Prescription For Cookie Relief

WELLNESS | by POSY GERING

MY FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE against things I want to avoid is cookies. Since I know the relationship between cookie consumption and the size of my waist, I’ve been trying to find a different response. The first step was to realize that my problem wasn’t the cookies, per se, but fear that I’m not enough.

The last time I was gripped by the jaws of fear that there wasn’t — and never would be — enough, I was able to inhibit my desire for cookies long enough to remember my grandmother’s antidote: Put on your shoes. Go outside. Walk fast enough that you’re breathing hard for 10 minutes. Don’t come home until you can think about things differently.

I start out crabby, contracted and crazed, but after puffing uphill for 10 minutes, I’m in a new place. I see plants blooming. I notice the color of the sky and other details of the incredibly abundant natural world around me.

Almost always I want to walk longer. Soon, I realize that my imagination has kicked in, a sure sign of expansion and possibility. And best of all, I’m not under the spell of the cookie any more.