Treat Yourself to a Less Stressful Halloween

We all know Halloween is October 31st, and when it lands on a weekday there can be some added stress if you have have trick-or-treaters at home.  Between school and work, the day can feel shortened.  Here are some tips to help treat yourself to a less stressful holiday with your family:

Plan Ahead:

Allow yourself some time in advance to plan and shop for a healthy meal before your festivities.  Having a balanced meal that includes protein, veggies and some carbs is more filling and can reduce the urge to splurge.  Slow cooker meals, like this turkey chili, vegetarian chili or honey garlic chicken over rice with veggies, can be hearty options to eat prior to heading out for trick-or-treating.  Having a veggie tray, either homemade or store bought, is a great addition to a Halloween spread and encourages healthy snacking.  

Limit sugary options:

If you keep sweet treats out for snacking on this spooktacular night, reduce the sugary options.  Research shows that when options increase so does intake.  So put candy out in a small bowl and limit the options.

Pick your battles:

If you plan to have some sugary treats, pick and choose your favorite.  Don’t eat the gummy candy if you don’t like it, but are just eating it because it’s there.  But if you LOVE a chocolate covered caramel cookie then eat it, enjoy it, and move on!  This positive behavior helps model a balanced eating approach for your kids too.

Focus on Fall flavors rather than just sweet treats to make Halloween festive:

Try these for inspiration:

• Slow Cooker Honey Chicken
• 1-Pot Red Lentil Chili
• Recipes for different flavors of pumpkin seeds 
• Pumpkin energy bites
• Autumn Ingredient Salad
• Pumpkin overnight oats 
• 1-Pot Pumpkin Turkey Chili