candy

Thursday is Halloween and there is no doubt that your kid will be bringing home more candy than one person can consume in a decade. And, needless to say, some of that candy might look “suspicious” and need to be “taste tested”. I mean you don’t want your kid getting sick from bad candy, am I right? (on a side note, I always found it a little odd that my dad only checked out the chocolate candy and left the gum, Smarties and Jolly Ranchers for me to “look over”). Before you dig into the candy bowl this year, check out how long it takes to burn off those treats (via Self Magazine)

8 miniature York Peppermint Patties = 150 calories. To burn off a serving size of three pieces, you’d need to do about 17 minutes of biking at a moderate (12 to 14 mph) pace.

1 roll of Smarties = 25 calories. For each roll to reach for, you’d have to tread water for six minutes to burn off those calories

6 small Tootsie rolls = 140 calories. It may only take a seconds to devour the recommended serving size of six pieces, but you’ll need 40 minutes of moderate walking (at 3 miles per hour, or a 20-minutes-per-mile pace) to burn them off.

2 Fun Size Snickers bars = 160 calories. Two Fun Size bars equals about 22 minutes of vigorous Vinyasa yoga.8 Starburst = 160 calories. Since each Starburst square is 20 calories, to burn off a recommended serving of eight pieces, you’d have to do about 50 minutes of Pilates.

3 Snack Size Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars = 190 calories. This snack that will take about 59 minutes of light to moderate weight lifting to burn off.

2 Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins = 350 calories. Eat both pumpkins and you’ll need to run about 33 minutes at a 10-minutes-per-mile pace to cancel them out.

1 caramel apple = 250 to 350 calories. The apple itself is about 100, but the real damage comes from the caramel and other sugary extras. To burn it off, you’re looking at about 40 minutes of moderate effort–no breaks!–on the rowing machine at the gym.

This Halloween make sure your treats are just that – TREATS!!! Treats are meant to be consumed in moderation and enjoyed. You can reach into your kids bucket for a little bit of this or a piece of that, but don’t try to grab as much as you can and gobble it down before they can notice. To keep yourself at bay, limit yourself to 100 calories of candy so you don’t feel “tricked” in the morning when your pants don’t fit and you feel bloated. Here are a few example of the treats you can get for 100 calories or less:

1 Fun Size Butterfinger Bar

2 Twix Minis

3 Milky Way Midnight Minis

4 3 Musketeer Minis

5 Starbursts

10 Gummie Bears

13 Pieces of Candy Corn

28 Milk Chocolate M&M’s

And if you really don’t want the candy in your house after November 1st, here are a few ideas on how to rid your home of those treats:

Put the candy in freezer bags and store them in the freezer to bake with later

Ask the “Switch Witch” to pay your house a visit. The Switch Witch comes in the middle of the night and switches out the candy for a toy. Now, make sure your kids know about this and are on board or else you might have a whole other issue on your hands.

Organize a candy drive and donate the candy to Operation Gratitude. Operation Gratitude sends care packages to the awesome American Soldiers who make it possible for us to do fun things like Trick Or Treating.