| Hi Friend!
Happy Hallowed Eve to you!
Is your inner child, still as excited for the big day as most every current child is?
We've got 300 pieces of candy, which should cover the roughly 200+ kids we'll get, and there should be enough for my little family to enjoy many too.
Splurge, Not Splurge, Joy Foods, Pedestals, ... In my world, the CYBBC world of health, body transformations and performance, candy, sugar and processed foods all fall under the splurge category, which means you can eat them, and eat them every week, as much as you like, but keep it to 1-2 meals per week if you're looking to lose weight and at 10% of your meals if you're looking to maintain weight while still decreasing body fat, or 10% of your meals if you're in the performance & muscle building category.
If you're in the family category, normal eater category or eating disorder prevention category, what I might call splurge meals, gets renamed as joy foods, and joy foods can be eaten most any time with certain guidelines, so as to take their power away if they're labeled as forbidden or restricted.
These guidelines are sourced from Vanessa's website ( here), Ellyn Satter's website ( here) and Ellyn's book, "Your Childs Weight: Helping without Harming. Birth Through Adolescence" ( here).
Vanessa says,
not eating them, buying them, forbidding them, labeling them as bad food, gives them power, puts them on a pedestal and causes kids and adults to sneak them.
She recommends, making them a part of your regular meal schedule.
Ellyn says, 1. Have family meals, including snacks and there are innumerable benefits and solutions to problems you may face yourself or that kids face ( see here). 2. Sit down when eating meals and snacks. Don't stand or walk around. 3. Make it a routine. B-fast, lunch and dinner are at these times 7 days a week. Snacks are at these times 7 days a week. The times can vary each day, depending on your day, but they have to be predictable and consistent for everyone to win. 4. Make forbidden foods a part of your weekly meal planning to take away their power and make them normal. 5. Parents are in charge of feeding. Kids are in charge of eating. Avoid problems by doing your respective jobs. 6. Every meal and snack must have at least 1 thing that everyone at the table likes. 7. Meals must include 4 or 5 of the following: protein, bread, starch, vegetable, fruit, dairy and fat. Water is always a constant. 8. Snacks can be 1-3 of the above. 9. Provide chips & fries at meal time in large enough quantities that everyone can have some. These don't compete with meal time foods. 10. Put a serving of dessert with a meal, not after the meal (pedestal and overeating) but no seconds. This allows everyone to budget belly space accordingly, so there's less of a chance to overeat. It takes away the power and by keeping it to a serving, allows for learning to like new and different foods more easily. 11. At snack time, "periodically" sweets can be served in an unlimited manner. Hello big plate of cookies, 2nds, 3rds and 4ths on pies or cakes, etc...
- work towards helping your child manager her own stash by keeping interference to a minimum
- do let child lay out her candy and eat as much of it as she wants
- do let your child do it again the next day
- then, have your child put it away and save it for meal (couple pieces) and snack times (unlimited)
- if guidelines are followed, the child keeps privilege of managing her own loot
- offer milk with candy to promote good nutrition
- remember, this is most kids favorite holiday of the year
- keep practicing, sit down, family meal and snack times. if you're doing a good job of feeding, participating in Halloween candy consumption, shouldn't impair their nutritional health.
So Halloween candy, candy, sweets, junk food, splurge foods, etc... can and do fit into your eating style. There are guidelines you can easily implement to take there power away, so they don't control you and instead you keep control, and you can still work towards your health, body transformation and performance goals while participating in the joy of eating your preferred foods.
How to merge them?
I see snack time as the way to go, as you can enjoy them in an unlimited manner. Small servings with meals are another way, and then remember what Vanessa and Ellyn don't say. They don't say to have joy foods or these forbidden foods AT EVERY MEAL. Periodically. Weekly. They don't say have cookies on Tuesday, Candy on Wednesdays. Chips on Thursdays. Fries on Fridays. Soda on Saturdays and Ice Cream on Sundays.
Those foods all fall under the same umbrella and you enjoy them weekly at a frequency that is right for you and your family. If you have a specific goal you're working on, then let that help influence your frequency, but not the other people in your family or your world. You're in charge of feeding. Not eating. Don't place your personal goal agenda on another eater. Let them grow the way their supposed to grow without you projecting your goals or what you see or think you see about them, by managing their eating (clear / finish your plate, try this, do this, then that). Do remind them, to make sure they've eaten enough before they leave the table, because theirs no food until the next meal or snack (no grazing), and then enforce it.
O.K. That's enough.
I'm excited to eat candy tomorrow. If my memory serves me, most things don't taste that great and some things do taste great. So here's looking forward to beef stew and Halloween candy.
Coach Mike
p.s. Ellyn is the family nutrition yoda and Ellyn says, "when he comes home from trick-or-treating, let him lay out his booty, gloat over it, sort it, and eat as much of it as he wants."
p.p.s. this week is guest week at boot camp.
p.p.p.s. if I can help you. reply and let me know.
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