Diabetic Recipes
OK, I really don't hate Halloween. In fact, I really like the "holiday". I love to see well-done costumes and to watch my children have so much fun gathering all that candy and showing off their costumes. It's fun to watch them have fun. Even my office-mates enjoy the black-and-orange season. This morning we all walked downstairs to see the parade of three-year-old preschoolers come through in their costumes while trick-or-treating at the downtown businesses. We oohed and aahhed at the pirate, the princess, the flower and the pilot.
But I digress. What I don't like about Halloween is that I have no will power. There you have it. I hate that I can't resist all those treats. I've always had a sweet tooth. ALWAYS. No matter how hard I try or the different techniques I try (a cup of ice from Sonic often does the trick) to curb my desire for candy, I just can't. So when I'm faced with a bucket full of my favorite treats, there's usually no stopping me.
The kids had a Halloween party on Saturday where they played games for candy prizes. I resisted for several days, even forgot that the pumpkin buckets had handfuls of bite-size chocolate hiding at the bottoms. And then last night I had this terrible urge for candy. One peanut butter cup ought to do it, I thought. Well, I was wrong. Mini versions of Mike&Ike, Skittles and a Hershey bar were casualties.
I'm seriously considering asking the kids to donate much of their Halloween booty this year. I would allow them to pick out some of their favorites, to have several pieces on Halloween night, leave enough that they could have their fill for close to a week and then dump some into a community candy bin we keep for treat nights.
The problem then becomes where to donate it. Even if I take it to work to "share" with my coworkers, I'll be tempted to eat it. Ditto with The Mr.'s office. Any ideas?
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December 2nd, 2008
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10-30-2007 1:29 PM EDT by Michelle Kowalski
Categories: Type 2 Food Real Life
Tags: candy Halloween will power
Views: 641
Categories: Type 2 Food Real Life
Tags: candy Halloween will power
Views: 641
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Michelle Kowalski, a writer, editor and photography hobbiest living in Phoenix, was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in February 2005. In January 2008, as part of her quest to start on an insulin pump, Michelle learned that she actually has type 1 diabetes. (Read More)
Latest Posts: The Greasy Wheel | Waiting Impatiently for CGMS OK | Back to the Find-A-Doctor Drawing Board
Andy Bell has lived with diabetes since the age of 14. He controls his type 1 diabetes by taking multiple daily injections. Andy is 28 years old now and despite his diabetes, still maintains a very active lifestyle. Andy works for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) in the National Outreach Department. (Read More)
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Michelle,
Please don't take this the wrong way as I would surely hate to offend you (or anyone else for that matter) with my first post here, but in my opinion I think you are going about this in the wrong way.
Making your kids donate their Halloween goodies is not a good plan. They will not like the idea, no matter what they say. I think that is basically about the same as making them pay because you have no will power and can't say no to something that you know for a fact is bad for you.
But therein lies another problem. Candy isn't good for them either. So instead of making them give up what they have already got their hands on, you should be making better plans for all of you for next year. Here's what I do...
First of all, if your children are still young enough to go Trick or Treating, and by this I mean somewhere between 5 or 6 and about 10 or 12, get started now on teaching them not to eat sugar based candy. There are many very tasty varieties of sugar free candy available. Ask your Pharmacist about them. They can give you several possibilities.
Then about the time Halloween is approaching, write down the names of all the brands of sugar free candy you find and give the list to people who live in the houses you always take your kids to on Halloween. You are picky about that aren't you? If you're not, you should be now days...
If you do that chances are you know the people and you can explain to them why you are asking them to do this. And if they are good natured, intelligent people they most likely will understand the need and will agree with you and do what you suggest. And in this way they can buy what they want to give out to all the kids who come to their door. This would not only benefit your children but all children who come to their house. After all, most people would not intentionally harm a child. But they may not be aware that candy is really as harmful as it actually is.
I started doing this because my Mother used to do it because she was Diabetic. Now I am Diabetic too, so it's even more important to me than ever. And after several years of asking people in my neighborhood to do it I now don't have to ask anymore. They just do it automatically...
And if I may offer a suggestion to you personally, work on your ability to say no. I know it can be extremely hard to do sometimes, because I have had to learn to do it myself. I smoked for 40 years and didn't learn to say no to cigarettes until they almost killed me. But you can do it. You just have to have the motivation.
Happy Halloween!
Ax
Ax, Either I didn't explain my donation plan well enough or you didn't fully understand. I don't want to donate my kids' candy simply because I have no will power. It's more because even though we only go to a handful of houses (and by the way my husband and I still take our kids trick-or-treating ourselves and we inspect all candy prior to eating any, so I'm not worried about which houses we go to) the kids wind up with mountains of candy. They just don't need that much candy tempting them either. We do a fair amount of discussing donations in general and my kids make donation decisions all the time because they are aware that there are people less fortunate than they are. They also know--partly because of diabetes--that too much of anything is bad for you. They comment quite a bit about knowing that too much candy and sugar (or water or exercise or whatever) is bad for you. You're right, they won't be 100% thrilled that I'm asking them to give away most of their Halloween candy, but they will understand because we treat them like people not like kids who don't know any better. And we don't outlaw treats in our house anyway. So it's not like I'm depriving them. I know I wrote it to sound like the donation plan was a way to keep me in line, but that's not really the case. I've been considering donation for several years and have, in fact, taken much of their candy to work to share in years past. I just haven't always "asked" them if it was OK.
And about my ability to say no...yes, I know that's something I need to work on. So nice of you to point that out. This is a process. I'm a life-long lover of sweets. I'm making efforts and taking small steps. They're small, but I'm doing it.
Well, it appears that I offended you even though I was trying so hard not to. So I will just say I am sorry and leave it at that.