If you are like me, you love chocolate! If you are like my husband, you love the sugary, gummy candies. With so many posts, articles and newsletters focused on how to stop you from enjoying your holiday candy, I wanted to let you know – ‘It’s ok!’
It’s ok, to delight in the taste of a rich velvety-smooth chocolate!
It’s ok, to look forward to the chewy, stick-to-your-teeth candy!
It sometimes feels like sweets hold a certain power over us. We can hear them calling us from a colleague’s desk or our kid’s pumpkin pails. And the thoughts can feel relentless until we ‘give in.’ Unfortunately, once we cave, we start to suffer from regret. We berate ourselves for having no willpower. Then the cycle starts. We decide that since we were weak once, we might as well have another one (or two). This is then followed by the make-up period, where we think we must eat perfect to make up for our imperfect choices. Sadly, the pressure of impossible perfection, leads us right back to the beginning of the cycle, and so it continues until we begin to dread the holiday and the candy.
But what would happen if you actually allowed yourself some candy?
What would happen if you truly believed that you could maintain a healthy lifestyle while still eating candy?
Many people worry that if they permit themselves to enjoy sweets without guilt, they will lose all control. But as the old proverb states, Forbidden Fruit is the Sweetest! We want most what we can’t have.
If you tell yourself, you can only have one piece…of course you are going to struggle to resist the second! If you say that you will only allow your candy while trick-or-treating, of course you are going to try and fit as many in as possible during the ‘allowed’ period, then struggle the next day while it sits on the counter. You are following ‘diet-mentality!’
This Halloween, instead of putting rules around your candy intake, listen to what your body and mind are in the mood for. Maybe you’ll want a piece while following your kids door-to-door, maybe not. Maybe you’ll see your favorite candy in their loot and eat it while sifting through their pale. Or maybe you’ll realize you actually aren’t in the mood for it then, so you save it for when you are. Maybe you don’t really love any of the candy they got, but that super decadent piece in the pantry is more your vibe, so you choose that instead.
When you lower the volume on the food rules and restrictions that scream at you, you allow your body’s messages to be heard. You may be surprised at what it tells you. If you struggle to turn the dial down, I’m always here to help!
