With Halloween right around the corner, there are likely many tempting goodies that you have been eyeing up in the grocery store. Whether it's the mini chocolate bars that get you going or you have a craving for candy corn that you just can't seem to shake, you can make Halloween candy a part of your plan this year and stick with your diet at the same time.

Far too many people think that they must include 100% 'clean' food in their diet if it is to be successful. They look at images of leaner individuals they want to resemble and then condone themselves if they put something processed or non-natural into their bodies.

What they fail to realize is that often times, those lean individuals are not eating entirely 'clean' either.

One of the biggest debates in the fitness industry is whether one must stick to a very strict diet while getting into contest shape, which consists of reaching unnaturally low body fat percentages. More and more competitors these days are finding that they are fully able to get the look they are desiring, all while keeping some 'junk-food-type' of food in their plan, so long as their macronutrients are in line.

This is specifically referring to their carbohydrate intake. Most often people will think they need to eat brown rice, whole wheat pasta (if pasta is included at all!), baked potatoes or yams and unsweetened oatmeal. There just is no place for white rice, white bread, bagels, sweetened cereal or any foods of that nature.

This, however is furthest from the truth. While the former options definitely will offer you more in terms of nutrients, satiety and dietary fibre, when it comes down to strictly fat loss and getting lean, as long as total calorie and carbohydrate gram counts stay the same, it really isn't going to make that big of a difference.

The carbohydrates from a bagel are going to get broken down in the same way the carbohydrates from a baked potato will (although probably much quicker), so the end result will be the same.

Usually where these foods cause a problem, is that a high consumption of them tends to lead to overeating, which then obviously will stall fat loss and could even cause weight gain.

As a one time occurrence however, this is not going to really affect you all that much. You simple just need to remember to keep your portions in control on Halloween so that your total carbohydrate count still does not get out of line. If you are allowed to be eating 200 grams of carbohydrates on your diet and you want to use 100 of those grams for Halloween candy, so be it. Eat the candy, get the craving satisfied and then you can move on with the remainder of your diet. One additional consideration however, it may be slightly smarter, if you can, to eat your Halloween candy with some protein or fat to help slow the digestion of the sugar so you don't end up experiencing a large jump in energy, followed shortly by a huge crash.

By realizing that you have permission to do this, you will take away the 'being bad' part of eating the candy and will be much less likely to just all out binge when you think you've blown your diet.

As dieting is largely a mental game, this is probably one of the most beneficial things you could do for yourself. It's only when you begin to expect perfection all the time that you really run into troubles and get into that all-or-none mindset.

So this Halloween, indulge a little! Your tastebuds will thank you and so long as you do it in a planned fashion, your scale shouldn't budge a bit.