How You Can Celebrate A Healthy Halloween

Halloween is one of the most celebrated events every year, and it’s perhaps the one time of the year where everyone can play dress up, walk out the streets, and not get judged for whatever weird combination of clothes and masks they come up with. More than the scary and funny-looking costumes, Halloween is also a time to gather with friends, watch a scary movie, and eat a lot of Halloween-themed food. This year Halloween might look a alittle different, but that doesn't mean we have to sacrifice the fun!

Even if it is a night worth celebrating, you don’t want to let that extra serving of pumpkin pie ruin your fitness numbers. How do you stay healthy and fit amidst the candies, parties, and drinks?

To help you stay true to your fitness commitment, we made a list of the 5 things you can do to have a healthy Halloween.

1. Eat before the (socially distant) event starts

Candy and a warm serving of pumpkin pie are always tempting, especially if they’re your favorites. We won’t tell you to avoid them because that would be no fun, now wouldn’t it? Instead, what you can do is eat ahead of the Halloween gathering.

That sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? Not if you get your protein shake or vegetable platter in your belly before the candy.

The idea is to make sure you don’t go to a Halloween event on an empty stomach. Marching in half-stuffed will make you less likely to gorge or eat based on what you see. You will also have an easier time picking what can benefit your body after the partying is over.

2. Walk far and wide

If you’re still into Trick-or-Treating (and there’s nothing wrong with that), might as well burn a few calories by walking beyond what your childhood routine was. Use this time as a perfect opportunity to see what your entire neighborhood looks like during the festivities of ghouls, goblins, and witches.

And hey, maybe it’s time you knock on the doors of people you haven’t personally had a chat in within a long time, all while donning a monster costume or something. Amidst the fun, don’t forget to be safe, wear a mask, wash your hands and practice social distancing.

3. Check before you eat!

We’re sure you already know this, but before you open that package of sweets and gooey candy, don’t forget to check what exactly you’re going to eat.

More than the nutrition content (which we’re sure most candies don’t have anyway), you should also check if the packaging looks old or damaged and if the food or snack is still safe to eat. If the expiration dates look sketchy or unreadable, it’s best not to eat it.

4. Plan Halloween themed meals

If you’re the one hosting a socially distant event, always prepare a week ahead. Most parties rely on deliveries and whatever people will bring. If you want to stay as true to your health as possible, serve healthy options over the traditional candy bars and sugar-laced pumpkin pastries.

But, don’t just go out there serving plain old salad or wholemeal bread. That would be boring!

Go overboard on the entire Halloween thing and make your foods have some “scary” features to them. We’re talking about banana ghosts, apple monsters, candy-corn-colored parfaits, etc. If you got the resources, might as well serve actual pumpkin bowls instead of the boring plates.

5. Make a Halloween exercise routine

If you’re like most people, your house will most likely be visited by more than a handful of kids on Halloween night. If you’re going to be celebrating alone, you might as well try to get a quick Halloween-themed exercise routine.

You also don’t have to do them on the night itself (because why exercise when you can be hanging out with friends!), but you can at least schedule it Post-Halloween, perhaps even the morning after if you’re feeling it.

Some examples:

• For every kid who comes to your doorstep, add one rep or more if you’re feeling adventurous.
• Run two miles for every bag of M&Ms you eat
• For each pumpkin you see outside your house, add one set or one more cycle.
• Each time you get scared while watching a movie, you add one or two pounds to your usual lifting weight
• You sub lunch or dinner with a bowl of salad for each time your doorbell was rang

The Takeaway

As with many holidays coming in the colder months, Halloween means a lot of food, snacks, and partying. Despite the nature of the event itself, you should still have some form of control over what you do so you wouldn’t lose some of the fitness numbers you achieved before Halloween.

However, you can also exercise control while having fun, and that’s what celebrating Halloween is all about. At the end of the day, it’s only really one night of getting a bit loose, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you ate more than half a candy bar or if you just couldn’t resist that one extra slice of pumpkin pie.