How to Stop Feeling Out of Control Around Halloween Candy

Tips to start working on Habituation this Halloween

• Eat enough food overall. Not eating enough can make the desire for sweets more insistent, so before you start working on habituation, make sure that your body is getting what it needs.
• Include candy as a regular part of meals so it doesn't feel so scary. Normalize thinking about it as just another food. Start to notice how this changes your thoughts about these foods and your eating patterns after meals.
• Slow down and focus on what you're eating rather than gobbling it up quickly before you realize what you're doing. Because we see sweets as forbidden foods, we may find ourselves eating them in secret or eating them quickly before we realize what we're doing. The problem with this...we often eat so quickly that we don't get to enjoy what we're eating. It's time to bring the candy out into the open. Sit at the table, slow down, savour it. Start to notice if this changes the eating experience.
• Notice when you start to feel satisfied. What does satisfied feel like for you? Remember that you may reach a point of satisfaction and still continue to eat. It's ok to eat past comfortable fullness. Treat every eating opportunity as a learning opportunity.
• Notice your self-talk. If it sounds like "I can't believe I'm doing this" or "This is the last time I'm eating this," you're going to feel pressure to eat more in order to get your fill before it's taken away. Can you challenge that self-talk? It's a lot easier to stop eating when you reach that satisfaction threshold if you remind yourself that the candy will be there again tomorrow, and there's no rush to get your fill now.
• Give yourself full permission to eat again when you want to and honour your hunger without negative self-talk. This is a form of self-care. The more you listen to your hunger, the more signals your body will send you regarding not only hunger, but also fullness and satisfaction.
  
• Ignore any seasonal diet-culture noise. Having information about how much exercise it takes to burn off whatever candy you're eating is unlikely to be helpful for you. Feel free to unfollow or mute any social media accounts that are offering healthy swaps or calorie math. 

Remember that habituation will not be instant. It takes time and practice to feel more neutral around food. At first, the desire to eat candy and keep eating may be very intense. This is not a failure or a reason to go back to restricting. Stay curious and keep practicing. If you find yourself feeling very distressed and overwhelmed about candy, working with a professional is a good idea.

What about managing my kids' Halloween Candy?

As a parent, you know what's best for your kids, but I always encourage parents to recognize when their own diet culture is showing up in how they are feeding their kids. As a Dietitian and mom of 2, here are some tips for approaching Halloween candy and other sweet treats with your kids.

• Offer a regular meal before trick-or-treating. Something that they normally like and will eat is key here (this is not the time to try out a new recipe). They may be too excited to eat, but do your best without pressure.
• Let kids enjoy their candy without bargaining, bribes or “just one.” Remember when I said that every eating opportunity is an opportunity to learn. If your kiddo overeats their candy and then feels sick afterwards, that's going to be a much better learning opportunity than you telling them that they should stop eating because they "might get sick." If it helps you, we offer unlimited candy post-trick-or-treating in our house. Last year my kids were definitely feeling sick after it, and they still talk about it as a cautionary tale for themselves.
• Skip good/bad food language and comments on kids’ bodies or “how much” they’ve had. You want to teach your kids how to tune into their own bodies and their hunger and fullness cues without interference.
• Skip the “Switch Witch” or trade-in routines, since they reinforce that candy is something to get rid of. The caveat to this is if your kids really enjoy this, who am I to tell you not to? However, make sure that it's something they actually enjoy and not something they feel pressured to do.
• Treat the leftovers the same way as the habituation advice for adults: keep them visible and available, not hidden. In our house, we have candy nights 3 nights a week where my kids each pick a type of candy/sweet and eat it with their dinner. This makes the candy very predictable and a normal part of our eating routine.

The Bottom Line about Halloween Candy and Habituation

Candy is a normal part of life. Being able to manage your candy intake and not feel like the candy is controlling you is not only helpful for Halloween but also Christmas, Easter, Birthday Parties, and any other events or holidays that feature food. Feeling neutral about sweets and having the ability to listen to your hunger and fullness is an incredibly important skill to practice.