I was out running errands this past weekend and needed to pick up a few things at Walmart. Keep in mind this was only 4 days after Halloween. FOUR! As I walked into the store, the poles outside the doors were decorated like candy canes. As I entered the store, I was greeted with a massive countdown reminding me how many days are left until Christmas.
Wait. My Halloween costume is stilled balled up on my bedroom floor. Christmas?!
Let me reiterate. There are still Halloween decorations in my house waiting to be packed away until next year. And yes, there are pumpkins and hale bales on my front porch and I don’t plan on taking them down until Thanksgiving weekend. And NO, I will not decorate for Christmas before then.
Right after the obnoxious countdown, there was promotion after promotion for every single type of holiday food and candy you could think of. I had barely made it past the senior citizen greeter. Then a ginormous table of baked goods – all decked out in green and red. Cupcakes, cookies, cakes, peanut brittle, oh my!
Next to the table there was aisle after aisle of 2 foot long candy bars, over-sized Hershey Kisses, giant Lindt Chocolate Truffles, gingerbread houses, and more. The same aisles that were just home to Halloween costumes, pumpkins, and fall décor only days ago. Where did all that leftover Halloween stuff even go?
The shelves that once belonged to pumpkin spice flavored everything are now home to peppermint. Meh.
It’s the first week of November.
You guys.
It’s just ridiculous what the food and retail industry is doing. I remember when those 3 weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving were all about gratitude, celebrating Fall, pumpkin spice, and prepping for the Turkey, What happened to that?
The industry is quick to shove this Christmas stuff down our throats at the stroke of midnight on Halloween. Literally. That fat man with all his holly, jolly fattening sweets needs to hold the eff up and let us enjoy the fall. Let me catch my breath from the Halloween candy before you start tempting me with those store-made but delicious Christmas cookies with the icing on them.
I forgot to mention that I did my Walmart run on an empty stomach. Bad idea. My mind immediately started obsessing over all of these irresistible treats in my face. I wanted ALL of them. Just a few minutes before I wasn’t even thinking about it.
The good news? I didn’t give in.
As an emotional eater or binge eater, the temptations during this time of year are real and they are everywhere. It’s bad enough we have to plan for the actual day of the holiday, holidays parties, etc – but now? Now, we have to start while we are still debating whether to eat another piece of lingering Halloween candy.
It’s not going to stop any time soon either. Christmas won’t even be here yet and red and pink chocolate hearts will be peaking out of boxes ready to go on the shelves.
There’s always going to be temptations. We have no control over the ridiculousness of the retail world shoving Christmas down our throats before Dia de Los Muertos is over.
Honestly, the only thing any of us have any sort of control over is what actually goes in our mouth.
How will you survive the holiday season? Let’s discuss in the comments below or in my private Facebook community – Irresistible YOUniversity.
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Hi! I’m Aimee with 2 E’s. I'm a confidence coach that empowers women to love themselves by breaking down body image issues, so that they can lose the emotional weight and gain the confidence to look and feel irresistible...at any size.