Will Halloween be a Trick or a Treat for you and your fitness goals?

Halloween marks the beginning of the three biggest holidays of the year this time of season.

Upcoming holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are filled with fun, family and food.

The really scary part is how much food is consumed over the next two months!
“Fun” sized Halloween trick or treat sweets which are perfect for calorie control…unless you eat too many. And raise your hand if you can stop at just one or two trick or treat sweets?? Most Halloween treats are more like tricks for your waistline.

How many calories are you really eating?

A wide variety of different candies make up the Halloween Trick or Treat bags.

Chocolate candies can average 100 calories a pop. Yes that tiny little unassuming morsel may do you in if you eat a handful of them.

Six unassuming little chocolates can add up to 600 calories in a matter of seconds.

If you are not paying close attention to how many goodies you are eating those calories can really add up.

Better Alternative Trick or Treat Sweets

Better alternatives are Twizzlers or small peppermint patties. They have half the calories as their “fun friends”.

Here are some other “better bad” choices:

Musketeers Bar – fun size 1 piece –> 70 calories, 2 grams of fat & 11 grams of sugar
Candy Corn – 11 pieces–> 70 calories, 0 grams of fat & 14 grams sugar
Caramels – 2 small pieces–> 80 calories, 2.25 grams of fat & 8 grams sugar
Taffy- 1 piece–> 55 calories, 0.5 grams of fat & 12 grams of sugar

Other Fall Choices Which May Hinder Your Fitness Goals

Take advantage of this time of year’s bounty.

Pumpkins are a great choice with high vitamin A and fiber but add that to sugar, butter and pie shell and you are gonna feel like you look like a pumpkin!

Don’t be misled! Those pumpkin muffins and pumpkin breads that are in the local coffee shops are high calorie foods and are far from healthy.

Read your nutritional labels to find out what the real scoop is on what you are putting into your body.

Here’s a run down on some common Trick or Treat Sweets:

Dunkin’ Donuts Pumpkin Donut is 300 calories, 16 grams of fat and 18 grams of sugar.
Starbucks Pumpkin Scone is a whopping 480 calories, 17 grams of fat and 43 grams of sugar.
For those coffee lovers, a Starbuck medium pumpkin spice latte with whole milk is 410 calories.

If you really feel the need to indulge order the smallest version of your coffee or split your donut with someone or save it for later.

Some Healthier Options:

Healthy Treats would include apples…plain apples. Those caramel apples are seemingly “healthy” but that caramel on top adds an extra 300 calories to this treat….Or pre-portion your caramel and dip/smear caramel on top of your apple slice. container.

Personally, I love cooked apples with some cinnamon and pecans with a squirt of whipped cream on top.

So does that mean you can’t enjoy any Halloween treats this year?

Absolutely not!

Everything in moderation. Plan ahead. Think about all the treats you have to choose from. Decide how many calories you want to blow on treats. Then pick the one treat that you absolutely must have this Halloween year.

Eat it. Enjoy it. Then walk away from the rest.

Have a Happy “Healthy” Halloween!

Trick or Treat Sweets