The cool fall weather, Halloween and candy. This time of year all comes together quite nicely for anyone addicted to junk food. Not only can you justify eating bags of snickers bars by saying it’s part of the holiday, but now that summer is over you can hide the extra weight under a sweatshirt! Sounds like a good plan for anyone who isn’t struggling to stick with a healthy weight loss program!

It’s interesting that Americans have turned every single holiday into a junk food fest. Everything revolves around some type of food, and it gets worse each year. We all know that Halloween is all about the candy, but adding insult to injury is the fact that the cool weather leaves us wanting hot cider donuts, latte’s, hot chocolate and other fatty foods that we don’t normally eat on a regular basis.

If you are on a healthy weight loss program, you should not have to avoid all of the fun things other people are eating to celebrate this fun time of year. Listed below are 5 tricks to keep you on track with your weight loss efforts without feeling you are missing out on the things you love about Autumn. You say you don’t believe you can lose weight and still eat candy? Well keep reading. You’re in for a treat!

Halloween Trick To Lose Weight #1: Green Tea
Most people don’t know it, but drinking one cup of green tea every morning speeds up your metabolism so you can literally cheat on your diet and get away with it. It comes in all kinds of flavors, and you can even make it taste like hot cider with cinnamon if you want. I have kept an ideal weight after losing 70 pounds 15 years ago, and one thing I do that most people don’t is drink green tea.

Green tea has so many vitamins and antioxidants that you will instantly feel the rush of natural energy, which is another benefit that will help you achieve a healthy weight loss. How do you feel after one of those expensive, fatty lattes from Starbucks? I don’t know about you, but after I drink about half of it, it feels like I’m drinking a liquid candy bar, and that is never good for anyone who is trying to lose weight. Save your money and make an intelligent switch to green tea.

Halloween Trick To Lose Weight #2: Moderation
So you decided to switch to green tea, good for you! Does that mean you can never enjoy a fatty latte or hot cider again? Absolutely not! The biggest misconception people have with healthy weight loss is they think they have to forever be on a diet of bland salads. When you are making healthy choices on a daily basis to stick to your healthy weight loss plan, you can fall off the wagon every once in a while and not even notice a difference.

I love to visit Vermont in the fall. The changing leaves are spectacular. One year I was staying at a bed and breakfast and the host offered every guest a breakfast of home-made pumpkin pancakes with Vermont maple syrup. One woman declined because she was on a diet. Excuse me, but this is a life worth living and enjoying. Allow yourself to splurge on occasion. It is not every day you are offered something like that. If you are eating healthy and staying active on a daily basis, one plate of pancakes will not harm you.

Halloween Trick To Lose Weight #3: Exercise
No, I’m not talking about signing up for a gym membership. I’m talking about getting outside and experiencing this special time of year. Don’t hire the children down the street to rake your leaves for you. Get out there and do it yourself. Go for walks through wooded parks with your friends and pets. Autumn is famous for outdoor walking activities like public tent markets and haunted tours.

Any extra exercise off a treadmill will accelerate your weight loss and allow you to splurge more often. Since you are drinking more green tea, you will have more energy to do these kinds of things. Just remember not to eat a dozen cider donuts every time you stop and walk through a fall festival. One or two every other day will not hurt, as long as you are not eating candy apples on your days off donuts!

Keep these three Halloween tricks in mind and you won’t have to sit around and watch everyone else enjoy the culinary treats of the Halloween season. It’s easy to justify that box of donuts by thinking you have all winter to get in shape, but what what happens after Halloween? Thanksgiving, Christmas, New years, Valentines Day, Easter, etc. That sweatshirt is not going to solve any problems come summer time next year. Trust me, that’s not a treat you want to indulge in.

The year has already passed by so quickly so what is the next event on everyone’s party calendar? Halloween, yes that great time of year when we throw a party and get terribly excited about having the best costume and most scary unique theme!

Halloween has developed into a celebration for adults and children alike, both taking the event equally as seriously. Over the years Halloween has developed from small household parties, to street parties, to clubs, pubs and discos joining the theme and fully embracing the Halloween culture that captures us all!

