How to Avoid Halloween Havoc

Halloween goodies can derail a diet, so here are timely tips to help you scare up the resolve to survive.
Don't be tricked.

By Max Kovins
eDiets Contributor


Halloween is approaching and it's just one more excuse for me to stuff my face with sugar.

I know, I know, you've been reading my columns, and I'm sure by now you think I use any holiday as an excuse to eat. Heck, you probably think I have a favorite recipe for cooking groundhogs for Groundhog Day. Well, truth be known, there are several tasty recipes for groundhog on the web already. So, I'll spare you the details. But you tell me: How do you go through the month of October without devouring all of those tasty treats?

Bad eating habits start early. Mine? They started very early. Most babies' first words are "Mommy, mommy." Mine were "pastrami, pastrami." Hey, is it my fault my baby formula was chocolate flavored?

OK, before you call Child Services for retroactive child abuse, let me assure you that I'm exaggerating. But not by much. Ever since I was a child, I craved sugar. I refused to drink water and I wouldn't drink milk unless it was malted. I demanded orange and apple juice, which I pronounced “apu ju.” In fact, I drank so much of the stuff, I can't even look at it today.

So when I first learned about this holiday where you could get candy just by saying three magic words, I was in bliss! Trick or treat, indeed! And then, when I got older, the bliss continued. Of course, I'm not so blissful when I look in the mirror, but I'm working on it.

<>Psst... Want to know the easiest way to good nutrition and weight loss?
<>Hint: It's delicious, you don't have to cook and you get a FREE eDiets profile

I have vowed to lose 50 pounds. I have given up soda. I have not had a drop since the Fourth of July. Next on my list is giving up sugar, but I will wait until after the 31st of this month. I can't give up candy corn cold turkey. Great! Now I'm thinking about turkey, and how I can't eat canned cranberry sauce with it. Well, I'll deal with that in November.

Since Halloween is right around the corner, I thought I'd give you my favorite recipe for a low-calorie trick or treat snack. And, it's so simple that it takes almost no time to prepare. All you have to do is take a hot dog and remove all of the meat inside. I know what you're thinking, "What does that leave me with?" The answer is simple -- "a Hollow Weenie!" OK, you can send all of the "I hate bad puns mail" directly to me. But look at it from my point of view: I can only use that joke one time a year.

Well, I guess this means I owe you a real Halloween recipe that won't pack on the pounds. Here it is:

This recipe is a fun family project. Now, I stress FAMILY project, because this does require supervision. Gather up some large apples. Any type you like, as long as they are large. Hollow out the inside of the apple (I swear this is not another set up for a joke) and set aside the pieces of the apple. A grapefruit knife works real well for this process.

Now comes the fun part! Take some pumpkin carving tools and carve out different Jack O' Lanterns. Once you have your Lanterns carved out, take the apple pieces and chop them up and mix them together with some honey peanut butter and raisins. Now, fill your creations with the mixture, and you have table decorations you can eat!

Two tablespoons (or 32 grams) of Roasted Honey Nut Creamy Peanut Butter has 190 calories, 140 from fat. Total fat is 17g, 3.5g saturated fat, 125g of sodium, 7g of total carbohydrate, 2g of dietary fiber, 3g of sugars and 7g of protein.

Four ounces of raisins (100g) have 250 calories, but they are high in fiber and have vitamin A and even some B. The average apple has about 50 calories, but these need to be a bit larger -- so add a few calories to be on the safe side. And, just like oranges, apples are a great source of vitamin C.

I'd give you some more Halloween recipes, but I need to get back to letting out the waistband of my Halloween costume. I've gained a few pounds since last year.

eDiets has a whole team of nutritionists and fitness experts ready to help you lose all the weight you hate. With 24 diets to choose from, you're sure to find your perfect match!

Max Kovins, an award-winning copywriter and professional magician, writes copy and content for several websites and was the writer of The Cannell Channel, the newsletter for Stephen J. Cannell Studios. When Max isn't scarfing Twinkies and Cokes you can find him writing feature-length screenplays and anything else that needs to be written for hire