isolated food vector

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Drawing Flower #digital

quick sketch with Corel X7

Eating and Emotional State

Health is more than just physical well-being, being mentally healthy is a must too. It’s important to not only focus on physic but also mental aspect. Several weeks ago I find my self using eating to comfort me on every “not-that-good” situations. I wonder how if I eat savoury foods and snacks then gaining some happiness, while I hope it can reduce my uncomfortable feelings. But finally I realize that was not a good habit. I ate everything that I thought it can reduce my emotional complexity. I didn’t even think about the nutrition and calories which enter my body. And according to what I read, it’s emotional eating, using food to make my self feel better—eating to satisfy emotional needs, rather than to satisfy physical hunger.

 

 “As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy, and to make plans.” - Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

When people turn to food and they're not physically hungry, it means that they're using food for something else besides satisfying the needs of the body. They're using it for a different kind of hunger, an emotional hunger, a psychological hunger, or a spiritual hunger. - Geneen Roth, Hughes & Hughes

The sentence Ernest Hemingway’s written above tells us that he used food to feel some sensation and it made him happy. Hemingway described the effects of a simple plate of oysters on his happiness and well-being while in Paris in the 1920s. It means he used food not for satisfying his physical hunger but for psychological hunger like what Geneen Roth has said. So do I, who sometimes make an association between delicious food and happiness. It’s okay when I do it once or twice. It’s okay when I make an association between coffee and stress relieve, then I drink coffee sometimes. It’s okay when I eat donuts to refresh my mind and begin to make several plans. But it won’t be okay when it leads to uncontrollably consumption. And it won’t be okay when it turns to be long-term habit that leads to obesity. Before you regret for everything that you have done to your body, better to realize earlier that you are what you eat (—everything that enter the body like food, information, knowledge, etc.) And yes, I do apologize to my body for using food as an escapism, also for letting the weight gain day by day as the effect of uncontrollably eating. Now, I don’t even know why I ate that super oily fried rice or fried cabbage with fried chicken in huge size while I didn’t know what kind of oil they used to fry.... or how much calories I gave for my body, babe. 

Several research has found that chocolate can encourage body to produce endorphin. Endorphin is kind of compound that’s able to reduce stress. Even there’s still many variants mostly consisted by dark cocoa. But I often meet chocolate bar consisted by more sugar than cocoa. It’s okay to eat them once or twice. But it’s not okay to consume sugar in excessive way since sugar isn’t good for our health in some amounts. Our body is consisted by approximately 5 liters of blood. And we just need only 5gr of sugar a day. Pancreas will work harder every time we consume more than our body needs.  Eat chocolate or something sweet when you are sad is okay. But, it’s better to manage our emotional state in order to avoid eating sugar in excessive way. In long term, managing our psychological aspect is a better choice than depending on food to reduce our emotional complexity. It’s not easy to manage and it takes process to reach a stable state. But if we don’t start to learn, to accept, to realize, we will never grow.

As I realize I’ve let my self fall in this unhealthy habit, I try to read several articles how to manage my emotional complexity. According to Herman and Polivy (2005), the relation between eating and mental health is thus bi-directional: one's psychological state can affect what and how much one eats, and eating affects one's mood and psychological well-being. The consequences of eating on mental health may reinforce healthy or unhealthy eating patterns. 

The end, let’s try to control the cognitive aspect, like managing emotion, trying to fix the way we see problems, practicing “ikhlas” even sometimes it’s hard to do. And like what Herman and Polivy (2005) said, since they have a bi-directional relationship, so from the one side, we can control our emotional state in order to not reinforce the unhealthy eating pattern. While the other side, we can control what we eat which affects to our mood and psychological well-being. It may be not easy, but we can train ourselves to do it so. Good luck everyone, be healthy, be happy!  

 Cheers,WP.

The Sweety Seoul

sometimes we have to go outside to see what happen inside.

Beauty Review : Sheet Mask Nature Republic

Last month I went to Seoul, South Korea, joining a kind of youth leadership program.  I have planned to do a backpacker after finishing the program, exploring some cities there. And yes, right after the program came to the end, with my friends, we booked a low-budget room to stay at Insadong for several days.

I was the one who's not really concern about make up, until my friend met me with Korean skin care and make up. I didn't even know that Korean make-up was really hype in Indonesia that time. So, I tried to buy several items like masker, facial foam, bio-peel, bb collagen, bb cushion, eye brow pencil, toner, emulsion, and moisturizer. Half of them I bought to resell in Indonesia. Half of them I bought to use by myself.

I browsed and googled to find several information about Korean skin care. From what I got based on beauty bloggers and vloggers's review, I chose to buy masker from Nature Republic (NR).

First Impression
It was the first time I use a sheet mask. My skin felt so fresh and well-hydrated. I just think that I don't need any other me-time, because applying masker enough to make my mind relax.

Relaxing Fragrance
The most I loved from this masker is the fragrance. For some situations, I use sheet masks for self-relaxation, it gives a really good me-time.

How to Use
1. Start with a fresh face, better to wash our face and putting toner before we apply the mask. It helps prep skin to absorb the ingredients.
2. Set a 10-15minute time limit. Many people say they use masker as long as they can. But according to what I read behind the package, it's better to use it 10-15 minutes only. And if we keep the sheet mask after it becomes dry, it will moisture away from our skin.

Benefit
After several weeks using masker from NR, my face feels well-hydrated and fresh.

Reminder
For me, how often we take care of body outside, better to manage our nutrition inside. It's important to eat fruits and vegetables often. So, don't forget to make a balance  between taking care both inside and outside.