Every year at Halloween time I hear women “complaining” about all the candy they’ll eat. It’s a good excuse to buy all the decadent sweets you love so you can pig out on the leftovers. I used to do it too. Halloween brings back memories of going door to door, hoping for my favorite candies, trying to get to as many houses as possible before it was time to stop and then going through my bag of goodies while doing a lot of tasting. It was one of the few times I was allowed to go a bit sugar crazy. Yum! That was always a sweet thing to do.

It’s fine to enjoy the bounties of trick or treating when you’re a kid. But eating all that sugar in adulthood doesn’t get burned off as easily as it did, and it’s an unhealthy activity on many levels, especially when there’s lots of candy left over. If you have kids who come home with loaded bags of sweets, everyone may eat way too much sugar. All that temptation can weaken the strongest resolves. I’m sure you’ll agree that even knowing we shouldn’t eat it all, it’s wrong to throw it away! So what else can we do besides eating it to keep it from going to waste??

Send all extra candy to the troops serving overseas!!!

Operation Gratitude, an organization that sends care packages to brighten up the days of our troops, is asking people to send all leftover candy to them and they’ll send it to people serving in the military.

Operation Gratitude sends gifts year round. They accept many kinds of donated items, including CDs. DVDs, beanie babies/webkinz/trolls, girl/boy scout cookies, nuts, popcorn, hand-made items such as knit/crochet scarves and much more. And of course they accept money donations too. Right now extra candy is a great thing to send. They suggest you include with the candy some toothbrushes and toothpaste. These are things you might take for granted that can be in short supply in many areas. And, personal notes are always appreciated!

So you can save calories by sending your extra candy to Operation Gratitude. There’s more info HERE. They have a Donor sheet to include with what you send HERE.

Helping others is a true blessing for those you help and also for YOU. Not eating too much candy is an act of self-love. Giving is also an act of love!

Think about what it’s like for the troops to be far from home and their loved ones, serving their country to keep us safe. It’s a small thing to send them some candy to brighten their days. Many schools can do this as a project. It’s also nice for kids to learn to give up some of their candy for a good cause. So sweeten the lives of some others and save yourself some calories at the same time! Send your excess candy to Operation Gratitude at:

Operation Gratitude/California
Army National Guard
17330 Victory Boulevard
Van Nuys, CA 91406
Attn: Rich Hernandez

You can call 262-OPGRAT-1 (262-674-7281) if you have questions. Sending candy for the troops is a 2-way blessing! Please spread the word so others can save calories and bring smiles to many faces who deserve to feel good!
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Take the self-love challenge and get my book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways for free at http://howdoiloveme.com. And you can post your loving acts HERE to reinforce your intention to love yourself. Read my 31 Days of Self-Love Posts HERE.

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