How to Avoid Eating All the Halloween Candy: 3 Tricks

No one can deny the desire to eat those tasty treats that remind us of our childhood trick-or-treating days. So, how can you stop yourself from eating ALL the Halloween candy? Candy that you either bought for trick-or-treaters or if you have kids, the candy they collected in their pillowcases?

Just because you aren’t 10 years old anymore, doesn’t mean you can’t indulge like a 10-year-old sometimes. I mean this.

I’m going to share how to avoid eating all the Halloween candy with 3 tricks and even a fun game. You’ll also discover what should do if you “mess up” and eat all the Halloween candy. (It’s not what you’re expecting.)

The best thing is none of these 3 tricks rely on restraint or fighting an urge. Restraint and fighting urges aren’t very effective nor are they productive. They end up causing negative feelings and not much (if any) reward.

• For more on urges, read this: How to Conquer Your Eating and Drinking Urges
• GET WEEKLY TIPS: Eating Habit and Weight Loss Tips

#1 Avoid Eating All the Halloween Candy by Buying a Bag for Yourself

A simple (and fun!) solution is to buy a bag of treats for yourself when you buy the bags of candy for the trick-or-treaters.

That way, you don’t have to fight the urge to resist having any candy. You instead allow yourself to have a treat too, keeping in mind that the candy for the kids is off limits.

Besides, isn’t it more fun to pick out exactly what you want to treat yourself to, rather than just limit yourself to the what the kiddos got from neighbors?

There’s really no reason why you shouldn’t be able to partake in the festivities of snacking on yummy Reese’s peanut butter cups or Sour Patch Kids too.

However, buying your own bag ahead of time, makes it less likely you’ll feel any guilt for snatching the kids’ treats. It also eliminates having to head out to the store again because you’ve already eaten the treats you bought for the trick-or-treaters.

That is another reason why I recommend buying your own bag, along with the candy you buy for the trick-or-treaters. It should save you time in the long run. So valuable.

#2 Avoid Eating All the Halloween Candy by Planning Your Treats Ahead of Time

I then recommend that you decide ahead of time, how many pieces you will have each day or on certain days leading up to Halloween. However, be sure to keep some for after Halloween too! You don’t want to be tempted to dig into your kids’ candy for that instant gratification.

This means that you are being very intentional and using your “higher brain” (your pre-frontal cortex) to decide ahead of time, what you will treat yourself to.

When you use your pre-frontal cortex, you are using the part of your brain that has your best interests in mind. It is less likely to “over-indulge” in an unhealthy way.

• Related: 5 Clever Ways to End Overeating

You’ll look forward to your treat. When you look forward to it, you savor it more. You enjoy every bite of it, rather than mindlessly eating more.

It does take a little practice to not want to just sneak one more fun-sized Twix (my personal favorite) and stick with your planned amount. However, the more frequently you practice this, the more likely it will become a habit to stick with the plan.

When you just eat candy randomly and do this often, that behavior is what becomes habit. The downside to this is that it is easy to lose track of how much candy you’re eating if it’s random.

It’s also more likely for you to overindulge and eat more sugar and calories than you really wanted to be eating. As a result, your health goals will take longer to reach.

• Related: Sugar Addiction and How to Stop the Cycle
• Related: 9 Sneaky Sources of Calories Preventing Weight Loss

#3 Avoid Eating All the Halloween Candy by Having Someone Hide It

When you, your partner, or your roommate buy the Halloween candy for the kids, have your partner or your roommate hide it. If it’s not easily visible, you won’t be triggered to eat it as much as you would if you saw it every day.

Why this works is every behavior needs an activator, which is a cue or trigger, for the behavior to occur. Oftentimes, this is a visual cue. Seeing the candy for the week or two before Halloween, will tempt you to eat it.

If you live alone, you can put the candy out of sight. Even though you know where it is, you aren’t seeing it every day. It’ll be less tempting to dig in.

If you’re someone who likes games, having someone hide candy may tempt you to try to find it. If so, then you can plan for this to be a game if you want to!

Make a Game of it

If you do want to turn this into a fun game, then have your partner, roommate, or kid hide a piece of candy from your candy bag. This can be done however often you had already planned to treat yourself.

Then you can have the fun of finding the candy, but it’s already part of the plan that it’s yours to eat.

I like this because you are combining all 3 tricks and making it enjoyable. You’re also still using that higher part of the brain, the pre-frontal cortex. The part that has your well-being as its priority.

So, an example would be if you bought a bag of fun-sized Snickers bars for yourself and planned to have one every other day. You could have your partner hide one every other day for you to find (and eat of course!)

You can have fun, indulge a bit, and still avoid eating all the Halloween candy. It’s a win-win!

What To Do if You DO Eat All the Halloween Candy

You may start out with one, two, or all three of the above tricks, but it doesn’t quite go as planned.

You can feel frustrated or disappointed in yourself, or you can do this instead.

If you end up “giving in” to that urge to eat some of the kids’ candy (or eat your entire bag all at once), you will want to be compassionate toward yourself. Instead of feeling shame, guilt or anger, be curious.

Why did you eat more candy than intended?

Question what feeling or thought led you to eat more candy than planned. Were you having a tough day and thought that extra chocolate would make you feel better?

• Related: Are You Eating Because You’re Hungry?
• GET WEEKLY TIPS: Eating Habit and Weight Loss Tips

If you’re curious, you’ll find the answer. This can allow you to be kind to yourself.

If you’re kind, you most likely will avoid the negative emotions of shame and guilt, which can result in a vicious cycle of eating more candy.

That’s what you don’t want. You want to allow yourself treats, like you deserve, but have control over it. You want to be the one to decide, not act on habit or negative feelings.

Final Notes

You may be perfect at using one or multiple of these tricks to avoid eating all the Halloween candy. Or you may “mess up,” and eat way more than planned.

In either case, it’s important to know that you have the power to take control of your eating habits. It may be easy for certain foods and difficult for others. You may find it to be easier in some situations and way more challenging in others.

Whatever the case, keep practicing. I know you’ll get there.