So how can we make a good Halloween party, GREAT!

Not forgetting the basics: In my opinion sticking “On Theme” keeps the Halloween spirit in a party, stick to a Halloween theme, and keep it scary and spooky. It helps affirm the season and celebration.

Music: Look into music jingle CD’s. There are a wide range on the market that specialise is scary horror effects which can be a great way to create your “Spooky Mood” and stand out from other parties.

Venue & Décor: This is probably the most important. If you are going to keep to the Halloween theme you need your surroundings to reflect that. Are a few pumpkins really enough to capture the Halloween mood? Firstly to create a marvellous Halloween setting you’ll need a bit of room. If the party is in your house be sure to clear the area of all breakables and valuables then you can get to work on setting the theme. The way to go has got to be Halloween props & decorative materials. There is a wide range of materials on the market like pumpkin cloth, and black linen that can be hung easily to darken a room. Need a bit more Arghhh! No problem go for creepy crawlies. Fake spider web material is really versatile and can be applied across many areas it looks fantastic and is a really cost effective way of setting the scene. Many other Halloween props can be added around your area, such as coffins, gargoyles and bats all to add to that spooky feel! To finish off, how about some extra guests? Prop skeletons and mummies are a must! They can be placed in all kinds of humorous positions and places and are sure to give your party guests something to talk about!

Halloween props and accessories can be well worth the investment. A good idea is to spilt the cost amongst friends. Most Halloween props on the market can be easily stored away meaning a host of people can take their turn throwing the party and reuse the props year after year.

Now that the leaves on the trees are starting to change color and that familiar chill in the air can be felt, it’s time to start thinking about that scariest of holidays; Halloween. Ghosts and goblins, ghouls and witches and all that candy! I don’t think there is any time of year more exciting for kids than Halloween.

Halloween is celebrated on October 31st and “trick or treating” has become a tradition, but it’s not the only one. Costume parties, haunted houses, hayrides and creepy movie festivals are all part of the weeks leading up to the big day. Here are some sof my Halloween ideas, perhaps you’ll use some of them this year.

Halloween decorating does not need to be expensive, but if you want you can spend a fortune. People do everything from the most simple decoration (a pumpkin) to extravagant light shows and my favourite personal haunted houses and yards. You need to find something which matches your budget and commitment. Dollar stores have a lot of inexpensive Halloween decorations, my favourite from the dollar stores are the glow in the dark spiders and skeletons. I hang the skeletons on tree branches and they light up at night giving a spooky chill to the yard.

I like to do a couple of pumpkins on Halloween, one for each of the kids, a family effort and of course my personal masterpiece (which I usually do on the 30th after the kids have gone to bed). You can find nice pumpkin templates all around the Internet, but be sure to use a sharp knife and if the kids are young, you do the carving, but let them tell you what to cut.

Fog is another Halloween essential for me. I use two fog machines, one in the house (I hope that stuff isn’t dangerous) with some windows open for ventilation and one outside to highlight whatever creepy item I feel needs it. Usually the creepy item is a 6 foot tall ghost we like to call “scary big man”. I purchased him at a garden centre and probably paid too much, but he’s going on his 3rd year now and I stand by my purchase. He’s totally cool!

Hay bales and corn stalks are great yard accent pieces and nothing brings out fall’s creepiness better than those two items. If you live on a farm, you could even build a maze out of the bales and make the kids go through it to get to the front door.

Last but definitely not least is Halloween music. I’ve been building my collection for years, but for starters you can get a simple halloween sounds CD and put it on repeat. Chains, howling, screams make the young ones shake in their boots. The old ones (including parents) find it amusing but neat. I like to throw in a mix of halloween songs like monster mash and of course what Halloween would be complete without a little Danny Elfman. If you’re not familiar with Mr Elfman’s work, he has done soundtracks for some of the scariest movies out there. Google him and see what comes back.

So, get started early. Get the decorations up and maybe have a Halloween party too. Christmas shopping is just around the corner, so enjoy Halloween while you can. It’s the chance for every grown up to act like a kid again.