2 weeks ago I did have 10 candy corns. I cannot tell a lie. They were fresh (you know how they get stale later in the season). Sigh. Onward and upward!
Haven't even ***looked fully*** at it, let alone eaten any. When I'm in CVS getting something, like throat lozenges, I avoid that aisle or glide by with eyes fixed firmly ahead, like a Victorian woman walking past a rack full of books with risque covers, thinking: "How vile. How evil. How dreadful. Mustn't even look."
One thing I'm enjoying, though. One of the stores has a container full of cinnamon-scented brooms out for holiday decoration. I get a strong full-on whiff of cinnamon & somehow feel invigorated. It's a warm, domestic happiness smell for me, without triggering anything other than a good feeling in my chest briefly.
I have made a switch in the snacks that attract me. I used to be all about sweet things - candy, cookies, chocolate, etc. - but now I'm eating savoury stuff.
So the little chocolate bars, located right in the store entrance, are not calling to me this year. And they have put all the candy in one aisle, which I avoid .
I did look at the big box of single servings bags of chips though. I know I would eat any/all leftovers so I'm going to get the little candy bars and keep them at my dad's so DH doesn't go with them.
I'm going to be fine with Halloween this year. Not sure why, but something has shifted and I'm not so attracted to processed food any more. And that's what all the Halloween treats are - highly removed from "real" food.
Now I'm all about decorating so I must stay away from all the gear now available. I could easily spend a couple of hundred dollars (that I don't have to spare) on skulls with blinking eyes, the talking butler, scary cats, crows, etc. etc.
And has anyone seen the Hammacher Schlemmerer (sp?) catalogue? Good thing I live in Canada!
Compliant. I have made a few questionable choices, but none of them have involved candy or the now-off-limits artificial colors. I thought about a bite-size Snickers the other day, but the "pull" just wasn't there.
This is getting harder. Now the stuff is not just in the aisles, it's all over the grocery ads -- & it's on sale -- and so I see it when I'm alone with a pencil & paper, making up my grocery list before going to the store.
I try to avert my eyes as soon as I glance at the pictures of the bags, so as not to get an associational chain of memory going in my head. You know, the deadly kind that can lead to a craving. "Oh, I used to like that ... that was what my family always handed out ... that was what I'd trade my other candy for ... that was what my father used to buy me when I was a little girl & we were out running errands together on Saturdays while my mother stayed home & cleaned ..."
For me, the pull of nostalgia is almost as bad as actually smelling & seeing the stuff.
In fact, that's a major problem at the holidays: The way seeing & smelling food makes me fall through a trapdoor into some powerful memory. And I feel I need to complete the moment by tasting it.
The thing is, I don't. The memory is really enough, if I can get through the moment of desire without giving in.
Oh Yeah, I am really in it now.
It is everywhere now...including my house!
However, not one microcrumb of Halloween treat has passed my lips to this date.
The pledge weighed heavy in my heart as my children were filling baggies of candy to "ghost" their friends and munching on just a few peanut butter cups. And that same pledge was my best friend while that half crunch bar sitting on the kitchen counter was staring at me.
But I made it
And will continue to come around to boast! (ha, I almost typed bloat!!!!!)
I'm so glad we do this every year. It has really been keeping me on track. My coworker who usually has a candy dish full of Hershey's Nuggets replaced it with Halloween candy so I have completely avoided it (whereas the rest of the year I get tempted by a nugget every couple weeks).
This weekend we were at DH's parents' cabin in the country and we found a bag of mini Snickers bars. We decided that all fun-sized candy bars are Halloween candy regardless of the labeling, and therefore we could not eat them. Back in the jar they went. (We did sneak some other plain chocolate that was lying around, but it wasn't Halloween candy!)
Now comes the big challenge though. We bought Halloween candy this past weekend. The bags are still sealed, and placed in a large plastic bag, which is tied up and hidden behind a bunch of stuff on a high shelf in the closet which we never go into for anything. We plan to leave it there until Halloween night, and since Halloween is a Sunday, it will be easy to bring all the leftovers straight in to work Monday morning and dispose of them.
I have not been 100% Halloween candy free either, KC and all, but the thing that this thread/pledge does is reduces the amount. It hasn't been a free-for-all and there has been a great reduction in potential damages.
.... I luvs my wine 
Halloween - my favourite holiday!
entrance, are not calling to me this year. And they have put all the candy in one aisle, which I avoid 
.
at the big box of single servings bags of chips though. I know I would eat 
any/all leftovers so I'm going to get the little candy bars and keep them at my dad's so DH doesn't go 
with them.
food any more. And that's what all the Halloween treats are - highly removed from "real" food.
so I must stay away from all the gear now available. I could easily spend a couple of hundred dollars 
(that I don't have to spare) on skulls with blinking eyes, the talking butler, scary cats, crows, etc. etc. 
Good thing I live in Canada!
. And that same pledge was my best friend while that half crunch bar sitting on the kitchen counter was staring at me.
)
