7 Steps to Having a Sane Halloween - Keeping Sugar in Check

Caramel apple

  This is diabetes on a stick.  It's caramely, chocolatey yumminess is also what diabetics and dieters most love and fear- Sugar!  Sugar, to a diabetic, and actually to most of the United States, is crack!  Sugar is our drug of choice.  But to a diabetic, and eventually to all of us, sugar is as dangerous as crack.  So how does a diabetic, or a dieter, or even a reasonably sane person get through Halloween? Halloween, the one day a year in which we ritualistically devour our body weight in pure sugar; except for the part that is pure corn syrup.  How does a person navigate rivers of soda, mountains of flour and days of nutritional desert?  I, for one, need a plan.

Here are my 7 Steps to Having a Sane Halloween.  

1) Share. Do not hide from food.  Be actively involved in your food decisions. Diabetes on a stick is manageable, but only if you are proactive.  I am going to take one caramel apple, cut it into slices and share! I will allow myself a taste, but not the whole thing.  Deprivation doesn't work, and you can't hide from the world.  So have a taste, and then give the rest away.

2) Repackage.  People are going to "Boo" you, leaving yummy treats on your doorstep.  (They are probably Sharing.) Take one cookie off the top of the plate for your dessert and repackage the rest with sandwich baggies, or better yet, the little snack sized bags.  Take the baggies and throw them in the freezer.  You can have a cookie, or a brownie once in a while, but not the whole plate.  So don't let the whole plate sit in front of you.

3) Exercise.  Exercise combats a little of the sugar damage, although you can't out exercise a bad diet.  Still, a bit of exercise will make you think twice about that extra cookie.  Why would you want to undo all the good you've done.  One hour of exercise doesn't even cover the calories in a large piece of chocolate cake! So have 2 bites of cake and push it away. You've worked too hard!

4) Make it not "all about the food." Why does every Holiday have to be all about the food?  Who made that rule? Make crafts, decorate the house, spend time,  talking on the phone to a friend. (You would have spent that time baking naughty treats anyway.)  Go on a nature walk.  Make it about the fun of the holiday, not the food.  Halloween is hard, because, let's face it, it really is all about the candy, but try to think about other ways to enjoy it.

5) Don't pass out candy.  I know, I know.  This would not seem to be the correct approach for a sane person.  My mom handed out little toys, necklaces, and pencils from the dollar store one year.  I thought she was nuts and no one would want to go to her house.  Guess what? She was the most popular house on the block.  The kids were thrilled.  How weird is that?  But, if you buy candy you hate, you'll just sit and eat bad candy.  If you buy candy you like, you'll sit and eat good candy that isn't good for you.  So just don't pass out candy- pass out toys or gift certificates from McDonalds, or Krispy Kreme.

6) Choose wisely.  You know you're going to steal some candy from your kids, so be picky about what you will eat.  If you love peanut butter cups, decide ahead of time that you will have 2 and then don't bother with the other stuff.  Remind yourself that the candy doesn't all go away on November 1st, so you can have more later.  You don't need more than 1-2 pieces, you really don't.

7) Track your calories.  Or track your sugars. Or both.  Do it. Even if it's not convenient, do it.  Pay attention to what is important.  And if your sugars are high- no candy.  And if your calories are high- no cookies.  Don't allow yourself to take this day off.  Be aware of what you are putting in your mouth.

These are my strategies.  I'm sure you've noticed that I am having sugar.  I am giving myself permission to do that.  I do believe that you will be more successful if you give yourself permission to have a little treat.  You can learn moderation.  You may not lose weight at lightning speed, but you will still lose weight.  And slower weight loss is likely to be permanent weight loss, because it is about changing your lifestyle.

Good luck- it's a sugar cube jungle out there!

Rochelle's Pumpkin Cowboy Cookies

I firmly believe that everyone needs a treat every once in a while.  For me, it's the "once in a while" that does me in.  I really really like sugar.  Such a hard thing to give up.  Now that I am not diabetic anymore, it is really hard to make myself stay away from the sugar.  I keep trying, and trying, and trying.  I'm doing really well with exercise, averaging 8-10 miles of walking or running a day, but the sugar . . . I do love it.  

