It's that time of year again. Sneaky old thing, time. It feels as if one minute it was summer and our spaghetti-strap dresses, al fresco dinners and fruit salad snacks were part and parcel of our daily routines. We ate raw broccoli. We blended smoothies instead of sticking a spoon, (or, let's admit it, even a fork if it happened to be the only clean utensil available to us) into a fresh tub of mint-chocolate-chip ice-cream. We were, in short, aware of how good it felt to eat well and were into the groove of it; the effort was minimal.
Fall, colorful and vibrant, fills our senses with expectation, transition and yes, the beginning of, for many of us, the end of healthy eating, that true monster known as Halloween.
There's something about all the candy and cookies appetizing as they are, mouth watering as they can be, that so many years just opens the door into the holiday season and causes us to have our first of many meltdowns during the fall and winter. We promised ourselves this year would be different; we'd stay on track, we'd exercise daily, or, well, maybe thrice a week at the very least. But those dang kids and their crazy wigs show up at our door and of course we HAVE to provide them with a little crunchy chocolate bar, don't we? Are we not true participants in the festivities, goers with the flow, active members of our communities? And isn't providing children with vast amounts of candy part of how we express our participation in our community?
Of course it is. The permission we give ourselves to unwrap that first piece has a logic all its own.
This year, as pumpkins are carved and things that go bump in the night are something we look for rather than avoid, maybe we can also look for that goal we created for ourselves around this time a year ago. Commune with it. Are we any closer? Has our motivation slipped? Is it a goal that's still important or appropriate to us, for our lives?
Depriving yourself completely of holiday food, dessert and fun is as cheerful as watching paint dry and equally boring. Partake in the making and preparation of food, the designing of recipes. Have some, but not enough to make you forget your own name. You can actually get almost drunk on Halloween candy, believe me, I've had more than one chocolate hangover.
Partake without gluttony and you may just still be able to zip your jeans up proudly come January 2. With your jeans on, you can walk to the health food store and find something crunchy for yourself to start the new year off right.
Aimee Boyle is a freelance writer and special education teacher in CT.