Tricky Treats

Forget haunted houses, zombies, or vampire bats. If there’s one thing that scares my sensible, nutritious alter-ego about Halloween, it’s the candy! Packed full of artificial colors and flavors, chemical additives, and high fructose corn syrup, Halloween candy makes my skin crawl more than being blindfolded and sticking my hand into a bowl full of cold spaghetti! As a kid, I loved candy, of course. As an adult… well …I still love candy. 😛 (Even though sometimes I wish it didn’t exist!)  But I believe that depriving yourselves of the Halloween experience, candy included, can cause more harm due to likelihood of overboard bingeing than a couple of days of carefully planned gluttony.

Fortunately, there’s a whole new world of treats that exist out there that will satisfy my nutritious self, as well as the kid inside me. You can buy stuff that’s still candy, but it’s not made of pure junk. If you’re going to be partaking this Halloween, consider stocking your treat cupboards with some healthier selections.

Try buying some organic, 70% cocoa or higher, dark chocolate. This has less sugar and carbohydrates overall, not to mention you get all of those great health benefits associated with cocoa powder! Natural food stores often carry mini sized bars around this time of year.

You could go “lunchbox chic” with Sunrype fruit leather! Sunrype makes their original Fruit-to-Go product, which is a 100% fruit leather packed with flavour. Plus, they also have Fun Bites and Squiggles, which are their fruit leathers transformed into fun shapes and a liquorice-like squiggle. They’re yummy, all natural, and have that snack-y, individually packaged, treat-like feel.

What about mini boxes of raisins? Don’t write them off because they’re boring! You go ahead and eat a box and just see what kind of a sugar high you can get from a dried grape… Yum!

You can also pop a few of those organic, fruit juice gummi bears. Made without processed sugar, these sweet treats are a more optimal version of the original bear we all know and love.

And of course we can’t leave out our favourite Paleo desserts: Paleo Chocolate Pudding , Paleo Almond Coconut Squares, and Paleo Macaroons !

………Ok.  ALRIGHT!  You win.  I’m no fool, and I happen to know that the majority of us will be eating those tempting, attractively packaged, bite sized Halloween chocolate bars and candies.  So what then?  Well, the good news is, there’s dignity in moderation.  Get this:

2 Mini Size Reese’s Cups contain only 80 calories, 5 g fat, and 10 g sugars.

2 Mini Size Snickers Bars contain 90 calories, 4 g fat, and 12 g sugars.

1 Piece of Salt Water Taffy contains 55 calories, 0.5 g fat, 12 g sugars

1 Tootsie Roll Pop contains 60 calories, 0 g fat, and 10 g sugars.

11 Pieces of Candy Corn (YUM!) contain 70 calories, 0 g fat, and 14 g sugars.

2 Caramels contain 80 calories, 2.25 g fat, and 8 g sugars.

And 1 Fun Size Package of M & M’s contains 100 calories, 4.5 g fat, 13 g sugars

(BUT YOU DIDN’T HEAR THAT FROM ME!!!!)

Honest truth?  We all know we’re likely to eat more sugar than we’d like on Halloween.  After all, natural or not, candy is still candy.  But at least you have options out there that are healthier than the conventional choices!

Today’s Workout:

Buy-in:  Hang Clean and Jerk/Push Press demo and quick review, warm-up as needed for the WOD

WOD:  Combo

This workout is composed of two parts, combine them for your overall (time) score!

Part 1 – CJ Running

• 4 separate intervals of work – each successive interval starts at 5 min (interval 1 starts at 0:00, interval 2 starts at 5:00, interval 3 at 10:00, and interval 4 at 15:00 on the clock). 
• The faster you complete the tasks, the more rest you get!
• Each interval contains:
• 5 hang clean and jerks (95/135)
• 200m run
• 5 hang clean and jerks (95/135)
• Score each round individually – your slowest interval is your score for this part of the WOD

Zone 4:  scale C+J to 75/115

Zone 3: scale C+J to 55/95

Zone 2: scale C+J to 45/65

Zone 1: scale as needed

Part 2 – Abskip

• 3 rounds for time of:  70 double unders, 15 knees to elbows

Zone 2:  scale to 100 single skips, 15 double crunch

Add your slowest interval time in Part 1 to your overall time for part 2 to get your score!

Cash-out:  follow the leader stretchies