Halloween = candy. Or does it? Halloween is very much associated with lots of treats – treats around the house, kids trick-or-treating, and eating treats yourself. You can do some of this and still have a healthy Halloween. But I’m going to give you some tips on how to have an even healthier Halloween.
Healthier Halloween Treat Ideas
Make some healthier Halloween treats for you or your kids.
Here are a few ideas:
- Melt a healthy dark chocolate (high percentage of dark chocolate or make your own healthy dark chocolate by mixing a 100% cacao bar and honey) and dip apples into it.
- Pop popcorn kernels and add butter and salt (sparingly). Ideally, use a soy butter such as Earth Balance and Celtic sea salt. If you have a popcorn maker, use that. If you don’t, put the kernels in a paper lunch bag with the top folded over, and pop in your microwave. You can have this on its own or with something else. For a fun activity, make a healthy version of popcorn balls, such as Bite-Size Honey Popcorn Balls or Sticky Sweet Popcorn Balls. As wonderful as homemade treats are, though, I wouldn’t give these to trick-or-treaters (since you don’t want to give homemade treats because of others’ safety concerns).
- Try a Pumpkin Protein Smoothie.
- Experiment with a no-bones-about-it vegetable skeleton or one of the other Healthy Halloween Treats.
Ways to Be Healthier On Halloween
If you are supervising trick-or-treaters such as your own kids or a group of kids trick-or-treating, enjoy the exercise you will get walking from house to house or shop to shop.
If you are in charge of choosing the trick-or-treating route, choose a route that is safe but will give you lots of exercise, such as hilly areas. If you’re trick-or-treating at the mall, switch between upstairs and downstairs often and take the stairs when doing so.
If you are spending your Halloween at home, which means you will have trick-or-treaters coming to your house, try to do exercises or YouTube videos in between trick-or-treaters. If you don’t have a break, alternate between standing and sitting for 15-minute periods. You could walk or jog in place while waiting for the next trick-or-treater. Also, you could keep a jump rope in your entrance hallway and jump rope while you wait for the doorbell to ring.
If you are working in an office building this Halloween, try to walk the stairs during your breaks. If you have enough time, walk outside. You are most likely going to be tempted with candy in the office, so plan to earn each piece of candy through a certain amount of exercise. Or even better, resist the temptation completely and make yourself a healthier dessert at home in the evening.
How to Get Healthier After Halloween
Once Halloween is over, try to be creative with ways to get candy out of the house. A great way to get your kids involved in keeping a very limited amount of candy is to do what my mom did with my brother and me and let your kids choose a certain number of favorite candies while you buy back the rest. Your kids can use that money to buy a toy or something else they want or save it up. Give the extra candy to people who want it. My mom has a link to a character-developing activity for sharing surplus Halloween stash at Bits of Positivity.
Of course, make sure to get back into your workout routine! Try to fit in a workout the day after Halloween to get right into exercising again. For a fun workout, try one of my dance workouts!
Happy Healthy Halloween
Have fun with your Halloween activities! Try not to go too overboard with the sweets, but enjoy them when you have them. Try to do a certain amount of exercise to help yourself feel good and make up for any candy and extra treats you do have.
You really can have a healthy Halloween!
Have a happy, healthy Halloween! 🙂
Have fun!
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Photo Credit (Top Photo): arinahabich
informative article stay blessed
Thank you for sharing with us at #MMBH! Pinning your post to our board. 🙂
XO
Hi Christina, loved this article about having a healthy Halloween, luckily I’ve to say that mine was a healthy one this year, pretty much different to last year’s haha. Thanks for sharing!