Last week I got an email from a fitness organization that I follow titled “5 Tips For Surviving the Terror of Halloween Candy”.

Really now? The TERROR of Halloween candy?

I can think of plenty of things that are terrifying this time of year. Like actual ghosts. (I totally believe in them) Or creepy clowns. Sugar, on the other hand, is not something to freak out over. Unless it’s coming from a stranger in a rusty van. And when it comes to fear mongering around candy, I really wish it would stop. Because it has the potential to cause more psychological damage (to ourselves AND to our loved ones) than we realize. In fact, it took me decades to realize that this was happening to me. If you want to cut the the chase, feel free to scroll down a few paragraphs (past the pile of candy corn) for some actionable steps. Otherwise, I’ll tell you a story about a young girl who had a rough relationship with Reese’s grew up and conquered her fear of keeping Halloween candy in the house.

My story:

I can remember the first time I felt guilty for eating a bunch of Halloween candy. It was Halloween night, and I was in middle school. I had eaten a TON of candy that night and immediately felt really, really bad about it. I knew how to read nutrition labels, thought I can’t remember if I learned this in health class at school or from Teen magazine. Even though there was no Google or Instagram, I somehow also knew how many calories I “should” be eating per day, and that the candy I had consumed pushed me “over the limit”. 13 year old me was sure she was the only person who felt out of control around candy. And 34 year old me knows that this feeling is all too real for people of all ages.

THIS IS NOT OK.

There are a lot of messages in society that can cause a person to have a difficult relationship with food. It doesn’t even necessarily take an extreme amount of food or fat shaming for a person to develop a rough relationship with candy. Another important thing to keep in mind: eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors occur for people of ALL sizes (and genders and races, etc.) Those who don’t “look the part” often fly under the radar, are praised for their discipline, or worse: are prescribed even more extreme diets because they happen to be in a larger body. In any case, restrictive eating, obsessive tracking, an extreme fear of gaining weight (aka internalized fatphobia), compulsive exercise, and obsession with “clean eating” (aka being terrified of candy) are all ways that this can manifest.

We need to think before we subscribe to and spread messages like this.

Diet culture tells us that sugar is addictive, and we need to eliminate it altogether if we want to be morally upstanding citizens. I, for one, am SO over that idea. I tried it for almost 30 years and I don’t think I was any healthier for it. If I was thinner, I for sure wasn’t happier. In order to find freedom from my own inner demons, I had to face my fear and just eat the damn candy.

So now, I’m team candy.

This Halloween you are going to be getting lots of messages about the terror of candy–some obvious, and some a little more subtle. Well intentioned people (like the personal trainer who wrote that other article) are going to try to tell you that candy is something to be feared. A few years ago, I could have easily written an article like that too. Unfortunately, for many of us, those messages can often cause more harm than good. I know this now, and want you to know it too. You don’t have to be afraid of Halloween candy. It’s ok to want it, have it, and move on with your life after you do.

When diet culture tries to police your candy intake, try one of these suggestions instead:

Diet culture says:

Don’t purchase your Halloween Candy til the last minute, in order to reduce temptation. 

TRY THIS INSTEAD: 

Give yourself unconditional permission to eat candy at any time of the year if you want it. Think about it: any time you’ve ever binged on a food, you probably told yourself you’d never eat it again. That your “diet starts tomorrow”. But if you know you can eat fun-sized Milky Ways again tomorrow, you might not feel the need to polish off the whole bag tonight.

Diet culture says:

Pick a candy you don’t like to give out to trick or treaters, so you don’t want to eat it. 

TRY THIS INSTEAD: 

If you are craving candy, have some of your favorite kind, and really savor it. When you take the time to really enjoy it, you might even discover that the sweet stuff you once put on a pedestal isn’t actually so tasty after all. For example, I used to go crazy on candy corn. Now that I’m allowed to eat my favorite candy (chocolate) whenever I want it, I’ve realized that I actually don’t really like candy corn very much after all.

Diet culture says:

Find a healthy substitute. Eat a piece of fruit or re-create your own sweet-treat from natural ingredients. 

TRY THIS INSTEAD: 

 Just eat the thing you really want in the moment. Otherwise you might find that you’ve plowed your way through a pound of medjool dates and find you’re still not satisfied.  (Not that I’ve ever done that or anything) 😉 I love apples, but they are not the same kind of delicious as candy. We don’t have to pretend they are.

Diet culture says:

Hide the candy from yourself or do something active to distract yourself from the temptation. 

TRY THIS INSTEAD: 

Remind yourself that you are a smart person, and that you only have a limited amount of will-power. You might be able to white knuckle your way through temptation for a little while, but eventually you’ll remember where you hid the candy. A cup of herbal tea and a brisk walk around the block is not going to give you what you are craving unless that’s actually what you want. Take a deep breath. What does your body really need? If it’s candy, cool. Enjoy some and move on.

Diet culture says:

Get the candy out of the house. There are plenty of other people who would appreciate the donation of candy. Give it away before you’re tempted to eat it.

TRY THIS INSTEAD: 

If you want to donate to charity, that’s awesome. There ARE plenty of people who would appreciate a donation of any kind of food, including candy. But candy karma won’t get rid of your cravings.  Remember when we were kids? We all had that friend whose Halloween candy lasted until May. She was the same friend whose house we went to when we wanted to pig out on junk food. To her it was no big deal–because candy was just candy. Eat the candy.

Diet culture says:

Figure out how much exercise it would take to burn off the candy and then decide if it’s worth it.

Try THIS INSTEAD: 

If you care enough to calculate the answer to this equation you are probably already getting enough movement into your day. If you’re considering doing math or burpees to “earn” the candy, you probably want it really bad. Just eat the candy.

CANDY IS JUST CANDY.

It’s not the devil. You won’t earn an actual halo for eating some reduced calorie, high protein ice cream instead. There are lots of messages out there telling you that this is the case, but you don’t have to buy into it. I used to be the biggest believer/spreader of these sorts of messages AND the biggest self-proclaimed “sugar addict”/abstainer. If I can overcome the “terror” of Twix, anyone can. I never thought I’d be the type of person who had could have candy last in my house for more than a few days, but here I am. The proud owner of a 6 month old bag of stale forgotten Sour Patch Kids and melted Reese’s. The moral of the story: Eat some candy this Halloween if you want to. Move on with your life. Give others in your life permission to do the same, unconditionally.

Side note: I am speaking from my own experience, but I am not a Registered Dietician, nor do I play one on the internet.

This post is meant for entertainment and encouragement, but if you really want solid nutrition advice, please seek a qualified nutrition professional. If you want to dive deeper into the topics I discuss here: A Certified Intutive Eating Counselor or a Health At Every Size Dietician  can help you take that next step.

Check out the books Intuitive Eating and Health At Every Size . These books and concepts were big game changers for me.  Also, remember that unlearning years of diet culture messages takes time and patience. It won’t happen overnight, but it’s certainly a journey worth starting. 🙂 You can start by eating some candy this Halloween. Then comment below and let me know what your favorite kind is!

Wanna get better at push-ups? Whether you’re trying to get your first one without using your knees, training to beat the entire patriarchy in a push-up contest, or just create better memories around push-ups than 5th grade gym class gave you, this program will help get you there.