As Halloween approaches, we are going to be faced with a lot of unhealthy food choices during the next week, and as a mom, Tammy knows this isn’t just true for us adults, but also for kids, like her daughters. Of course, we all know that it’s best for our health and for our waistlines to not let candy become a part of our diets, but we truly believe that holidays should be enjoyed and that it’s okay to indulge once in a while. Treating yourself on occasion is a fabulous way to avoid feeling deprived.

Here are some of our tips that we use (and that our clients use!) to prevent ourselves from going overboard when there is so much candy and sweets around.

• Treat candy as dessert. If we usually have a piece of fruit as something sweet after dinner, we won’t eat our candy in addition to that dessert. We’ll eat it instead. This way we won’t go way above our daily caloric requirements.
• Choose wisely. There are so many different types of candy we could eat, so we make sure to choose our absolute favorites. It will make the snack the most worthwhile because we will be the most satisfied from our indulgence.
• Eat mindfully. If you pay attention to what you are eating and eat it slowly, you are more likely to satisfy your craving, which will prevent you from going back for seconds (or thirds!).

We have a few more tricks that we use with Tammy’s daughters. These will help keep your kids’ diets on track.

• Make sure your kids eat a balanced meal before going out trick-or-treating. This way they won’t be as hungry once they have finished trick-or-treating and it will be easier to keep them from eating so much candy.
• Mix in healthy snacks with the candy. Give kids a piece of candy with some string cheese. Pour a glass of low-fat or skim milk for kids to dip cookies in. Add some pretzels and nuts to the m&m’s to make a trail mix. This way kids won’t only fill up on candy.
• Discuss with kids beforehand how much and how often they can have the candy that they get from trick-or-treating. Remind your kids that if they don’t eat all of their candy at once, they will be able to enjoy it over a longer period of time.
• After trick-or-treating, let kids pick out their favorite candies. Set those aside for them to eat for the times you decided on beforehand. Then, throw the rest away so it’s not around for the kids (or you!) to dig into.

Do you let yourself indulge in some Halloween candy? How much candy do you let your kids have? Do you have any special tricks you use around Halloween to keep your and your kids’ diets on track?