[Flickr: Jamiesrabbits]

Halloween candy can be tough on a serious eater's diet in any number of ways. Let's count them. When my son Will was a little boy, he would come back from trick-or-treating in our apartment building with two grocery bags full of candy, a veritable avalanche of serious diet-busting treats. Will graduated from college last May and moved into his own place a few weeks ago, so we don't have to deal with this problem anymore.

Than there's the fact that my wife and I buy lots of trick-or-treat-sized candy bars for the many kids in our building that ring our doorbell on Halloween. I remember hating the homeowners in my childhood neighborhood who, in the name of health and nutrition, gave out mini boxes of raisins instead of candy, so we make sure that we have quality candy stocked. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Twix, and Mounds usually comprise the Halloween menu at our apartment.

As a serious eater I have a reputation to uphold. We can't be giving away just any candy at our house.

The problem, of course, is that invariably we have a lot of candy left over, and I have an unfortunate tendency to eat a lot of that good candy. This causes me to gain weight, which makes me unhappy, which in turn causes me to eat more candy, and gain even more weight. Yup, Halloween is bad news when you're on a serious diet.

So what happened this year?

We were away over Halloween weekend and didn't arrive back at our apartment until nearly 8 p.m. on Sunday night. I went to the grocery store around the corner from our apartment looking for some last-minute Twix or mini Mounds to buy for the stragglers in our building. But mercifully the store was just about sold-out of bags of Halloween candy, so I ended up with one measly bag each of mini Snickers and mini Baby Ruths.

I brought them back to the house and put them in a wicker basket in front of our door. Unfortunately, very few trick-or-treaters came by between 8 and 10 p.m., so we did end up with more than a little candy left over. My wife Vicky put the basket in her home office, hoping I would be reluctant to go in there to get the candy. I did end up having a total of four mini Baby Ruths in the next 24 hours. I would give myself a C+ in the self-control department for that performance. I could have done a lot better, but it also could have been a lot worse.

Weigh-In

Halloween and the mini Baby Ruths weren't the only challenges I faced down this week.

The serious eaters at world headquarters were treated to a chocolate tasting by well-known Wisconsin-based chocolatier Gail Ambrosius on Wednesday, and Erin held a pumpkin pie tasting yesterday. But I think my resolve held up pretty well, so let's just see what happens when I jump on Thinner: 223. Same as last week.

I survived the four mini Baby Ruths.