Tips for a healthy, happy Halloween

Ghosts and goblins, vampires and werewolves, haunted houses and hayrides. Though Halloween is all about being scared silly, the shock from stepping on the scale after pilfering through the collected candy could turn your waistline into a real nightmare. Kara Smith, special project coordinator for the Loyola Center for Fitness, offers these tips to help make Halloween a not-so-weighty fright night:

• Delay buying candy and only buy what you don’t like. Having a bag of trick-or-treat candy on hand will only tempt you to sneak a treat. So wait until a day or two before Halloween and purchase only candy you don’t like to limit the temptation of snacking while handing out goodies to the neighborhood goblins.

• Avoid chocolate candy. Research shows that people tend to eat more chocolate than sour, gummy-textured or hard candies.

• Eat a filling, healthy meal on Halloween. Before your kids head out the door to go trick-or-treating make sure you’ve all had a healthy meal so there isn’t a lot of room for candy.

• Chew a sweet, sugarless gum. You won’t have room in your mouth for candy and the taste will help curb your sweet craving without adding calories.

• Keep the wrappers. Sometimes you can’t help but give in to the sweet temptation. If so, pick your favorite piece of candy and savor it. Don’t eat in one big bite. Also, keep the wrappers to remind you of how much you’ve eaten and deter you from eating more.

• Put the candy out of sight. Set a limit on how much candy you and your children can eat and then put the candy away. We are less likely to eat food that’s not in front of us.

To help make this a healthier Halloween try handing out these alternative treats when the ghosts knock on your door:

• Halloween pencils

• Stickers or temporary tattoos

• Boxes of raisins

• Sugarless gum

• Packages of instant cocoa mix

• Microwave popcorn

• 100 calorie snack packs

• Vampire teeth and other party favors