5 Ways to Halloween Like a Champ!
Halloween is the start of the Holiday weight gain season. There is confusion and clickbait about how to manage your health, weight and fitness during these more indulgent months. Here’s our DO’s and DON’Ts of how to enjoy some Halloween without derailment:
DON’T set yourself up for failure. If you’re like me, then buying a $20 bag of Reese’s today means have $0 worth of candy left to give out on the 31st. (Also, the $20 was the sale price. I couldn’t bring myself to spend that much on candy, so I guess inflation has a sliver lining?) Don’t buy bags of your most favorite candy, buy the stuff you don’t like.
For instance, if I got a bag of Sour Patch Kids, or candy corn those candies are safe from me. Also, have a plan for what to do with the leftover candy – you can donate to the USO, or other places, or you can simply throw it out… one way or another, if it’s in your house, it’s in your mouth, so know how you’re going to get rid of it.
Fun story on the restraining power of strength: I’ve been having my daughters do regular strength training and grip work for a few years now. It’s great to see that they’re not afraid to stand up to bullies, nor for their friends. They’re also not afraid to defend their candy against their dad.
Last Halloween, I put my hand into my eldest’s basket (she was 10) and she grabbed my wrist. I thought, “I’ll just wiggle out and eat this candy,” but I could not move my hand! I said, “let go of my hand!” She said, “let go of my candy!” I tried to wiggle out again, and failed, so I dropped the candy. What a bittersweet mixture of pride and disappointment.
DON’T slash the tires. You might possibly mess up at some point – whether that be eating an entire bag of peanut butter snickers (not me), or slowly grazing an entire box of pumpkin-spice-scone-muffin-cheesecakes. Sometimes when people are feeling bad about having “messed up” we can tell ourselves “the only logical thing to do now is a complete self-sabotage…
After-all, what’s the point of doing anything positive after having made 1 or 2 mistakes?” As someone who has wasted years of his life doing this, I can tell you that, most likely, I “slashed my tires” because self-indulgence was my favorite dish at the pity parties I used to throw. After my children started inviting me to their pity parties I realized how immature I really was.
DON’T skip the gym. I don’t think you can long be in your right mind without intense exercise. If you never workout, then you don’t know any better; but, if you do, then you know what I mean. It’s true that burning calories and building muscle + bone are important, and so is mental clarity. When you workout you are literally working out the problems in your life. Skipping workouts means letting your head get messy, and that makes acting like an adult unlikely.
DON’T waste your budget. The more you exercise and move the more you can eat, but there are still limits. Be picky about what is “calorie worthy.” Our wants will always be bigger than our means. Everyone craves whatever is tempting and nearby, but nobody can afford all of it. Pick your winners, and have some patience.
DON’T forget to save up. Besides increasing how much you exercise and your daily step count, you can eat less or skip meals altogether to make room for holiday indulgences. 25 years ago, this was common sense based on the 1st law of thermodynamics. These days the scientific method and rational thought are getting edged out in favor of word salads. (Salads are often the highest calorie item on a menu.)
If skipping meals or eating less caused weight gain then Cubans wouldn’t have lost 20 pounds (on average) when Castro took power, nor would North Koreans weigh 20 pounds (on average) less than South Koreans, nor would Venezuelans have lost 24 pounds (on average) under Chavez… the only potential upside of communism is that the abject poverty it creates prevents obesity, but at the cost of mass starvation.
Skipping meals and metabolism: for the record, your BMR goes up about 8% for the first 3 days of a complete fast. Your BMR is your basal metabolic rate, which is the rate at which you burn calories at rest. This is not advocating 3 days of a water fast, but rather to show you the claim that skipping one meal slows your metabolism is just fiction.
Bottom Line
The Holidays, including a fun one like Halloween, are like any other days – you need to exercise, move, and be mindful of what you eat. Different seasons bring different challenges to these areas, but we still need the same things.