Halloween...can Healthy Me eat treats at Halloween and still stay on track??
Can I cheat? How much can I have? Do I count it? How?
Halloween becomes this incredibly frustrating journey for some. I have some clients that buy into the lie that if they eat one piece they are just done for, they won't be able to stop, insert some sobbing and whining laced with self-condemnation and that's kind of how the Halloween candy conversation goes.
Reality? We are entering a holiday season. Food is a connecting tool. It always has been, always will be. People gather, laugh, break bread, and memories, all priceless to the human soul. I value your soul, and its health above all other areas of your life. Matching our outside to our inside, is the beauty within why I love to do what I do.
So I encourage clients to be SMART! Yes! Eat some stinking candy with your kids or friends kids or nieces and nephews or grandkids, PLEASE. Wait did she say eat candy smart? Yep, she did!
Have you ever done the calorie math in your favorite Halloween candy? It's important that you do. It might surprise you, one way or another. If you're the person that just mindlessly opens candy wrappers and eats, let's take that hat of mindless candy eating off and put on the hat of balance. If you can kind of put your mind around ALL of the holidays in this fashion, holiday weight gain can become a thing of the past for you.
1. Indulge smart by counting out the pieces, so you know roughly the calorie intake. In addition to that, my advice is to take the extra candy to work to share. Do not put it in a bowl to indulge in for days on end.
2. Plan an extra exercise session for the burning off of the extra calories. Why? Because your trainer told you to! haha :) AND because that way we don't ever actually see weight gain from our fun. How MUCH extra exercise? I'm gonna list the calories here of some candy so you have an idea of what extra time you can add to your working out, to burn off what you consume.
3. Be real. Don't lie to yourself and say, I am going to eat this, and then not burn it off. Then we start this swirly twirly cycle of self-hatred. STOP. If you over indulge, take the extra workouts and spread them out over several days. Like if you always workout M-F, add an additional 20-30 min walk or even some of the suggestions below, EVERY day until you have literally burned off the amount of calories you consumed.
4. Please have fun. Don't make this a chore, make it a game. Get the kids involved. Knowing is half the battle, the rest of it can be so much fun. Make burning it off extra chores for yourself, or a game of nerf gun battles with an obstacle course...it doesn't have to be the elliptical.
Halloween Fun Calorie counts translated into necessary exercise in minutes
Oh the joy of the tiny fun-sized snickers bars or little mini bags of skittles. They are fairly low in calories, right? If you are like me though, it's hard to stop at one, in fact three is my magic number. They are small, but boy they can add up!
So let's talk burn baby burn. How? Regular candy workouts are not a ton of additional time, but if you eat EXTRA candy, plan to do EXTRA work to maintain your weight. And just in case I wasn't clear above, these "workouts" or activities have to be done in addition to your regular workouts if you're adding candy to your typical nutritional intake.
Also, I'm doing this based on online calculators, so the calories listed may be different that what you read on the package or consume. But these are good estimates for you, and amid the Halloween candy workouts, you'll be able to establish what you need to do to stabilize your body weight. Also let me just add, I am averaging off of a 150 lbs person burn. So, again, yours may be slightly different. Let's just use this tool to get your head thinking and legs moving.
Fun-sized Snickers bar (2 small bars/160 calories): Weight Training for 45 Minutes, Or a Body Pump Class, Or my favorite a one hour power or hatha yoga class.
Fun-sized M&M’s (3 tiny packs/180 calories): Go dancing with friends for 30 minutes, Or take half of a Sh’bam class (my fave), Or go on a 30-45 min hike that’s got hills and valleys.
Fun-sized Hershey’s Chocolate bar (1 small/77 calories): 20 min Nerf gun battle with the kids which includes obstacle courses that must be run, 10 minutes of tennis or racquetball, Jump rope for 5 minutes fast or 10 min slow.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup (1 individual cup/105 calories): Water Aerobics Class for 45 minutes, 20 min of spin class, 15 minutes of swimming laps.
Fun-sized Almond Joy (1 bar/80 calories): 15 minutes of a high intensity aerobics like HIIT or Combat, 30 minutes of Power Yoga (does this mean I can eat 2 if I do an hour? Yes : )
Some other fun ways to burn of your Halloween Candy Calories
I don't want to exercise anymore, she says whining. Awesome, well lets add chores! Yep! Additional chores BURN CALORIES! So there's more than one way to skin a cat. Do each activity separately, or see my blog about making house cleaning a workout to burn baby burn!
Weekly Grocery shopping 20-30 minutes (including carrying your bags into the the house): 80 Calories
Scrub the kitchen floor, this is by hand: 200 calories
Play frisbee with your kids or dogs 20-30 minutes: 100 Calories
Vacuum the carpets for 30 minutes: 100 calories
Walk to the grocery store: 30 minute walk = 115 calories
Wash, wax and dry the car: 100 calories depending on dirty level, and size, but this is about 45 min of work.
General house cleaning for 90 straight minutes: 300 calories
Rake Leaves for one hour: 375 calories
How long will it take to burn off the Halloween fun?
This is a legit question. Don't try to do it all at once with one workout or one day. Space it out. I mean let's say you consume an extra 800 calories, space that out over 4-8 days to burn daily the additional 200-100 calories. You are adding these to your regularly scheduled workouts, so don't let it be something unachievable. I want you to have success in this, not get frustrated. If you need some ideas, sign up for a couple of months training with me. You won't regret it!
End goal?
Have fun
Make Memories
Be smart
Hold yourself accountable
and in the end, Healthy You is right there
