Tag Archives: candy

Why Marathon Runners Eat High Calorie and Sugary Snacks

Marathons and endurance races have become extremely popular in recent years. Most races are hosted by certain charities or other local or community organizations. These races push the body to the limit, with proper hydration and nourishment being vital to preventing the body from cramping or shutting down.

During these long races the body burns through nutrients rapidly and depletes every single energy store, making it crucial to replenish and provide the body with “quick burning carbohydrates,” such as any soft sugary candy (licorice or gummy bears), chocolate, beer, fruit drinks, or any other form of high-calorie foods (pretty much anything that you are normally supposed to avoid). Likewise, cold beer and pizza is often awaiting runners at the finish line as a refreshing and filling source of carbs. These foods provide the body with quick energy that fuels the body to help prevent cramping. (more…)

Posted on October 19, 2025 by Matt

Blast Calories While Trick or Treating

There are many October activities that are fun and incidentally, great exercise. Corn mazes, haunted houses, harvest festivals, pumpkin patches, scavenger hunts and colored-leaf-scouting all provide great reasons to get outside the house and get moving. Let’s be real though, for many kids Halloween is still all about the trick-or-treating. A lot of parents dread the night of walking up and down the block, endlessly taking step after step. The attitude there is all wrong. Trick-or-treating is the perfect family outing! This year, maximize the time you spend taking your kids door to door. Make it fun and make it active. Here are a few ways to do just that:

  • Trick-or-treat in an area where the homes are farther apart. More walking equals more calories burned.
  • Whenever it’s a viable option, use stairs. (more…)
Posted on October 8, 2025 by Theresa

How to Limit the Halloween Candy Eating Frenzy

The question of the month is: How do you manage trick-or-treating overload without being coined the Grinch Who Stole Halloween?

Here are a few suggestions to keep the kids’ sugar comas and your day-after guilt to a minimum:

First off, limit the frenzy altogether. Don’t allow your kids to trick-or-treat for hours. Discuss, ahead of time, that they are only allowed to trick-or-treat until their bag (or bucket) is full. Make your rules about obtaining and consuming candy very clear. Take the opportunity to explain some healthy-living tips to your young ones.

Shift the focus away from candy. Host a Halloween party that encourages other festive activities. (more…)

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Theresa

Best and Worst Movie Theater Snacks

Nothing is more thrilling than sitting down in a cushy movie theater seat anxiously awaiting to see your must-see flick on the big screen. Most of us go to the movies on the weekend, and weekends frequently transform into two-day splurges that sabotage our well-intentioned healthy eating efforts of the week prior.

The movie theater is where our food demons tempt us to fall for the buttered popcorn and Goobers. But movies and snacking do not need to be so traumatic.

Before the weekend hits, read on to find out which of your devilish movie snacks are best left behind the concessions counter and which ones you can peacefully nosh on. (more…)

Posted on August 27, 2025 by heather

Easter Basket Treats Don’t Have to be Diet Busters

When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait for Easter. After a Lent of no treats, Easter brought a basket of chocolaty goodness and a sugar high that caused a crash reminiscent of the 1929 stock market disaster. When I had my own children, I realized that the calories in many Easter treats just weren’t worth the exercise required to work them off, and that I could craft a basket for my kids that would be just as happily received, and also better for them too.

Here are the calorie counts of some of the most popular Easter basket treats, and some lower calorie alternatives that won’t have you in spin class long after the taste has left your lips.

  • 1 Cadbury Cream Egg – 170 calories
  • Cadbury Chocolate Eggs – 12 eggs, 190 calories
  • Peeps – 4 Peeps, 130 calories
  • Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg – 190 calories
  • 7 ounce hollow Easter bunny – 1,050 calories (more…)
Posted on March 30, 2026 by Carmen

Healthy Halloween Recipes and Tips

jackolanternJust because it’s Halloween day doesn’t mean you can’t still put together a spooky treat or a ghoulish dinner. It’s also not too late to count how many calories were in last night’s candy bender!

We’ve rounded-up our best Halloween recipes, healthy tips and ideas to help you make this a fun-filled holiday that won’t leave your little treaters in a sugar-induced coma from now until the Christmas candy shows up.

Healthy Halloween Recipes for Kids

These treats are better than anything you’ll find at the grocery store because you and the kids can make them together and they have much better ingredients. Get the recipe for snacks like Trick or Treat Trail Mix, Caramel Apple Fruit Dip and Sugar-Free Dirt and Worms.

Healthy Chili Recipes for Your Halloween Cauldron

Warm-up your little trick-or-treaters before they take on the neighborhood with one of these delicious and hearty chili recipes. Toss it in the Crock pot early in the day and your hands will be free to make last-minute costume alterations! (more…)

Posted on October 31, 2025 by Natalie K

Calories in Your Favorite Halloween Candy

halloween candyWho doesn’t love Halloween? With free candy and a bonafide reason to dress up in a wacky get-up, it’s tough not to have a secret soft-spot for this sugary-sweet holiday.

While we all make Halloween resolutions such as “I’ll only allow myself two pieces of candy,” or “I’m donating all leftover candy to the local soup kitchen,” you can safely indulge in your favorite Halloween treats without harboring guilt or using a padlock to protect yourself from raiding your child’s Halloween bag. Need proof? Here’s a look at the nutritional stats of some of your favorite spooky-time eats so that you can savor the fun of this holiday and still look great in your skinny jeans. Plan these nibbles into your daily calorie budget.

  • Four plain Hershey’s Kisses: 104 calories
  • One fun-sized pack of plain M&M’s: 88 calories
  • One fun-sized pack of peanut M&M’s: 93 calories (more…)
Posted on October 26, 2025 by heather

Three Ways to Survive Halloween

The holiday that celebrates sugar is just a few short days away. As the temptation mounts each time we step foot into a grocery store to purchase (and indulge in) an 8-pound bag of Snickers, Milky Ways, Reese’s, lollipops and Starbursts, here are three surefire ways that will allow you to relish in the sweetness of this fun holiday, but not split the seams of your costume.

1. Plot Before You Shop

Before you step foot into the store, figure out how many bags of candy you will need, (not how many you want). And most importantly, don’t buy candy that you love. If you know that you have the capacity to lose all self-control around peanut M&Ms, do yourself a HUGE favor and opt for another choice instead. Select only the candy that you are not tempted by. If you’d prefer to eat steamed salmon and broccoli over Mounds or SweeTarts, then stock your grocery cart with just those items that won’t trigger the sugar addict in you. And remember, that kids don’t care: All they want is the treat whether it’s chocolate or SweeTarts. (more…)

Posted on October 30, 2025 by heather

Another candy holiday?

Maybe it’s just me but it appears that in the past years, most of our holidays have turned into candy holidays. It used to be that Halloween, Easter and a Valentine’s Day box of chocolates were the holidays that we often celebrated by relishing in a chocolate candy heart or a caramel-filled egg. Not only have these three traditional candy holidays turned full throttle in their assortment of every kind of candy on the market wrapped up in festive packaging, but Thanksgiving, Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, and the Fourth of July have also joined the bandwagon. I don’t remember eating red, white and blue Blow-Pops growing up, but come mid-June, they are a ubiquitous item in candy aisles with kids (and even adults) sucking on them as they fire up the barbecue.

Don’t get me wrong, I am about as happy as a kid in a candy store when I’m in a candy store, but I think our preoccupation with and overindulgence in sugar is something to look at as we read the daily health headlines that provide ongoing evidence of the increasing waistline in this country’s childhood and adult populations.

Posted on March 3, 2026 by heather