Around this time every year I start to see pictures floating around on Facebook and Pinterest telling people how to “buy”, “burn”, or “negate” Halloween candy. And every year, I just want to scream, “JUST EAT THE DAMNED CANDY…or don’t!” Followed by a lecture on how messed up it is that our society believes we have to earn food or punish ourselves for it. Gahhhhhh!

You’ve seen them…they’re charts with pictures of various candy bars and what exercises you need to do should you choose to eat them.

You ate it, now negate it!

Ate a fun-sized pack of M&Ms? According to one chart, now you have to go ride your bike for 10 minutes…or else!

Ate a fun-sized Snickers bar? That’s 9 minutes of push-ups!

Ate a fun-sized Kit-Kat bar? 10 minutes on the elliptical for you!

It’s all a bunch of B. fricken S. and here’s why…

For starters, these are arbitrary numbers put into an eye catching graphic by some social media marketer in order to get shares.

How do I know this?

Well, because some very important information is missing, specifically the person’s weight, body composition, and fitness level.

For instance, a 300 pound person doing 50 burpees is going to burn a hell of a lot more calories than someone who weighs 150 pounds and someone who is an elite athlete is going to burn fewer calories than someone who isn’t.

Now onto my bigger peeve with this BS…

There’s a lot of talk about body shaming these days, but you know where it starts and ends? With food shaming! It’s all part of the same vicious cycle and it’s a bunch of fricken BS!

Did you know…

An average sized apple is roughly the same number of calories as a fun sized bag of M&Ms, but have you ever heard of someone earning an apple or punishing themselves with 75 burpess for eating an apple?

Um. No. No you haven’t.

So why are we doing this with candy?

I DON’T KNOW! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!

And no, we shouldn’t just eat ALL of the Halloween candy willy-nilly…

Here’s the thing…candy has it’s own “risks” for lack of a better term.

It’s far easier to mindlessly eat 6oo calories of candy than it is to eat 600 calories of apples. Just sit down with a pillow case full of trick-or-treat candy, and before you know it, you can easily consume 1,000 calories. That’s not good. I explain why in my post about why calories matter, but with regards to the calories themselves, it’s still 1,000 calories whether it’s candy or apples…or coconut oil. (yes, I know, blood sugar, and micro nutrients, and stuff, but that’s a different topic)

So do we eat the candy or not? Do we exercise or not?

That answer is completely up to you but my personal answer is YES to both!

 

I took the “NO SHAME” pledge a long time ago, so I enjoy some Halloween candy (and other indulgences) as part of my happy, healthy, I’mperfect Life, and I don’t judge myself or others who do.

I also practice rules numbers 1, 2, and 3 for living a happy, healthy, I’mperfect Life, which means I have found peace and balance with food and fitness. I have learned to ENJOY Halloween candy without guilt, remorse or shame, and I exercise regularly to FEEL GOOD.