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Halloween Candy…is it the bane of your existence? I am fortunate. I live in the country and we have never, in all our ten years living here, gotten a single solitary trick-or-treater. I haven’t had to deal with candy in our home. So while I feel for those of you who have to face this challenge, I am not dealing with that particular challenge right now.
How are you managing with the candy everywhere? Do you have a boundary? If you are like most of us, it can definitely help.
Halloween often signals that time of year that we both LOVE and HATE! Tons of holiday festivities for Thanksgiving, Harvest, Christmas and maybe other winter holidays, too. We know that lots of different foods are available only once a year and now is the time they are likely to be readily accessible!
Halloween doesn’t have to herald a two month long food-fest! We can be victorious in maintaining our godly boundaries.
Here is a video that tells about 7 strategies that you can use each holiday season.
(NOTE: I can’t get the video to embed from Vimeo or YouTube, so here is a link to Vimeo.)
Thin Within – Holiday Strategies <–Click on that link for video. 🙂
(Note: Here is the same video embedded from YouTube, but it won’t work for me…does it for you?)
If you watched all the way to the end, you saw that there is an eighth strategy that might be helpful for some who want that extra nudge of support through the holidays…it’s one-on-one coaching. If you are interested in getting personalized help (from yours truly :-)) through the holidays, click on the COACHING page for details. I would love to help you make it through these next couple of months and come out the other side a CONQUEROR rather than the conquered!
How About You?
Which of these strategies might be the most helpful at the Halloween party or Harvest event that you are attending tonight? 🙂 Of course, if not that event, how about the Thanksgiving feasts, Christmas cookie exchanges, Christmas parties, or New Years bashes? What other strategies have helped you during the holidays? Are you committing to eating within your hunger/satisfied boundaries this holiday season? You can do it!
Thank you Heidi for these tips and suggestions; these are wonderful ideas. At this time of year my sister and I do a lot of baking and cooking for our families and relatives. During parties and celebrations we are so busy severing and taking care of people that often we don’t even eat ourselves. As invitees we find ourselves caught up in conversation and often don’t even have an opportunity to visit the buffet or complete the meal that is being served. The challenge comes not during the parties but after; when I am home alone with the goodies tucked away in the pantry, refrigerators and freezers. That’s when the challenge comes. In the past I would reach for the cookies, Christmas snack mixes, pies, Christmas bread continually; all day long.
I think that is called closet eating?? 🙂
However, there is one area that I have been relatively successful. Candy. Since it is abounding this time of year, I have learned to keep the candy dishes filled with the type that I am stronger at saying no to. NO ROLLOs!
Still, this year, for the first time, I have HOPE! I have seen that by speaking The WORD over and over throughout the day God has begun a major change in me. The burden will be on His WORD and not on my “will power”. And since the WORD is always victorious, I know I too will be victorious this Holiday Season!!! For that I thank you! God used you to open my eyes. I am more grateful then words can express.
My weakness is those sweat tarts. I don’t even buy them anymore. 🙂 my husband brought home some Halloween candy. Guess what? He didn’t buy any sweat tarts. Thank you God. He knows
my weakness. My husband had no clue. God is so good. 😉
LOL! SO true, Jamie! WOOT!
Ah, yes, the candy. Halloween is crazy now. When I was a kid, it was one night of trick or treating. Now, my children go to trunk or treat at church (this past Sat.), trick or treating tonight, and my younger child will have a party at school. That leaves a lot of tempting candy in my house. Not to mention what will be left over from what we hand out. I find this temptation, like Lisa, much stronger that at parties or work.
So, I will equip myself with the Word every day, give away our leftovers to my large bible study or take it to work, and tell myself the Truth – that I am the grocery shopper and I can drive my car to the store any day of the year and buy a snickers, butterfingers, hersheys, etc. Just because it’s in my house doesn’t mean I need to eat it now. Also, I can wait til I’m hungry or save room at the end of a meal to have a piece of chocolate – it doesn’t have to be a big deal!
So I might be an odd one here, but weeks ago I bought a bag of Halloween candy…for me. It has some of my favorite candy bars in it. We don’t get trick-or-treaters at our house since we live in a cul-de-sac and there’s actually a designated place to trick-or-treat for our community. I put the candy in a big container and have it sitting in my cupboard. Because I have legalized ALL food, it’s not a temptation to me to dig into it like it’s going to leave me the next day. I know it will be in that cupboard for a long time. And when it runs out, I know I can buy more. And actually, I’m kind of tired of it being in there now. Like I’m bored with it. I eat something from the container maybe once every 3 days. It doesn’t have any authority over me. I KNOW I can eat it whenever I am hungry. There is freedom in that.
Which Christina is this? 😉
Seriously, though….WOW..has GOD DONE A WORK IN YOU!!!!! WOOT!
🙂 praise God!
I know my weakness is chocolate. So, I said no chocolate! I would eat a ton on Halloween, and bags more over the following weeks if it was in the house. Besides, kids love suckers, tootsie or blow pops, they usually choose them over chocolate.
So true, Dana. 🙂 I like to allow myself some of the foods that I enjoy, but having a bag of chocolate in the house would probably be too challenging for me at this point. In the past, I have been able to have it in moderation when it is in the house…Like Christina posted about. But lately, I seem to struggle with that! So, no bags of candy here! 🙂
Thankfully here in South Africa, we don’t have this tradition! Don’t have to worry about this one lol! Phew!!
So glad for you, Carrie. 🙂