Dietary depression: why the diet spoils the mood and how to get it back

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Being energetic and cheerful, full of strength and optimism during the process of losing weight is capable of units. We tell you why this happens

Just thinking about a diet already spoils your mood and makes you want to kill everyone? But why does the psyche so strongly resist seemingly positive changes in nutrition? And because most often diets do not bring anything positive.

How you eat is how you feel

Nutrition is one of the factors that directly affects mood. After all, lack of food is a huge stress for the body. A lack of essential nutrients and vitamins, a lack of calories, and therefore energy — everything that directly threatens the vital activity of the body has a negative effect on the psyche.

In addition, often restricting ourselves in food, we do not always achieve our goals. After all, losing weight is not such an easy task. For example, if you simply reduce the calorie content of food, it is not a fact that the weight will decrease. Changing the body's metabolism also requires strength and energy, which can only be obtained from food. Therefore, stopping eating is not an option and eating as little as possible, too.

By the way, eating disorders can also reduce mood. When a person does not eat for a long time, all his thoughts are focused only on food. Psychologists call this “food-producing behavior”.

Therefore, the expert does not recommend taking more than four hours between meals, otherwise not only will the mood deteriorate, but the risk of overeating will also increase. In addition, the longer the fasting period was, the less discerning a person will be in food, or will begin to quickly absorb food, which is also not good for the body and figure.

Set up contact with the body

But even if you leave aside diets and start to be more conscious about food, avoiding overeating, such a restructuring will still require a lot of mental strength. How to maintain working capacity and a normal mood at the same time? Will, for example, products that promote the production of serotonin and other hormones of a good mood: chocolate, black pepper, coffee, bananas, etc. help?

As a convinced expert, a person's mood depends not so much on the composition of the food consumed, but on its consonance with the body's needs. There is such a thing as intuitive nutrition. Each of us from birth is endowed with the ability to understand exactly what he needs. Let's say that today you want fish and you have to give it to your body, but tomorrow you don't have the strength to eat a chop, and here, too, it's better not to argue. The body is smarter: if it lacks protein and hemoglobin decreases as a result, it signals “I want meat!”. If the bones lack calcium, then a person will be tempted to drink a glass of milk and eat cheese.

If you eat normally, without dieting, it will be easier for the body to reach you. But, if you jump from one diet to another, and from it to another, then you can lose contact with your own body.

“Not only food is important, but also the way and time of its consumption,” he clarifies. Nataliya Samoilenko. For example, it is known that not only a lack of calories, but also overeating often leads to a decrease in mood.”

Other nuances of nutrition can have a bad effect on the psychological state. Let's say you wanted to eat a banana with cheese, but you had to finish what was left from dinner. In this case, you can also feel disappointment and negative emotions.

For an esthete, for example, the external design of a dish is no less important, if you just pile food on his plate, he will already be upset. Such a person would rather go hungry than agree to eat anything. And for others, on the contrary, there is nothing nicer than to have a quick bite of shawarma near the subway, and quickly run about your business again. Any needs of the body should be taken into account.

Pay attention to the quality of life

“There are many ways to improve your mood without the help of food,” says the psychologist. — Undoubtedly, it is fresh air, full sleep, intimate relationships, communication with friends and relatives, physical activity. It is no less important to assess your internal resources in a timely manner and give the body the rest it needs.”

To make it easier to survive the necessary changes, it is important to make adjustments to your lifestyle, first of all, to replace your usual passive pastime with something more active. For example, instead of a Friday meal with friends at a restaurant, suggest that they take a joint walk in the park or go on a city tour.

Exclude unhealthy preferences

It is also important to avoid the temptation to cheer yourself up in unwanted ways. For example, with the help of alcohol. This can lead to the development of drinkorexia, which is the name of an eating disorder in which a person replaces one or more meals with alcohol.

“Alcohol cannot be a tool for lifting the mood,” warns nutritionist Nataliya Samoilenko. — If you feel well and want to get better, you can drink a glass of wine, but if you feel bad but want to get better, don't drink. This is a dangerous path that will not lead to anything good. It is important that there is alcohol in the diet no more than 1-2 times a week, and that alcohol is consumed not instead of food, but in addition to it.”

And what about physical activity ? Can it become an alternative to antidepressants, the need for which increases when a person drastically changes his lifestyle and eating style?

Sport contributes to the improvement of metabolism, the development of a good hormonal background, and also improves a person's contact with his own body. But it is not an antidepressant.

Moreover, people often demonstrate so-called avoidance behavior with the help of excessive physical exertion. Doing sports with all their might, they drown out depression. Recent studies have shown that daily intense physical activity has a negative effect on the psyche.

Nevertheless, sports can lift the mood, but only if a person has a desire to do it. Cardio exercises (step aerobics, dancing, elliptical, jumping, running) best improve the hormonal and emotional background. But if a person comes to sports, but at the same time feels uncomfortable, feels, for example, a sense of shame or guilt, then there will be no benefit on an emotional level (only biologically)”.

So if the mood is at zero, it is better in this case, just go for a walk with friends or go to the cinema with them.

Enjoy your mood

The wheel of life consists of eight sectors: health, relationships, environment, recognition, security, self-improvement, brightness of life and spirituality

Self-training, meditation, prayer — everything that increases your harmony with the soul and body improves mood, the expert believes. After all, the responsibility for our own mood lies primarily not with those around us, but with ourselves.

According to psychologists, the first method of self-help is an audit of one's life.

There is a so-called wheel of life. It can be easily found online. This circle consists of eight sectors: health, relationships, environment, recognition, security, self-improvement, brightness of life and spirituality. Each sector includes several points. Let's assume that the concept of “health” includes: well-being, appearance, mood, mobility, nutrition, regime, sleep, sports. And the components of spirituality are: faith, creativity and art.

Try to analyze each of the components of the wheel of life and understand whether today is enough rest, food, communication, self-development, so that you can feel harmonious. Be sure to look for new ways to improve and complement your life. For example, try to go or visit a place you haven't been to in a long time: a theater, a conservatory, a museum, a stadium. Or come up with something more interesting.