October is here and with it comes Halloween. I have always found October, November, and December difficult food-wise. I can't tell you how many times I was doing well food-wise but was totally derailed this last quarter of a year.

To combat this problem, I am starting making my plans for these three month by handling Halloween first.

I have decided that I am going to save treats for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Halloween is big in our neighborhood so I don't want to completely skip it. My husband is going to buy the Halloween candy and store it somewhere out of sight. We have discussed the types of candy and he won't buy any that I love, Butterfingers and Reece's Peanut butter cups. I will give out the candy on Halloween night but I stay so busy that I don't think that I will have trouble resisting it.

Any leftover candy will be divided between my husband and sons and will be moved out of my sight.

How are you going to handle Halloween? Plan now to succeed then.

Yes, time to draw up a battle plan. My favourite cheats are red liquorice, Smarties and potato chips. They cannot be in my house. I am going to try for things I dislike - coffee crisp bars come to mind along with Cheezies. The best solution would be to just not be home that night but I do like seeing the little kids.

I always bake up Halloween-themed cookies/cupcakes. I'm planning on sending out gift boxes to friends this year, but I'm going to determine beforehand if I can have any, and then how much. Then I'm going to make my husband wait in the kitchen while I bake to make sure I don't cheat! Then they go STRAIGHT into the boxes and out in the mail. Candy-wise, no kids here so thankfully I won't have anything bad in the house!

I'm going for moderation - not deprivation this year.

Halloween is much rougher for me than it should be. My SO and I live in the woods, so we don't get any trick-or-treaters. However, he has 3 nieces that live in town and come by for treats. This year, instead of buying the big bag of candy that I usually do at the beginning of October, and then the one I buy before Halloween (because, you know, I ate the big bag), I think I'm just going to buy 3 or 4 regular size candy bars the day of Halloween. This way, the kids (and SO) will be happy that they have candy, and I won't have the temptation.

I'm a little concerned myself considering Halloween is when I started cheating last year and by the middle of this year I had gained 25 pounds back! I can not let that happen again. I guess I better come up with a battle plan of some kind. My problem with the holidays is that we have multiple get togethers with family and potlucks here at work. It's not just Thanksgiving day and Christmas day. Once Thanksgiving gets here it seems like we eat all the way up to New Year's day.

Halloween is my favorite holiday! Every weekend in October, before now, I would use my free time to sit around eating candy and watching scary movies. I'd eat so much candy I'd get sick.

Anyways, since I'm sugar-free and grain-free this year I figured I'd find a really good primal or paleo recipe involving pumpkin and a touch of honey. I can make a few of them and keep them around.

You can also make some pretty cool stuff out of fruit and veggies and I intend to make a veggie tray that looks like a skeleton and maybe some fruit kebobs with the fruit cut into Halloween shapes.

Honestly, my favorite part of Halloween is the scary movies, the colors, the costumes and the falling leaves outside. I can work around the candy thing. We've had a tin full of chocolate 'eyeballs' in the kitchen for weeks and I haven't had one! Low carb might be the best thing that ever happened to me.

This is my problem too. It is one reason that I am not allowing myself any treat at Halloween. I will finish planning my eating plan some time in November, but I am leaning towards taking food to all events that work with my plan. The best present I can give myself is to get through December without getting off track. I need to think big picture instead of focusing on holiday food.

thewalrus0 - please share that recipe when you find it!

Halloween Candy has never really bothered me that much. I usually keep some sort of chocolate stash at my house too and just have a individual piece to get the flavor when I crave it. Other than that, I do just fine on Halloween... Now Thanksgiving and Christmas are another story... I love my starches. haha

Similar to you, I buy the candy but I don't get it until a day or two before Halloween and I try to buy my least favorite types of candy but ones that are still kid favorites. I have 3 kids and they will all come home with tons of candy - now that is were my problem starts, dipping into their candy when they are in school/in bed. I'm going to read the rest of the replies for some ideas to help combat that!

I just say no. Candy is now a food I consider for other people. Not for me. I treat my condition like a disease/allergy and my head simply says I cannot eat that but other people can. So I keep the stuff around the house and other people eat it.

I do not.

I am not so hard line on all "bad" foods but candy, chips and junk foods (e.g. burgers) are complete no-nos for me. Not even on a date night. You can stretch me to a slice of pizza or ice cream with a lovey dovey look in your eyes over a candle-lit dinner. But candy? Er, no.

My husband works at a college, so whenever we have treats in the house the leftovers go to campus where the students finish it off in no time. But he's off doing research this year and won't be around to save me. Honestly, I may just leave the house dark on Halloween, though it makes me sad to think about it ... we'll see how I feel when we get closer.

My problem is the limited edition flavors ... I always want to try anything new! So I really need to avoid the treat aisle until January. Oh except there's always Valentine's Day and Easter. Darn my sweet tooth!!!!

Probably not the most popular response, but I'm going to volunteer to work on Halloween night. So I won't buy any candy at all. I'll have to stay out of the break rooms though because I'm sure my coworkers will bring candy in during the day.

I'm seriously considering giving out toothbrushes. I live in a relatively low-rent neighborhood that's within easy walking distance of some very poor neighborhoods. I bet there are kids in my area that don't have their own toothbrushes, or whose toothbrushes have been in use for way longer than they should be. If I do go that route, I'll probably tape a mini candy bar to each one, just so I'm not a complete buzzkill. The candy will be stashed in a cupboard I don't use much. I'll track anything I eat, and the leftovers will go to work the next day.

I buy stuff I don't love LOL I hate red licorice so I get that, don't love Mars bars or suckers, so I load up on it ha ha no temptation at all !