The Halloween Conundrum – the temptation of candy

Candy is a everywhere -the temptation of candy can even be found when get your car washed. The temptation of candy can highjack our wellness goals in a heartbeat – we get it. It’s hard to make the choice EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU LEAVE YOUR HOME. Some of our clients have it super hard – they are teachers, administrators, nurses and health care workers and for some odd reason, candy is always available – for a quick fix.  In this episode of Navigating Nourishment, we talk about the three options we have during the Halloween season – which seems to be stretching into our sacred summer season.

We are very interested in your feedback on this podcast – we talk about cute costumes, the pressure of being the cool house with the best candy, and hiding from it all.  We all have a choice. What will yours be this candy season?

Post Recording: We continued the conversation about things we gave out for Halloween in the past that were flops; the latest elaborate costumes; how Halloween’s commercialization is kinda sick; and how perfectionism steals the joy from events.  We also found this link and this link for tattoos for kids that are ink-safe.

 

TRANSCRIPT

edited for readability

Wendy 00:02

So we have a conundrum we wanted to share with everybody.

 

Debbie 00:07

It’s a Halloween conundrum. Today we’re sharing the stories of torture, really, for us as health coaches during Halloween. 

 

Wendy: 

There’s so much candy everywhere, even at the car wash center. 

 

Debbie:

It’s already starting in mid September. I’ve started to see Halloween decorations out and candy in the stores that don’t normally have candy(at least, didn’t used to normally have candy). Here’s the torture. I had a reminder on my phone to buy Halloween candy because last year we were too late and we didn’t have a good selection. So I said, next year I’m going to get a jump on it. And I went to go online to buy some and I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t do it! 

 

Wendy: 

And every year for the last 17 years, Debbie and I have talked about this torture that we have with actually spending money on candy to give to children.

 

Debbie: 

Because the candy that you give to children at Halloween is filled with ingredients that we are always talking to our clients about avoiding. 

These ingredients are not nourishing. 

Wendy: 

It’s artificial sugars, artificial colors, artificial flavorings piled with trans fats. 

 

Debbie: 

Right – hydrogenated oils and, yes, all kinds of stuff that we’re constantly saying to our clients, please try to avoid this.

 

Wendy: 

It’s a volume thing at Halloween. Kids indulge in too much sugar, and behavior is poor. And so I think of the poor parents putting up with stomach aches and headaches and withdrawals from sugar, and the poor teachers the next day too …

 

Debbie: 

And the parents that end up eating their kids Halloween candy. Our clients come in and say, I ate all my kids’ Halloween candy, or I can’t keep it away. If it’s in the house, I’m gonna eat it. 

 

It’s never a helpful situation to have candy in the house when you feel vulnerable. 

 

Wendy: 

No, it’s not.

 

Debbie: 

Well, what are our choices? 

Temptation of Candy Choice #1

Wendy: 

We have three choices. We could skip Halloween and close the windows, close the doors and pretend we’re not home OR leave the house – which I’ve done several times. My husband and I will just leave and not participate, but then we’re kind of cheating out of the community event and seeing all these really happy kids in costumes. 

 

Debbie: 

And it’s adorable! 

 

Wendy: 

So we miss out when we do that, and we don’t want to be the grump house, right? 

Temptation of Candy Choice #2

Debbie: 

Exactly. You don’t want to be that house that kids say – oh, don’t go there. They’re never home. But okay, so that’s our first choice. The second choice to get away from the candy is to buy something more nourishing or something that’s maybe not edible, maybe it’s a toy or something. But then there’s the problem with all that plastic, or if you do buy the more nourishing treat which can be more money, and people who aren’t familiar with those things might not recognize it and they might throw it away or not appreciate it. 

 

Wendy: 

No one likes to throw away money. It can be expensive. So that’s not always the best choice, either. 

 

Debbie: 

No, I’ve heard kids say, “what’s that?” 

Temptation of Candy Choice #3

Wendy 04:01

Uh-oh! And then the last option is to, once a year, just participate and buy the best, not so great choices, and just let go – not be so tight about the standards of food. 

 

Debbie: 

I know my husband always wants to buy the full size candy bars too. It’s not even just the minis. It’s full-size because he wants to be That House!

 

And it’s so hard for me to put out the bowl and say, here is a bunch of stuff I would tell my clients never to have in their house.

 

Wendy 04:47

So it’s a conundrum, and we just wanted to share these three choices.

 

Debbie:

What’s your choice? 

 

Wendy: 

What’s your feedback? What’s your choice? Do you let go of your values for one day and just try and enjoy it? 

 

Debbie 05:00

Right – It’s okay. It’s temporary. It’s fine. Or do you keep your values and sacrifice money and maybe some pride that goes along with that, or miss out on the community? Those are the three choices. 

 

Wendy: 

I don’t know which one I’m gonna choose. 

 

Debbie: 

I don’t either. And this is part of the torture – Every year I come to this time of year and I’m like, Oh, I’ve got to make a choice again! So we’ll see. 

 

Wendy:

If you listeners or readers have any comments or any fun stories you want to share with us, please do.

We’d love to hear them. 

 

And I’ve got one more thing to say. I would love it if we could actually bake something or could make something and put it in a cute little package. But if I’m a parent, I’m not gonna trust something homemade!

 

Debbie: 

Exactly. If I’m a parent, I’m gonna say you can’t have that. So that’s a fourth choice we can’t even really do. But you’re right. It would be nice if we could do that. We had that as kids. I know I did. Well, thanks for listening to our torturous conversation about Halloween. We’d love for you to share the podcast with others so we can grow and get more messages out about nourishment and how you can live a better life.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *