Not all VAMPIRES vanish with Halloween.

I love me some Renee Ross.**

Ahhh people.

It seems we all be TIRED TIRED this time of year.

We’re coming off the Thanksgiving-high.  Gearing up for more holidays-to-come.  And the lament I most frequently hear is how *exhausted* we all feel.

A National Sleep Foundation survey found over 63% percent of Americans aren’t getting the slumber they need and are leading groggy, tired lives.

While I can’t help you find that elusive extra hour of slumber, I do have a few ideas how we can fight the energy-vampires around us and win.

I need to pack. 

I want to PLAY. 

There are weights which need hoisting. 

I have trashy television to watch. 

I can’t afford to be drained of energy.

As a result, Im committing to the five healthy habits below in an effort to beat back the vampires and AMP UP MY ENERGY thru 2013.

Join me?

Make your coven eat breakfast!  We all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Studies reveal many of us still don’t put this theory into practice. Research also indicates breakfast does more than spark our metabolism—it’s *also* linked with lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Stress is definitely an energy vampire (and heart attack trigger)! Make it fast.  Make it simple. Make breakfast part of your morning routine & set your day up for energy-success.Hydrate (insert awkward NOT with blood joke, here)  It’s easy to forget about hydration when the weather grows cool, however, the majority of our blood is made up of water and becoming dehydrated causes blood to thicken. The result is the heart works harder to pump blood through the body we feel fatigued.  There’s continuous debate as to HOW MUCH water we need daily. I tend to go with the fact *most of us* need more than we’re getting.  Misfit tip: If you dont rock the water try adding in water-containing foods too such as yogurt, watermelon, oranges, cucumbers and broccoli.Cut back on (afternoon) caffeine While it may cause you to weep openly feel counter-intuitive to *skip* the afternoon pick-me-up theres science behind my suggestion. An afternoon latte provides energy for a few hours. The vampire, however, arrives at night. Caffeine remains in the body for three to five hours after ingesting and, if you’re sensitive, for up to twelve.  Even if you don’t experience difficulty falling asleep the quality of your rest can be Vampired impacted by late day caffeine.  MizFit tip: Almost all decaffeinated coffee contains a measure of caffeine.  Perhaps make this the holiday season you swap even decaf.  for a hydrating glass of sparking water with lime?BREATHE!!!  Ive noticed lately —as I pack and as I work at my desk—I take tiny, shallow baby breaths.  My lungs dont fully inflate (which causes me to yawn & only feel worse) so my poor overworked cranium never gets the oxygen it needs to feel awake and alive.  In an effort to keep away the energy snatchers with The Dark Gift Ive begun setting reminders to BREATHE.  Once an hour I pause & take ten slow, deep, FULL breaths.  My breathing breaks are fast—but the impact on my energy level is lingering. Try it. I was a skeptic, too.Drive a STAKE through sugar  (just in case youre NOT YET on my low processed no sugar bandwagon) Sugar, and I speak from experience, is one of the biggest energy vampires in town. If you’re not ready to surrender the sweets perhaps include fiber with your sugary snacks.  It sounds odd but fiber slows the rate of sugar’s entry into the bloodstream. Something as simple as whole grain crackers with your chocolate can mitigate the energy dip & is like SILVER to energy-vampires.  Really feeling like a misfit? ROLL THAT FUN SIZED SNICKERS IN SOME CHIA. It’s far tastier than it sounds…

What do you say?

Are you in to EAT (breakfast) DRINK (lottsa H20) BREATHE and be LOW-SUGAR merry with me?

Have you already succeeded in beating away the blood energy suckers & forcing em into the Veil of the Shadows?

Am I the last person on earth who has neither read nor watched a vampire-ANYTHING in her life?

Many thanks to Renee for letting me borrow her Halloween picture.  Click her fangs to check out her site.

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Get into character for a healthy Halloween!

Yep.

It’s Halloween week and posts which focus on having a happy and healthy one abound.

Suggestions for satiety.  Prompts for passing on the candy.  Tips for tossing away the sweets in favor of the raw veggies.

Traditional tips which completely work, but just arent how we roll up in herre.

This year we’re taking DIFFERENT approach to Halloween than we have in (more adult) years past.

We’re joining the kids, we’re donning the costumes, we’re RIDING THAT CHARACTER wavvvvve to a healthy Halloween.

Because really, what is fitness, healthy living and overall LIFE many days except PLAYING A CRAZY CHARACTER FAKING IT TILL WE MAKE IT ?

My three tips for how getting into character can create your healthiest Halloween ever:

Create a narrative. Dressing up is optional (sigh. I guess.)—but the creation of a narrative is not.  Tonight you’re an actor.  Ask yourself what your motivation is? challenge yourself as to why you are striving to be healthy to night and in general.  Next consider all areas of your life.  What would healthy you/your character eat on a daily basis? How would you dress & how would this show the world how you feel about yourself? How would you walk down the street etc.  Tonight (& perhaps longer?) commit to responding to all scenarios as your ‘healthy self’ or character.
Share your costume-plan. As zany as it sounds, when you share your role-playing plan with your support people it really helps.  I tend to (over)share everything with Ren Man.  I clearly recall sharing this concept with him close to two decades ago.  At that point it was intended as ONE NIGHT for me—but the subtle almost imperceptible shift in how he began to affirm the way I saw myself that night kept me on the path to change. Bring your inner-circle into the act-as-if plan.  Loving accountability partners have helped me to sustain my lifechanges for almost twenty years.Respond as your CHARACTER/healthy  self.  This week—and if youre me next week when the candy is all on sale—temptation abounds. Parties.  Bowls of candy out at work.  Halloween can be a healthy living minefield—but not to our healthy living character-self. Would our Halloween character skip workouts for couch time? Would costumed-you *really* select a Snickers over simply hanging out and enjoying conversation? Before you respond to *anything* this Halloween challenge yourself with regards to how your character/healthier self would react.  Change your mindset.  Change your body.  It’s that simple.

Quite frankly, upon further reflection & introspection, Ive realized this is how I live the *other* 364 days of the year too.

Do I feel like SKIPPING CARDIO? Am I not in the mood to git my PLAYOUT on?

I ask myself what my SUPERHEROINE counterpart would do.

Am I longing to skip some good whole, clean foods meal preparation in favor of a fast, processed’y snack?

I ask my self how the dainty Queen would dine.

I act as if….when Im not feeling ‘as if’…ALL YEAR LONG.

I challenge you to join me this Halloween and, if youre up for it, through the next twenty or thirty decades as well.

What’s your BEST fake it till you make it tip?

How do you plan to cruise through candy season staying in character & living healthy?

Do you find it odd Im dressing up as a Terrible Towel Wednesday night?

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4 reasons to INDULGE this Halloween

(Ahh youth. Days of chipped nail polish & no fretting about candycalories.)

Im a misfit.

I may stand alone but I’ll say it: Im tired of the plethora of posts focusing upon how to have a healthy Halloween.

I liked the post the first time I read it—but after the thirtieth beating of the poor, dead, Halloween horse my brain began to whirl.

It began to rebel.

It started to obsess about craft the myriad reasons we *should* indulge on Halloween.

Please to enjoy. Please to agree. Please to disagree. Please to simply know this is what I am choosing to do on this Halloween day.

(Please to head over here if you desire a more traditional How to be HEALTHY on Halloween post)

Life is too freakin short.  Ive lost a number of friends since last Halloween and I guarantee they’d not recommend you pass on the snickers you love or the candy corn you covet.  I agree they’d also concur theres no need to eat yourself into a sugar coma (as, really, who enjoys that?!), but some sugar snackage in the name of savoring and socializing?  Life is too short to live in a constant state of longing & deprivation.  If youre gazing lovingly at the candy bowl & indulging in a little food fantasy I’d say reach in, grab a few, and enjoy.It’s an exercise in mindful eating.  Many of you have asked about my first forays into mindful or intuitive eating (my thoughts on eating this way for 10+ years are here) .  While I can tips ya till the proverbial cows come home (as can the Tornado!) at some point it becomes all about trusting yourself, jumping in and giving it a go.  What better night than Halloween?  Make it a conscious/mindful choice to eat & savor candy you enjoy.  Focus on taste sensations you experience (heck, you can even make this a journal exercise!) & how you feel physically before, during and after.  For me mindful eating has been a journey & a learning process.  It will be for you, too, no matter when you start.  And it’s worth it.It may prevent binging later.  A dear friend of mine has gained & lost hundreds of pounds throughout our twenty-three year friendship. One night she ordered dessert, turned to me and said: It isnt the crab-cakes or dessert I eat which causes my gain weight—it’s the large pizza & pint of Ben & Jerry’s I eat later *alone* which piles on the pounds.  This resonated with me.  It’s the same scenario I saw with clients.  The weight they gained wasnt from, say, candy eating while trick or treating with their children.  It was the sweet stuff snarfed alone later which piled on the pounds.  Experts agree. Trying to suppress all thoughts about candy are actually counter productive. Dieters tend to eat more chocolate when they try to avoid it all together.  (Susan Albers, Psy.D)
We all deserve a treat.  Now that Ive ranted & raved you MUST! EAT! CANDY! (why yes. my tongue is firmly implanted in my cheek)—allow me to veer slightly off-course. We are a family of misfits.  The word “treat” in our household never refers to food.  For us treats & indulging refers to experiences.  (going to a movie. one-on-one time with a parent etc)  Halloween is a tremendous treat for the Tornado because she stays up late, traipses around the ‘hood with friends, & is simply a louder, more boisterous version of herself with no repercussions.  What better day than Halloween to explore a *small* way to indulge your grown-up self, too.  Dress up in a silly fashion you’d never attempt on a ‘normal’ day.  Foist the children upon a significant other or neighbor & steal a quiet evening for yourself. Get creative (big or small), but get to indulging.  You deserve it.

And there you have it.

My misfit plan for today and tonight!

Remembering life is short (seriously. you KNOW Im downing me some candy corn for a fallen homie. sound irreverent? hell yes. was she? HELL YES!), consuming mindfully, snacking socially and knowing Im worth it.

And you?

Whats your four-pronged (or one-pronged. plainolepronged) plan of ‘ween attack?

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Halloween For Dieters – From the Occassional Witch

You are here: Home / Mind / Holidays / Halloween For Dieters – From the Occassional Witch

Today’s the day society says you have to give away buckets of candy to those kids who show up for free stuff but are NOWHERE to be found when you need something shoveled. Any dieter knows that bringing a Pumpkin Ton of candy into your house is like bringing a Pumpkin Ton of candy into your mouth. So what to do? Try these strategies on Halloween for Dieters.

1. Buy those SUPER chewy carmel thingies with the creamy center. It is a major workout to eat them, muscle burning AND cardio. Plus it takes until Thanksgiving to get through one so you’ll consume fewer calories.

2. Give out toothbrushes. This will ensure you get a bunch of free eggs, already scrambled, delivered right to your door. Yay protein!

3. Pass out your home canned vegetables.  As you distribute the cans also explain the importance of sustainable agriculture. While you’re explaining get them to sign a hold harmless against botulism poisoning claims. Some of these parents are so litigous.

4. Fill your cauldron with water! Drink up sister, for a couple of reasons. First of all it’s how Demi Moore stays so thin. Right? Second you’ll be fuller and less likely to steal from your own spawn when they bring in mini-peanut butter cups.

5. Exercise like flying monkeys are chasing you.

6. No matter WHAT your strategy towards the end of the night when the line of kids dwindles to a trickle make sure to dump that candy. If the last kid gets an entire bag so be it. Tell that kid you’ve always liked him the best.

7. Plan your November 1st breakfast today. Write your journal, count up your points/cals/carbs, layout your workout clothes so you can get after it on November 1st.

8. Visit here November 1st. There’s going to be some witches at work that push their extra candy on you. We’re on it with a printable. See you in November. 

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