your thoughts might sound like this…

“Don’t eat too much in the first half of the day because you know you’re going to eat a lot later.”

You know what this is setting you up for? To eat a lot later.

Instead, eat incredibly normal meals throughout the day. Don’t try to store up calories or macros.

If you’re craving something with sugar in the morning, have it. Don’t NOT have it because “you’re going to eat all the sugar tonight.” You know what that is setting you up for? To eat ALL the sugar tonight.

I hope this post was helpful! Happy Halloween! 🙂 Leave a comment sharing something you took away that was helpful!