As long as I can remember, I’ve gotten stressed in the winter. Could it be the heavier workload, the lack of sunlight or the crappy weather? Likely all of the above!

And when I get winter-stressed, I start my annual quest for the perfect comfort snack that will take the troubles away and make life good again.

It’s happening again this year. The stress, that is. And since I just marked my one year anniversary of starting to work out regularly with a trainer at the gym, I’m trying really hard to not fall into the comfort snack trap this year.

Usually my first fall-back is chocolate. My justification is that I was born in Switzerland so the way I see it, it’s my patriotic duty to consume as much chocolate as I can. After all, the stats say that the average Swiss consumes more than 11 kg of chocolate per year.

But I’m also a fan of salty snacks, like popcorn or potato chips. And of course, they can’t be eaten plain. Popcorn is best served with hot melted butter on top, and the Lay’s just taste that much better when they’re dunked in Helluva Dip’s french onion dip.

And there’s the more weird things that I have been known to snack on that make my husband turn away in disgust, things like freshly baked bread slathered in Kraft Mayonnaise, pancetta, pickled beets and cocktail onions.

But this year, instead of food, I’ve found a new crutch – Diet Dr Pepper. I can drink cans of it a day and although its caloric value isn’t worrisome, the high sodium levels I noticed the other day are. There’s just no easy answer, it seems.

My thought in writing about this is that it’ll make it easier to stick to the “no comfort snacking” regime if I’ve gone public with it. The flip side of this is that writing about it is making me crave it…right now. A lot. Hmm, time to end this blog post, me thinks.

But what’s your favourite comfort food? What snack can’t you resist reaching out for? Share your story and let me know I’m not the only one!

Photo thumbnails from www.swisstraveller.com, www.viewpoints.com, www.collegecandy.com.