[The Baking Typewriter] Diet, Let's First Relieve Our Fluctuating Moods

If You Feel Bad, Alcohol and Binge Eating Vicious Cycle
Key to Diet Success: 'Mental Stability'
Control Appetite Through Mood First

"I'm feeling dizzy. Please make ramen quickly." This was said by a man coming out of his room on a 2008 domestic educational program's diet segment. He had already devoured several bags of snacks. After a slight struggle, his mother cooked 3 packs of ramen and 2 eggs for him. This scene became a meme (online viral content) and is still often used to express situations where some desire is unmet, causing headaches and impatience.

Everyone intuitively understands the pain felt between dieting and hunger. It is agonizing not to be able to eat the food you want. There is anxiety about the yo-yo effect (returning to pre-diet weight) even after the diet ends. When the real yo-yo effect occurs, the depression doubles.

"If your diet has repeatedly failed until now, it is not because of a lack of willpower. If you felt weak, irritable, and thought about food all day during dieting, it is because you were doing the wrong diet that fought against your body." The author of Don’t Let Your Mood Become Your Appetite finds the key to dieting in mood. To reduce weight, you must first tame your appetite through your mood.

You need to be in a good mood to eat healthily. When in a bad mood, you crave stimulating foods and binge eat. Drinking alcohol leads to carbohydrate intake. If weight increases during this process, a vicious cycle of self-loathing and depression begins. To avoid always making losing choices swayed by fluctuating mood and appetite, you must regain control over your mood and appetite. The start is to regulate the mood that triggers unruly appetite and eat the right foods.

The author himself experienced what could be called mild bipolar disorder, "cyclothymic disorder," and "obsession with food and weight" in the past. Food was the easiest stress relief method. At the same time, it was a strategy to pair something liked (snacks) with something disliked (studying or work). Gaining weight was not the problem then. What mattered was getting through the disliked tasks somehow. That way, both body and mind were damaged together.

Now working as an obesity and dermatology physician, the author concluded, "Traditional diets emphasizing only exercise and meal plans make appetite control difficult and cannot avoid the yo-yo effect." The solution is 'stabilizing mood and appetite.' To eat food pleasantly and deliciously, you must increase satisfaction, not quantity. By regulating mood, you can consume the right foods and create a body with a healthy metabolic state and a low weight set point.

The book analyzes what lifestyle habits and foods cause mood and appetite to run wild, how to align the foods you want to eat with the foods you should eat, and the meal methods and daily habits to tame fierce appetite. Based on personal experience and patient care, it organizes ways to reach a proper diet that maintains target weight while enjoying delicious food.

Understanding familiar diet knowledge with medical evidence is different. You realize the meaning of diet proverbs that once felt like nagging, making them easier to practice. "What we need is the skill to consume only the necessary nutrients and finish meals. How do we develop this skill? When the body lacks hydration, false hunger can occur. It is also good to avoid foods that cause the stomach to empty quickly. Carbohydrates are a prime example. Protein, fat, and dietary fiber keep you feeling full longer." Body and mind are closely connected. Ultimately, the easiest way to change signals from the body is to change what you eat.

Don’t Let Your Mood Become Your Appetite｜Written by Lee Yooju｜Booktable｜296 pages｜18,800 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.