The Last of the Halloween Candy
Yesterday, I had a meeting with Caryn at NuVal. I headed into her office only to see her candy dish chock full of candy. “This is the last of my kids’ Halloween candy,” she exclaimed with glee.
I’m not quite sure how Caryn manages to sneak the candy out of the house, past her pre-teen daughter and first-grade son. It used to be so easy. When the kids were really little, I could easily dump most of their halloween stash into a big ziploc baggie the day after Halloween and bring it into work for my hungry colleagues faced with a 3 pm slump. No more. Not only do my kids seem to have a mental calculation of just exactly how many Nestle Crunch Bars and Twizzlers they got, but their loot has expanded as they’re grown and their Trick-or-Treat stamina has increased. We made it to a lot of houses this year, particularly since Halloween was on a beautiful, balmy Saturday night.
Check out my little Spider-Girl and her take!
Not surprisingly, candy does not score so well on the NuVal score. OK, that is an understatement. Candy scores abysmally low on the NuVal scale. It is hard to find any candy that scores above a 1 (remember, 100 is highest).
- Twizzlers 1
- Tootsie Roll 1
- AirHeads (one of my kids’ favorites) 1
- Heath Bar 1
- Kit Kat 2
- Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups 3
- Snickers 5
- Hershey’s Special Dark 6 (Woo hoo – I’m a dark chocolate fan!)
- Hershey’s Mr. Goodbar 7
So, slowly and deliberately, my kids ate their Halloween candy. My son has only 1 piece left. My daughter, who does not like chocolate, just has her chocolate left. I’ve read about different ways parents handle the tsunami of candy that enters the home on October 31. Some parents let their kids eat all they can on Halloween night and throw out the rest. Others let their children keep a certain percentage and require them to donate the rest. I must admit I did somehow manage to sneak out a portion of their candy. After that, I made them each a ziploc bag with their names on them, filled them with their candy and placed the bags on top of the refrigerator. I did not make a rule about candy-eating. I waited for them to ask when they wanted a piece. And they did – generally for “dessert” and I did require them to stop at one piece. I wanted them to learn how to live with “treats”. After all, they will grow up and live in this world where there are “treats” everywhere. I am known to say that we live in a big field with poor nutritional landmines everywhere. Think about it, we go from having Halloween candy in our offices right into the over-indulgent Holiday season. There’s a brief respite at New Year’s and then we’re right back at it with Superbowl Parties, Valentine’s Candy, Easter Candy, and all those Summer Cookouts. Before you know it, you’re back in the office staring at a big bowl of Halloween candy during your meeting. So, I believe in teaching my children how to live in that world, with some boundaries of course.
Question of the Day:
How do you keep on track with all the “treats” that surround us?
Yesterday’s Winner:
Congratulations to Carol, Commenter #4 on yesterday’s Trade-Up Tuesday. Carol has won a fabulous red colander, five boxes of Barilla Plus Pasta in various shapes, and a NuVal aluminum water bottle.
Thanks to all of you who shared your trade-up stories! Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted by: Melissa 6 comments
Posted in: Halloween
on Nov 25th, 2009 at 10:35 am
ah, look at twizzlers with a whopping score of 1. and so many people think they’re “healthy” for being low fat. i love nuval for setting the record straight. candy is candy. low fat or not.
on Nov 25th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Peanut Butter Cups score a 3? Better than a 1, I guess.
I, unfortunately find it hard to keep track this time of year … which means it’s a very bad time to try to lose my last 15 or so pounds to get to my WW goal. But that’s not going to stop me.
I guess my big key is portion control Even then, I have to watch for the “I’ve already eaten something ‘bad” so I might as well keep going” mind-set.
on Nov 25th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Those NuVal scores are SCARY! Sad!! Not that I expected them to be high, but 1? 2? Ouch!
Your Spider-Girl is too cute!!
on Nov 25th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Interesting post topic!
I read once that if you indulge in “fun-size” candy, you should try and keep the empty wrapper nearby on your desk or table as a visual reference of how much you’ve had. If you enjoy some pieces and ditch the wrappers, it can be hard to remember how many you’ve already enjoyed.
on Nov 25th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
That’s a really great post. I don’t have kids, but I like this approach. I may even use it one day
on Nov 30th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
The Switch Witch lives in Hallow Heights which is a little island in the sky by the moon. The Switch Witch loves candy. All witches love candy, but the Switch Witch loves candy the most and she has the biggest candy stash of all the witches. Do you know how the Switch Witch gets her gigantic candy stash? The Switch Witch gathers most of her candy for herself and all the witches and cats on Halloween night. (Did you know that witches’ cats love candy too? They only eat milk chocolate though as it has delicious milk in it! –this is true only for witches’ cats though!). So, here is how the Switch Witch gets her candy: late Halloween night, when all the children are sleeping, she visits the houses of children who choose to switch their candy for a toy. How does she know which ones are switching their candy in? A child puts a piece of candy on the door (of their room or house) to let her know that they want to switch. The Switch Witch flies from building to building on her broom, with her black cat Corn (as in Candy Corn) on the back. They come in through a window. They fly in through the window with magic- the window does not need to be open. She takes all the candy the child puts out and puts it into a sac that Corn holds open for her in his mouth. Then she ties the candy bag to the end of the broom. She takes out a shiny black bag that is full of toys. She leaves one toy for the child to thank them for the candy. Then she leaves just as quickly as she came: on her broom, out to visit other children and perform more switches. By early morning, she and Corn return home to Hallow Heights where she sorts all the candy into large glass jars. That night, all the other witches come to visit and the Switch Witch doles out the candy they want. They eat their candy with her, share stories of Halloween, hear about what toys she brought to the children and come back night after night for a treat. You know how most pictures of witches are flying near the moon? That’s because they are on their way to Hallow Heights to visit the Switch Witch and share in her gigantic candy stash. By next Halloween, the Switch Witch has run out of candy and goes back out to do her switches.