How to Make Up For All the Halloween Candy
/With bowls and bags of Halloween candy scattered around the office and home, it’s understandable to eat more sugar at this time of year than perhaps you typically would, especially if you usually restrict sweets.
Thanks to diet culture, for many of us, eating episodes like this are considered a "food sin" and often lead to a punitive make-up mentality that sounds something like this:
To make up for eating all that candy, I will…
skip breakfast and lunch tomorrow.
cut carbs and work out extra hard all week.
not eat sugar for the next month.
go on a 7-day detox diet.
Perpetuates Vicious Cycle
This penance approach typically perpetuates a vicious cycle of restrict-binge-repeat.
It’s ineffective, physically and psychologically damaging, and causes a lot of unnecessary suffering.
The key to avoiding this painful cycle is to stop believing you have to make up for your eating.
Instead, when you feel like you’ve committed a “food transgression,” remind yourself that it's normal to eat a lot sometimes—especially when a food is restricted, scarce or novel (and tasty!).
Rather than feeling guilty, beating yourself up, and engaging in compensatory behaviors, simply resume your regular self-care practices.
Most importantly, listen to your body. It will tell you what it needs.
For example, after a night of enjoying lots of candy, you may wake up the next day and find your appetite is smaller than usual. So, eat a smaller breakfast.
Or, you may find you’re hungry for your usual breakfast or something completely different. Go for whatever sounds the most nourishing and satisfying.
Don't deprive or punish yourself and your body because you feel you ate badly. Doing so always backfires.
Instead of adhering to diet culture’s harmful rules, honor what your here-and-now body is needing and desiring.
By avoiding a make-up mentality on Halloween and any time of the year, you’ll experience a greater sense of ease and peace with food and your body—and in your life.
