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In honour of his Back 2 Canada tour and the fact that I just bought tickets to it, I give you: the very talented artist, formerly known as the symbol, formerly and once again known as……. Prince! This is one of my favorite work out songs, so I hope you dig it

Who doesn’t love a holiday full of candy and chocolate? Especially when it involves dressing up and behaving like a fool.

I believe very strongly in enjoying life and occasions, and a key component of many of our holidays is excessive food consumption. Halloween is no exception. While I do love the overabundance of bite-sized chocolates everywhere (and I do mean everywhere), if you are trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, they can prevent you from reaching your healthy behaviour goals.

One of the (many) reasons people overeat is that they simply have no concept of what they are putting into their bodies. Sure, that bite-sized Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup looks harmless enough, but what you may not know is that it has close to a 100 Calories in it! Recall that a typical woman needs approximately 2000 Calories a day and a man needs 2500 (depending on weight, height, age and activity level). Well, if you are going to eat one small chocolate/candy packet, that’s harmless enough—-but let’s be honest: do you? If you are even remotely like me, you probably consume quite a few during the Halloween season. I actually recall as a child sitting in my room and secretly binge eating Halloween treats until they were pretty much gone (unless my brother got to them first). Those Calories can add up quickly and before you even notice!

Most Halloween treats pack anywhere from 50-100 Calories per package. So just be aware that if you are eating 5 of those, you have just packed on 250-500 Calories (without giving your body many of the essential nutrients it needs). I am not saying you should totally avoid them (even I’m not that unrealistic) but remember the key dietary concept of moderation and don’t lie to yourself about what you’re eating.

Here’s a few tips for eating less:

1) Don’t leave your treats where you can see them. Leaving them on your table/desk is a strong visual cue to consume. Put them away or get a family member to hide them on you if you know that the temptation will be too strong.

2) Keep track of how many you have eaten in a day. A good way to do this is to leave the wrappers in front of you. This provides some strong feedback as to your consumption patterns.

3) If you know you can’t resist having treats around the house: just don’t buy them. Why make it hard on yourself if you don’t have to?

Who doesn't like dressing up?

So enjoy Halloween (and life for that matter), have a blast, and eat a chocolate/candy or two. But try to approach it with the right attitude and knowledge so you don’t throw off your commitment to healthy eating.

And, well, if you do, remember that tomorrow’s another day and don’t beat yourself up about it too much. Just start fresh again and remember why you have decided to adopt healthy behaviours in the first place. Then remind yourself again, and again, and again…..

James Brown shows how he earned the title of ‘Hardest Working Man in Show Business’ in this classic clip.

He also provides us with some classic words to live by for moments when things aren’t quite going our way:

“Get up off of that thing and dance/shake/twist ’till you feel better!!”

Have a great weekend!

D

It is virtually impossible to change your external environment. You can’t always control what foods you’re going to run into and the temptations you might face as you venture out into our excessive food environment. You can, however, control what you encounter in portions of your immediate environment, such as your home.

First off–don’t bring home foods that are poorer choices and that you can’t resist. If you can pound back a full bag of chips without breaking a sweat and will do it if it’s in your cupboard—then don’t have them in your cupboard—leave them at the store.

Also, don’t leave temptation foods in plain site. If you leave a bowl of candy on your counter, and you have a weakness for candy, then everytime you walk by it you are giving yourself a visual cue to eat. Why do that to yourself? That’s not very nice of you if you are trying to eat candy in moderation!

Behaviour change doesn’t happen over night and it is more difficult for some than others, and depends on the behaviour in question. Find ways to make it easier on yourself and make sure that you are not unnecessarily tempting yourself back into the negative behaviours.

I’m off to get my rodeo on at the Stampede, and this song will help me get there! Happy weekend!

Flow with Flo to get you geared up for the weekend!

Happy birthday to my wonderful, beautiful country! I am forever proud to call you home!! Happy Canada day!

Sometimes you have to trick yourself into eating a bit less. That way it’s a little more painless and you won’t actually realise anything is majorly different. Try to think of little things you can change that will reduce the amount of food you consume, without severely compromising your tastes or the joy of eating!

This classic Kanye song always helps me push through a workout when my mind is telling me, ‘just quit, why don’t you?’. You don’t have to like the artist to appreciate a song, apparently.