Seven Tips For Eating Healthy On Halloween

For those of us trying to keep an eye on our waistlines, Halloween can be a real nightmare. We are expected to buy lots of Halloween sweets and treats to hand out. Hopefully, we have enough trick-or-treaters to hand it all out and not be stuck with a bunch of extra temptation in the house, but if we have kids of our own, chances are that they will be bringing home buckets of sugary loot too. How are we supposed to eat healthy while surrounded by so much sweet temptation?

1. Hand out something other than sweets. You could hand out toothbrushes, but that might not be nearly as fun for kids. You could hand out coloring books, crayons, pencils, spider rings, or other Halloween party favors. You could hand out magnets or buttons. These are things that kids will enjoy without rotting their teeth, and there won't be any sweets left calling to your sweet tooth.



2. Throw yourself into decorating for the holiday. Keep yourself busy with making decoratons, hanging decorations and making your home look spooky to keep your mind off of the treats in your house. Bonus, you might be burning off some calories while clmibing laddders, reaching to hang things and pulling fake cobwebs across the ceiling.

3. Keep the sweets out of sight until you need them to hand out. Also keep the loot your children bring home out of sight until they have worked their way through it. Out of sight, out of mind, hopefully. Your kids don't need candy any more than you do, so try and limit how much they eat a time. Maybe give them a piece or two in their lunchboxes until it is gone.

4. Keep a lot of healthy snack food on hand. Chopped carrots or celery with a healthy dip is a quick and easy thing to have available when you get the urge to munch. In order to battle a craving for something sweet, have some fresh strawberries or raspberries available.

5. Drink plenty of water. Sometimes thirst can cause us to mistakenly think we are hungry, so make sure you are full up with water in order to prevent this from happening.

6. Have a healthy and filling dinner before all of the trick-or-treaters start arriving. Again, if you feel full and well satisfied, you are less likely to give in to the urge for one of those candy temptations.

7. Give in a tiny bit to temptation. Sometimes, giving yourself a taste of what you want will help to satisfy the craving. A small treat once in a while is not going to be the end of your healthy eating and is not likely to cause any weight gain, as long as it doesn't become something you do often.

Relax and enjoy the holiday day and have a happy Halloween!

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Guest Posting at "Where Are My Knees?"

Today I have a guest post over at the blog Where Are My Knees? I tell my story again and also give some advice for those of you who are still struggling to lose weight. The ladies over at Where Are My Knees have a great blog full of inspirational stories, recipes and advice, so go and check them out!

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Why You Shouldn't Wait For Motivation

Since losing over 10 stone, I often hear people say, "I wish I had your motivation." Often, I read a lament on Facebook about how someone "can't get motivated." Over and over, people claim they are waiting for motivation before losing weight, and I just have to speak up.

Stop waiting for motivation! If you really want to lose weight, then lose it! If you are tired of being overweight, then take the steps necessary to become healthier and lose your excess fat. And stop moaning about your lack of motivation!

None of us lack motivation. Motivation is just a combination of the reasons you have for losing weight. It is the rewards you expect to gain when you lose the weight.

When I was 10 stone overweight, I had plenty of motivation to lose the weight. It hurt to walk. I had health problems developing. I had seven children who relied on me and needed me to be healthy and energetic for them. I lacked energy. I hated the way I looked. And this list of motivators goes on. And yet, all of this motivation to lose weight did not start me losing weight. I was morbidly obese for over a decade.

It wasn't until I began taking the steps towards losing the weight (like joining Slimming World, keeping a food diary and exercising) and going through the necessary actions that any of my drive to lose weight started coming into play. The more I ate healthy and exercised, the more weight I started to lose, the more drive I found to continue with it.

So stop moaning about your lack of motivation. If you really want to lose weight, then you will do something about it. No more saying you just can't do it because you can't find the motivation. If it's important to you, you are capable of making it happen.


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