If you went trick-or-treating as a kid, you probably have vivid memories of Halloween: skipping around the neighborhood with a pillowcase or jack-o’-lantern bucket in hand, costume-clad, hunting down the houses with the full-size candy bars. The night would likely end with you dumping the whole thing out onto the floor, searching through your treasure, and trading with siblings or friends to get even more of your favorites.

At some point between your own childhood years and now, however, you may have stopped eating Halloween candy — perhaps because you learned it’s “bad for you.” Eating candy simply isn’t “something healthy people do,” you’ve been told time and again, and so you gobble your Gobstoppers in secret.

Although there are obvious differences in the nutritional value of, let’s say, raw vegetables and your favorite fun-size candy bar, labeling foods as “good” and “bad” simply isn’t a healthy way to think about eating. Bad and good imply morality, meaning if we eat these ‘bad’ foods, then we ourselves are ‘bad.

Eating a ‘bad’ food can elicit guilt and shame, which are two emotions that should not coincide with eating.”

You may have heard this sentiment before, especially in the last few years, with the rise of the anti-diet movement. Still, you may have had trouble disconnecting from that mindset. After all, many of us have internalized this “good vs. bad” message from spending years in a society infiltrated with diet culture — and deprogramming that perspective can take time. In a perfect world, you wouldn’t think twice about enjoying the Halloween candy that you’d like to eat; you’d have the candy bar you’re craving, and move on with your life.

To put it simply, you’d eat intuitively.

At the core of intuitive eating is the practice of following your body’s hunger and fullness cues, and eating what you want — without overthinking it. When I think of Halloween, I think of being a kid and being so excited to go trick-or-treating, and eat the candy, having all those choices, and how fun it is. And the last thing I’d ever want someone to think about on Halloween is that you shouldn’t eat the candy because someone’s given it this label that it’s bad for you. It just shouldn’t even be part of the narrative.

But for a lot of people, that’s easier said than done.

Why Restriction — Not Candy — Is the Enemy

Many people may believe that if they allow themselves to eat sweets, they’ll never stop. For this reason, some people won’t keep things like Halloween candy in the house, out of fear that they’ll eat the whole bag — but the restriction is actually what’s causing the problem in the first place.

You eat the whole bag because you don’t keep it in the house. Let’s use Hershey’s Kisses as an example. If you have a bowl of them out on your kitchen countertop, and you have some every day, they become a normal part of your life. Eventually, “they lose that shininess. They lose that value – and you realize, I can keep Hershey’s Kisses in the house because I’ll just take a Hershey’s Kiss when I really want one. Many people are so scared and they think that they’re addicted to food, but it’s really the restriction that gives them that feeling.

It’s called habituation. If you have the food around, you get used to eating it, and it takes away the moral value of the food; it takes it off the pedestal

If you just put that food in your life and you take away the value [judgment] from the food, it just becomes like everything else. A Hershey’s Kiss will have the same allure as a bunch of grapes; you’ll desire them equally.

Because the reality is, “your body will not feel good if you eat Halloween candy all the time. It will crave variety and different nutrients. Give your body the candy when it wants it, and otherwise, it will probably lead you toward other things.

Reconnecting With What You Want

It sounds easy — the idea of making candy available and eating it only when you want it — but many of us have put so many rules and restrictions around food that we don’t even know what we’re in the mood for anymore.

To build this skill, one of the first steps is to listen to your hunger and fullness cues. Make sure you stay nourished throughout the day. When we allow ourselves to get ravenous . . . we tend to make choices out of primal hunger and eat quickly and beyond what our body needs. If you eat when you’re hungry and until you’re satisfied, you should feel more in control of your food decisions.

From there, it helps to remember that eating doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and that means there’s a lot more to your noshing than hunger and nutrition. There are feelings and emotions, memories, nostalgia, customs, rituals, social factors, and joy all attached to food. And contrary to what you may have heard about “emotional eating,” that’s not a bad thing.

Foods like Halloween candy give our body physical energy, yes, but also “provide us with satisfaction, enjoyment, and nostalgia, which are all valuable parts of the eating experience. That’s one reason why, often, if you choose a “healthier option,” it won’t leave you satisfied. This is known as chasing “phantom foods. By choosing what we ‘think’ we should eat instead of what we’re truly in the mood for, we’re left unsatisfied and searching for more. This can result in us eating beyond our true hunger needs in an effort to fill this void.

