Compulsion

I experience occasional anxiety crises. I'm not anxious all the time, but there are moments when I lose control and have the urge to eat an entire chocolate bar. Whether it's due to PMS, a stressful job, or a sense of existential emptiness. Who hasn't been there?

I was consistently going to the gym until my knee started acting up. Approaching the age of forty, I discovered I have patellar deviations that are wearing down the cartilage. Sitting hurts, walking hurts. The solution would be to go to the gym gradually to correct the problem. Ironically, this is the month when I've had the most work. Sitting. Which made my knees hurt even more and pushed me toward rest.

Working while sitting triggers anxiety for me. Whether it's to finish quickly, see the work flow, or distract myself from the strident sounds of the four people and three dogs in my house while trying to host a webinar.

I need peace and quiet to control anxiety.

Then I had a brilliant idea to manage my anxiety with food. Sometimes, I've had crazy binges, eaten chocolate until I couldn't bear to look at it for a month, devoured an entire cake, and eaten pizza until I was sick of it.

Yes, sometimes I just want to 'indulge' in the compulsion and not control it. Like a caged lion, the compulsion will only stop roaring when it's free to be what it is: a wild animal.

Is there a way to indulge 'healthier'? You know those 'snacks' we eat during a crisis, like popcorn, peanut eggs, Doritos, and pork rinds? They're little things that seem light and stimulate eating in quantity, riding the wave of compulsion.

Could there be low-calorie versions of these tasty snacks?

Nutritionists advise eating foods that combat crises, like bananas, oats, and nuts. But we never find something healthy that we can eat to enjoy the crisis until it passes.

My golden tip for nutritionists is: an industrialized menu (after all, who has time to make sweet potato squares in the Air Fryer when you're about to bite the walls?), tasty, with few calories, low sodium, and that you can eat by the handful without guilt (and without affecting your silhouette).

Fifteen minutes of crisis that can be controlled so simply that they don't ruin a week of dieting.

The pot of gold is there. Only those who don't want to see it miss out.