You probably think this post is going to be for a low sugar low calorie treat.  I'm sorry.  You're wrong.  This is about one of my favorite yummy treats.  I know.  Cruel.   How about this.  I promise that I will produce some nice, healthy, low calorie, diet friendly, diabetic friendlier recipes in the next few weeks.  :)  For now, enjoy this fun treat, but only eat 2 and then give the rest away.  Your neighbors will like you, and you will still get to enjoy a little bit of the sweet life.  :)


Here it is. Rochelle's Pumpkin Cowboy Cookies
1/2 c butter (do not sub margarine)
1/2 c shortening. (Can use all butter but will stay softer with the shortening)
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
2 large eggs
2/3-3/4 cup pumpkin purée. (I used fresh so don't ask me the can size but its probably that amount that is always left over after you make a pie. Lol). You could also sub a jar if baby food sweet potatoes or yams.
Cream and beat everything til it looks silky like creamed honey butter

Add
1/2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 T vanilla
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t allspice
Pinch of ginger

Cream until light and fluffy

Add

2 1/2 c flour ( go ahead and make the 1/2 cup whole wheat. Then you can pretend these are healthy.)
3 c granola type cereal. I like the great grains pecan).
Or
2 c old fashioned oats

Also add 1 bag butterscotch chips
1 bag semi sweet chips.

Or
1 c craisins
1 bag white choc chips.

Bake 350 for 10-12 min.

Back from the Weekend

Once again I took the weekend off and ate what I wanted when I wanted.  In general, my portions sizes are smaller and what I want to eat is simply different at this point.  I got some cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, and I still haven't finished it.  I can only eat a bite or two at a time and then I'm done.  This is good news.  My overall diet is changing- for good I hope.  Anyway, here is yesterday.

This really is my favorite breakfast now.  I've started making it for the rest of the family to supplement cold cereal and they love it.

This is part of my left-over Shepherd's Pie from the Cheesecake Factory.  I can only eat about 1/4-1/3 at a time.  Portion sizes are out of control at that place.

I made Chocolate chocolate chip cookies for my family on Sunday.  On Monday I had one for a snack with Peanut butter.  No, it wasn't to be healthier- I just like peanut butter.

Frozen Yogurt from Maverick.  It was only okay and put me to sleep afterwards.  I'm going to guess they use a bit more sugar than TCBY.

Dinner was a sausage and cheese sandwich on a bagel.  Plus some stir-fried veggies.  Plus I also had the last 2 cookies.  I did not have a late night snack as my sugar levels were still at 125. 

The Allure of Sugar

My sister-in-law and I were talking this weekend and we had a really interesting discussion about sugar addiction.  You're laughing aren't you?  It's not like sugar is a drug, right?  If you doubt that sugar is or can be addictive, please just run a Google search and type "is sugar addictive?"  Uh, Yeah- it is.

Sugar causes the increases in dopamine and serotonin.  Dopamine is one of our "feel good" neurotransmitters.  Serotonin is another. From what I can tell dopamine is tied to reward and accomplishment in the brain and serotonin is tied to appetite and emotions. So yeah, sugar affects the brain. And yes, sugar gives us a temporary high, but do we really need a bunch of doctors to tell us that?

Think about sugar, or your favorite dessert. It tastes good. You anticipate it. You crave it. You get it. You eat it. You feel good.  Then, if you are like me, you feel guilty.  You wonder why you ate it, or at least why you had 12 cookies instead of 2. You figure, "well I've had this much, I might as well have whatever I want now.  But I'll be really good starting tomorrow."  The next day, you feel sluggish. Your stomach hurts. You wonder why you did that to yourself. You promise to be good today. But there are 4 more cookies sitting on the pan.  Well, you can just finish those off, but you won't make any more and you really will start eating better tomorrow.

Seriously, that is not a healthy cycle.

Do I think sugar is bad?  No- I don't.  I think over-indulgence is bad.  And it is.  So part of this journey is education and really thinking about what is going into my body.  Can I have a piece of cake? Yes. Can I have seconds? No.  That is the point. A treat should be a treat, not the meal.

I think the best way to break the sugar addiction is to not eat sugar, white flour or starches for 2 weeks.  I've done this in the past.  The first 3 days really stink.  By day 14, sugar is a bit overwhelming. I added starches a whole grains back and slowly a bit of sugar.  At that point, a chocolate bar would take me a week to eat.  I would bread off one square during a day and that is all I wanted or needed.  Now I feel like I need the whole bag to myself.

I know that a few frozen blueberries taste better than a handful of chocolate chips, but my brain always goes first to the chips.  Then I can't get them out of my head.  This diet, I hope, will reprogram my mind.  This is the way my lifetime diet needs to be, so I am hoping that it works.

What do you hope to change?