If you genuinely want that dark chocolate date bark, go right ahead. But if you actually want a Snickers, eat that. Eating intuitively means getting in tune with your body, following your hunger and fullness cues, and eating what feels good and sometimes what feels good is because your emotion wants you to eat it. And that’s OK.”

Just know that it can take a while to learn to eat intuitively and shut out all the noise of those “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts.” It may feel scary at first, but it does work. At the beginning of the process, it may feel like you’re addicted to the food and like you’re eating a lot of it, and that’s part of it. That’s OK.”

And intuitive eating may not be possible for everyone. If someone does have an eating disorder or a history of disordered eating, they probably won’t be able to intuitively eat. There is a portion of our population, mainly someone who has battled restrictive anorexia, that very well may never have the correct hunger/fullness skills and may never be able to intuitively eat. If that’s you, it’s important to find support with a mental health or eating disorder professional who can help you heal in your own way.

Whether you have a history of disordered eating or not, restriction only fuels the fire. So this Halloween and every other year, just say yes to the candy — if and when you want it.

Want to Live Longer — and Actually Enjoy those Extra Years?

One of the smartest investments you can make in your future is strength training.

It’s not just about looking fit or lifting heavy weights. Strength training is about keeping your independence, staying healthy, and being able to do the things you love — for as long as possible.

Here’s what the research says:

Stage Not Age reports that people with the most muscle in midlife live up to 40% longer than those with the least.

According to Dr. Peter Attia’s Outlive, strength is “the single most important physical trait for longevity.” Why? Because your muscle mass and strength protect against falls, fractures, frailty, and even chronic diseases.

A 2018 study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that just two strength-training sessions per week reduced the risk of all-cause mortality by 23%.

And grip strength — a simple measure of how strong you are — is linked to lower rates of dementia, cardiovascular disease, and even cancer. People with the strongest grip have up to a 70% lower risk of dying from dementia, according to research shared in Outlive.

When you lift weights, you’re not just building muscle — you’re building resilience.

You’re investing in a future where you can climb stairs, carry your own groceries, play with your grandkids, and keep doing what you love — on your terms.

Every rep you do today pays off for years to come.

If you haven’t already, now’s the time to start. Stay strong. Stay independent. Stay you.

If you’re ready to take that first step but aren’t sure where to start, reply to this email — we’re here to help.

Strong Today = Strong for Life. 

If you want to lift your grandkids, get up the stairs, haul groceries, and conquer all of life’s adventures with confidence as you age, here’s the science-backed secret: Lift Weights. Yep, those dumbbells in the gym aren’t just for young fitness buffs (you know this!)—they’re your ticket to keep doing the things you love most.

Getting older doesn’t mean getting weaker. In fact, weight lifting—that is, doing resistance training with machines and/or free weights in your 60s and beyond—offers physical and mental benefits that make it a far more important component to healthy aging than you might realize.

Women start losing muscle after 30—and this loss and speeds up after menopause due to dramatic changes in your hormone levels. This change impacts both muscle and bone health, but strength training can help prevent weak bones, promote preservation (and even addition!) of muscle, and set your body up for an active, independent life, according to the International Osteoprosis Foundation. 

Here’s  why weight lifting and strength training are so important as you age, and how you can (safely!) get started

Weight Lifting Can Future-Proof Your Life

Aging gracefully isn’t just about staying active; it’s about choosing the right kind of activity to support your health. Strength training is one of the best ways to counter the effects of aging, helping you build up muscle to support daily activities and prevent conditions like osteopenia and osteoporosis that can lead to bone fractures. And even if you’ve never lifted a weight before, it’s never too late to start.

Weight training is the fountain of youth. Not only does it help increase and maintain bone density to prevent fractures, but the muscle mass that weight training builds also helps to regulate our blood sugar and metabolism.  Weight lifting can even improve balance and coordination, decreasing the frequency, severity, and likelihood of falls. 

On top of the physical benefits, resistance training has shown promise in staving off neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia, according to a 2023 study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, making it a multi-benefit tool for aging well. You can think of lifting weights as your body’s best tool to promote resilience, energy, and independence through the aging process.