Yes You CAN Pass By Those Peanut Butter Cups!

<p class="" data-pm-slice="1 1 []">We're coming up on Halloween, and you know what the means:</p> <p class="" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Candy Anxiety!</strong></p> <p class="">Ok, that's not a real thing--I made it up.  But I think most of us can relate.  </p> <p class="">You know how it is when it comes to Halloween candy.  You either:</p> <ul data-rte-list="default"> <li> <p class="">Wait til the last minute to buy the candy you're going to pass out in the hopes that you won't eat any</p> </li> <li> <p class="">Buy candy that you don't like in the hopes that you won't eat any (which can make those Trick-or-Treaters more than a little angry because let's face it--no one wants <em>that</em> kind of candy!)</p> </li> <li> <p class="">Buy your favorite candy, eat a few (or a lot of) pieces in the weeks before Halloween, and then run out and buy more before Beggar's Night</p> </li> </ul> <p class="">And <em>all</em> of that is anxiety-provoking.  </p> <p class="">But why?  </p> <p class="">Well, we can thank diet culture for this one--again.  Diet culture has contributed to our anxiety about Halloween candy--and obviously lots of other foods--in three ways:</p> <ol data-rte-list="default"> <li> <p class="">By consistently telling us that we can't control ourselves around food. When they create this fear and anxiety, they then get to give us a "solution" to this problem: dieting. And remember what we talked about last week? Dieting and controlling food <em>doesn't</em> work!</p> </li> <li> <p class="">By leading us to diet. When we cut out foods like candy, at some point our bodies (and our parts) rebel against that and eat alllllll of it. That leads us to feel as though we can't control ourselves, leading us back to dieting.</p> </li> <li> <p class="">By depriving us. Diet culture tells us that candy is "bad" and we shouldn't eat it. But when we're faced with it--like we are at Halloween--we can't take the deprivation any more, and we dive in feet first. It doesn't even matter if we <em>want</em> it. This