4 Tricks To Stop Binging On Halloween Candy This Year

I loved everything about Halloween growing up. I loved dressing up. I loved going out with my family and friends. I loved watching movies and eating candy with them afterward. There is an amazing picture of me after my first Halloween asleep in bed with my plastic pumpkin full of candy next to me because I didn't want my brothers to steal it.

Have you ever noticed that this joyful experience as children changes as we age? Suddenly, candy is labeled as "bad" and something we should never eat by diet culture standards. So when a holiday like Halloween comes and there is candy all around, inner rebels arise where this food that has been identified as something you shouldn't have is the only thing you want.

By labeling candy as bad, wrong, or even unhealthy, you may find yourself binging or overeating on candy just from the felt sense of restriction in your body. Let's add 4 tricks to your Halloween treat bag this year to navigate your relationship with candy in a new way.

1. Have candy at every meal.

That's right. I'm telling you to eat a piece of candy at every meal, especially around Halloween. Telling yourself that you can't eat candy or can only eat candy at certain times of the day or specific times of the year only makes this food more alluring and puts the power in the food and less in you. Eating a piece of candy at every meal normalizes this food, makes it less interesting and gives you an opportunity to actually notice how different pieces of candy feel in your body so you can assess, based on bodily feedback, whether a piece of candy is something that would be supportive from the information you received from your body on how it makes you feel.

2. Somatically eat your candy.

When you eat a piece of candy, how do you eat it? Do you feel disembodied? Like you're in automatic pilot mode? If you're looking to receive perhaps a sense of pleasure from eating a piece of candy, which is completely fine to want that, you need to be IN your body to receive what you're emotionally looking for. When you eat your piece of candy, slow down with it. Close your eyes. Describe the taste and the texture to yourself. Notice how your body responds to it. When you allow yourself to have the pleasure and sweetness you're desiring you won't need more and more candy to give yourself these things. It's like when you feel the urge to sneeze and then do it. It feels complete. You don't need to keep sneezing. Once you receive the pleasure from candy that you're wanting, it can feel like a complete bodily experience where eating more would actually feel less pleasurable.

3. Get curious about your emotional hungers.

While you normalize eating candy and moving on with your life, you can also get curious about what has been connected to candy and what emotional hunger you're looking to satiate by eating candy. There are many many reasons we can crave a particular food. One reason can be what we have emotionally connected to that food. If you have mentally paired candy with relaxation and you're wanting to feel calm and relaxed, then the mind will suggest eating some candy to cultivate the emotions and sensations you're looking to feel.

Additionally, if you have happy, joyful, connecting experiences with candy, your mind and body remembers this. In moments that you're not feeling embodied and safe, an impulse to eat candy may arise based on your previous experiences with it and try to reproduce that experience in your body in the present moment. Sometimes this may work and sometimes it won't.

This is where you get to bring in curiosity to discover for yourself what are you emotionally trying to satiate by eating candy. You still can absolutely eat the candy. That is always always an option. And, you may discover that what you're emotionally looking for from candy can never fully be satiated. Having this awareness can be powerful so that you can begin to explore other ways to satisfy the emotional hungers you have in non-food ways.

4. Eat with compassion.

No matter what happens with candy before, during, or after Halloween, one of the most important things to bring to the table is compassion and understanding. You will never ever be doing anything wrong or bad in your relationship with candy. Each time you eat candy, it will teach you something about you. Entering into a candy eating experience with compassion and curiosity can alter the entire experience so that you feel relaxed, calm, safe, and connected. By eating candy in this way, you get to stay embodied so that you can eat the candy, notice your bodily reactions, learn from that experience, and move on with your day. This puts the power back in you and less in your food.

My Intro to Somatic Eating™ mini course is going back on sale for 50% off until Halloween. If you would like more tools in your eating toolbox, this mini course will offer you three new Somatic Eating™ tools to support you with the embodiment needed to hear and interpret your body's messages to never rely on an external diet or expert ever again. You can find the link to the Intro to Somatic Eating™ mini course in the show notes and if you have any questions, email me at support@stephaniemara.com anytime.

Keep being gentle with yourself on your food and body journey and as always I'm here for you every step of the way!