Just Treats

The kick off of the holiday season is here with Halloween arriving this week.  Time to buy the trick-or-treat candy, again. I have already eaten the first bag purchased at the beginning of the month.  This is the problem with October through January, my focus shifts to food, and temptation can be found everywhere.  My willpower cannot.  If you buy Halloween candy too early, as I often do, (my fear of candy displays being transformed into Christmas ornament sales is very real if I wait) the candies fate is to be eaten in an “I’ll just have one” fashion until it is gone in two days. For this I blame the manufacturer.  At $14.99 they should really put more chocolate in a bag. I used to think the solution was to buy candy nobody liked, but this is not a viable option either. The time it takes me to clean the shaving cream off my yard alone makes this a weak alternative. So, now with a week to go I have paid out another $30.00 to provide chocolate, minus the Reese’s peanut-butter cups (let us just say I take them out to avoid giving candy that may cause allergic reactions, and not because I could eat an entire bag of them myself). Safety first to any ghosts, ninjas or princesses who arrive on my doorstep with open bags, so peanut-butter cups stay with me.

If given the opportunity some Halloween candy would linger in my house forever: snickers, butterfingers and dumdums for instance.  However, after 2 weeks, having had my fill, I take all the leftover Halloween candy to work. It is only a matter of time before pies and breads are being added to my sad bowl of left over dumdums in the break-room.  Everyone is preparing for Thanksgiving and I am lucky to work with some fantastic bakers. My waistline doesn’t feel as lucky.

The Thanksgiving feast itself really is not the problem for me.  It’s the appetizers that I can’t turn down. Actually, this holds for all holiday parties I attend. I sit over the raw veggies and dips and cheeses like I am guarding a high security vault. How many rolls are too many if you are not eating turkey anyway?

By the time December arrives the bags of Halloween candy are a distant memory even if the pounds they leave behind are not.  We have moved on to Christmas cookie exchanges, food filled holiday parties and my solitary holiday stress: eating to avoid dealing with all the buying, wrapping, and bills that are soon to arrive. It is a contest to see which I can keep lower my daily caloric intake versus my MasterCard bill.

Come January 1st, it is suddenly a new year with endless possibilities.  I can finally put down the goodies, exercise and eat right. 

This will last until Super Bowl Sunday. While not an official holiday it is really treated as such. Who knew you could assemble an entire stadium out of food? It seems un-American not to eat chips while looking for the latest Doritos or car and insurance commercials, right?  There’s always February to avoid candy. Oh, maybe after Valentine’s Day!