Wellness Weekly

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! here comes the TEMPTATION, the first of a series of waistline hating holidays is all but upon us. How are we supposed to stay on track with wellness and health consciousness with all this temptation? A few articles from weightwatchers.com have GREAT suggestions, a strategy for almost every type of craver!
Explore weightwatchers.com if these ideas dont suit your needs, the site is an amaizing source of stay fit and healthy strategies!


www.weightwatchers.com
Forget the haunted house; the spookiest Halloween specter is the candy. We show you how to deal.
Resist the sales"My biggest Halloween challenge is not falling for the coupon in the paper," says Linda. "A 5-pound bag of Snickers on sale is still a 5-pound bag of Snickers."
Buy late"The closer to Halloween you buy the candy, the better," says Maggie. "In fact," she says, "never, ever open the bag before the first trick-or-treater comes." That way, you'll have less total temptation time to cope with.
Buy candy you don't like Dina says she heads straight for Mounds and Almond Joy when she has to pick up the Halloween candy. "Coconut is the one thing I don't like," she says.
Make up a game plan If you decide to go for the mini Reese's that the kids will love you for, says Maggie, "Start giving out more as the night wears on, so there's less left over." If there are still remainders, get them out of the house. Give the candy away to a food charity, collect it all and offer it to the neighbors, or bring it to work (and drop it off in a different department).
Go out on a full stomach If you have to walk your kids around to trick-or-treat, make lunch your big meal of the day, so you're not walking around hungry with bags full of candy. Carry a thermos of something hot to sip on, or, as Manhattan meetings Leader Liz Josefsberg says, chew mint gum throughout the night. It’ll help kill your urge to put candy in your mouth.
Come up with a candy strategy When the candy's at home, work with your kids to decide what to do with it. Have them pick their 10 favorite pieces: If they're young, encourage them to leave the rest out for "The Great Pumpkin." And if they're too big to believe, encourage them to save the rest for lunches and parties.
Freeze! Liz suggests putting left-over favorite candy in the freezer. If you get weak and find yourself digging into them, they will be rock solid and it will take time to get through even one.
Ditch the sense of occasion Remind yourself that you can buy yourself candy any time of the year. There's no need to load up on fun-size bars on October 31 when you can enjoy them whenever your heart desires.
Keep things in perspective Eating a little bit of candy on Halloween doesn't make a person overweight — it's constant overeating that can pile on the pounds. So don't assume you can't enjoy even a single treat, especially since deprivation is a dieting tactic that often backfires.


www.weightwatchers.com
The Halloween Face-Off
Article By: Diana Kelly


Do you find chocolate bats scarier than the real deal? Do you scamper shrieking from marshmallow ghosts? We can help.
Those sugar-covered demons elicit knee-knocking fear in plenty of weight-conscious adults each year. What’s a sweets-loving Weight Watchers follower (or non-weightwatchers follower) to do about the mounds of candy everywhere they turn? Our Community users share their advice, fears and strategies for how to manage this upcoming fright fest.
“I’m keeping candy out of reach.”this user says, “No Halloween candy comes into this house before October 31.”
Be a chocolate snob. some users don't have it in their house until almost Halloween. “If I'm going to eat chocolate it's going to be really good chocolate.”
This community user tries to buy the kinds of candy the family doesn’t like. “I think we are going to a party this year, so I might not even have to buy any. Just have to save POINTS® values for the alcohol...”
this user says, “My husband bought 12 bags of Halloween candy last night, they were on sale for $1.88 a bag. I want to kill him because every one of them is something I love. I asked him to hide away the bags so I don't finish them before Halloween.”
To avoid the candy temptation, another community user buys individual wrapped fruit snacks, pencils, and pre-wrapped sugar cookies. She say’s they’re all popular in her neighborhood. “[My son’s] candy from trick-or-treating is divided, chocolate goes in the freezer; other candy is put in a container and stored high where I cannot get to it. Any candy that my family doesn’t eat before Christmas gets boxed and given to our church with mini stockings we make for the homeless.”
“The ‘fun sizes’ do me in.”this user says, “Candy corn doesn't do it to me...it’s all those minis that they put out around this time. I think, ‘Oh, I can have two or three mini Twix,’ then the next thing you know, the bag is gone and I’m scrambling for raisins to give to the kids banging on my door.”
This community user says, “I am worried about Halloween, there is so much temptation in the stores. For the past [few] Halloweens I've eaten probably about six to eight ‘fun size’ candies every day! I am hoping to stick to my ‘have-to-have candy’ back up — eight Sour Patch Kids!”

“I’m winning the battle against enticing treats.”one user says “I was at Target tonight and made it all the way up to the registers with a huge bag of bite-size candy bars. I put it back just in the nick of time, went home and had a glass of white wine and an orange. It was much better than seven mini candy bars.”

Another says she has seven kids and an enormous amount of candy in her house after the holiday. “I am totally terrified of Halloween. I love candy… Maybe I will just adopt this simple mantra from another user: ‘Halloween candy is for kids.’ We'll see how effective it is for me.”

This user shares her “me-time” strategy she's adopted over the past few years. “I don't have little kids anymore so it may not work for everyone, but I work all day, then go out to dinner at a restaurant and order a low POINTS® value meal. I take my time eating. If it's still early I go shopping. I stay out until kids are done trick-or-treating so there’s no temptation.”