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Many offices and businesses put out candy for their staff and customers the week leading up to Halloween. Studies have shown that if candy is easily accessible and within your reach you will consume 20% more than if you have to get up and walk to it. Remember, the average American gains five pounds from Halloween through New Years.
Most store-bought candy is loaded with saturated fat and processed sugar, both of which as you know are horrible for your health. The fat clogs your arteries and the sugar sends you on an immediate roller-coaster of ups and then crashes you down once your blood sugar levels drop, only leading you to more of a desire to grab your next piece of candy to help get you back up again. It has been said that getting ‘off’ sugar is almost as hard as kicking heroin because it is so addicting!
So unless you are looking to gain a few pounds and tax your heart with a full day’s worth of fat, move the bowl of the sweet stuff to someone else’s desk. Better yet, ask everyone in your office if they really want it there. Usually it is put out because “it is always out for Halloween”, but in reality most people are trying to watch their sugar and fat intake and even though it tastes good, they actually would welcome not having to resist the urge all day long! (If businesses want to give out something to clients, options can be a simple ghost or bat sticker to pencils and pens decorated in an appropriate theme.
At home, if you have children, you’ll be inundated not only with all the loot your kids bring back but also you may have purchased more than you needed to give out to the kids who knocked on your door. What do you do with it all? If possible, the easiest of course is to get rid of it so you’re not tempted to eat it! If the bagged candy has not been opened, most stores will let you return what you didn’t use. If your ghosts and goblins won’t let you throw away their hordes, put most of it in the freezer and only eat ‘as needed’! (When I was a child, my Mother would freeze our Halloween candy and when we asked for it we would get one piece a day as our dessert. On some years there would be so much candy collected, that it would actually last through the year until the next Halloween!)
Also, now there are some schools and organizations that are sending donated candy over to the soldiers. So this is another way you can save your health and make other people happy.
My last tip for not letting candy get the best of you,
is to remember this simple rule:
Just because you bite into a piece of candy, thinking it will be really good and you find it is not as fabulous as you anticipated - spit it out!
There is no rule or law that says " because you started it, you have to finish it!"
(...And don't tell me about the poor kids in Cambodia who have no candy so you don't want to waste it)
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Irene Diamond directs Diamond Massage & Wellness Center in San Francisco, a center that offers services ranging from weight management to massage therapy to ergonomic assessments and postural re-training.
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