Hallowe'en treats

I came across this info and thought some of you might find it interesting seeing as how all these treats are so temptingly displayed all over stores etc.. and if you are tempted after the actual Halloween to dip into your children's goodie bags for "just one treat" hehehe

I don’t mean to ruin everyone’s Halloween fun. It’s a great Halloween. And we all deserve a little treat now and then. And I’m not saying, “Don’t you dare stick that Snicker’s bar in your mouth!” I’m saying everything in moderation. Just for fun, let’s do a little math. Let’s say after your child comes back from trick-or-treating you raid his or her bag and gobble up four fun size snicker’s bars and a Reese’s Cup. Come on…you know it’s a realistic number. That’s a total of 400 extra calories in one night. Then, let’s say for the next four days you basically munch on the same amount throughout the day (darn those co-workers for bringing in their leftover candy)! Your excess calories for five days now amount to 2000. This is fun, isn’t it? Okay, a 135 lb person walking at a leisurely (think walking the dog) pace for one hour burns approximately 215 calories. So to cancel out the five days of candy munching, you will need to walk an extra 9.3 hours that week!

http://walking.about.com/library/cal/blhalloweencalories.htm

Those little Halloween candies looking at you from the bowl, little, bright colored and just jumping up with the sweet chocolate that you know that you love so much are very very evil. You know you want one, you yearn for one or two but as you try you just can not say no….or can you?

Halloween candy is some of the worst stuff that you can eat. It is small so you do not worry too much about the calories (even if you eat 20), it is high in saturated fat, and there is so much around at this time of year that it is hard to avoid. In fact it would be hard to find an office building anywhere in america that does not have a few bowls of Halloween candy lieing around on November 1st.

Here are the calories for some Halloween candies:

Nestle’s Crunch - Fun Size 3 bars=210 calories
Peanut M&M’s - Fun Pack 2 bags=80 calories
M&M’s - Fun Pack 2 bags=180 calories
Snicker’s - Fun Size 2 bars=160 calories
Milky Way - Fun Size 2 bars=150 calories
Kit Kat - Fun Size 2 bars=100 calories
Hershey Chocolate Bar - Fun Size 1 bar=90 calories/ 5grams of fat
Reese’s Cup - 1 cup=80 calories
Butterfinger - Fun Size 1 bar= 100 calories
Twix - Fun Size 1 bar= 80 calories
York Peppermint Pattie - 1 pattie=70 calories
Twizzlers - 1 treat size pkg= 45 calories
Almond Joy - 1 snack size bar = 90 calories
Milk Duds - 1 treat size box = 40 calories
Butterfinger - 1 snack size bar = 100 calories
Milky Way - 1 snack size bar = 90 calories
SweetTarts - 1 treat size pkg. = 50 calories
1 Tootsie Pop - 1 pop = 60 calories
1 Tootsie Roll - 1 small roll = 13 calories

Note: Calorie content is based on 1 serving of Halloween snack or fun size packages, not full size servings found in the candy aisle.

If you are not worried about all of these extra calories over the next week that is fine, but if you would like to avoid Halloween candy and the calories that they offer here is a few tips.

1. Change the way that you think about the little Halloween candy. Most of us will associate these candies with childhood and that carefree feeling, instead think of them as something that will raise your blood sugar and make you jumpy.

2. Eat properly so you can stay away from Halloween candy. If you keep yourself on track for eating then avoiding the Halloween candy is easier because you will not be hungry.

3. Only buy the Halloween candy that you do not like. What may be tough for someone to resist may not be too hard for you to resist.

4. Decide what you are willing to eat ahead of time. Look at the list above, there are some good decisions that you can make that will stop you from making this a weight gain holiday by eating the right Halloween candy. I am a big fan of Tootsie Rolls and those are apparently OK to eat.

5. Just stay away. there is some willpower involved in not eating the things that we are not supposed to eat. Have some willpower and you can stay away from treats, it is only a one week holiday anyway, right?