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What to Address First If You Want to Stop Overeating | Body Signs to Observe Before the Kitchen [Five Senses Diet]

2026年8月8日 20:53

Overseas, there is a concept called "Whole Person Health" that views a person as a whole rather than in parts.

The Five Senses Analysis Lab is a place where we apply that concept to everyday concerns, connecting the mind, body, lifestyle, and environment to find the tools that suit you right now.

The night of a day you overate.

"It's my fault for keeping snacks in the house."

"There is too much food in the refrigerator."

"I should stop stocking up on food."

Sometimes you think in ways like that.

Certainly, if there is food in front of you, it can be a trigger to eat.

Therefore,

Don't buy snacks.

Organize the refrigerator.

Use smaller dishes.

Decide on the portion size in advance.

For some people, such adjustments are helpful.

However, even if you do all of that,

you still want to eat again.

You go out of your way to buy something at a convenience store.

You start looking for something else in the house.

Sometimes that happens too.

At that time, in the Five Senses Diet, before looking at the kitchen,

Look at "what state your body was in when you felt like eating."

We will look at that.

The first place to organize to stop overeating isn't necessarily the inside of your refrigerator.

🍽️ Overeating doesn't happen just because "the food is there"

When we overeat,

we focus on what we ate.

I ate chocolate.

I ate several pieces of bread.

I ate ramen in the middle of the night.

I finished a whole box of ice cream.

And then,

"I should just not keep these in the house."

we think.

Of course, that is one method.

However, if you go back to the time a little before you reached for that food, you might see something else.

I was busy with work today.

I rushed through lunch.

My body felt heavy from the evening.

By the time I got home, I didn't want to think about anything.

I was feeling a little irritated.

I was sleepy, but I still had things left to do.

I was so tired I didn't want to talk to anyone.

That was when food appeared.

Looking at it this way,

the start of overeating is not in the kitchen.

It may have already begun inside your body several hours earlier.

Perhaps.

🧠 Before you feel the urge to eat, are there other signs appearing?

If you only try to catch the moment you are about to overeat,

it easily becomes a choice between two options:

either resist or eat.

But let's try turning back the clock a little further.

For example, if you are someone whose appetite increases at night, try remembering how your body felt around the evening.

Your shoulders were heavy.

Your head felt foggy.

You were unable to concentrate.

Your body was cold.

You were thirsty.

You felt strangely restless.

Your breathing had become shallow.

I had started thinking about sweets.

After these changes,

"I want to eat something"

hasn't that feeling arrived?

What is important here is,

not to look at appetite in isolation.

What was happening before the urge to eat?

Observe everything up to that point.

🌙 A tired body sometimes tries to switch gears by "eating"

After the day ends and you return home,

you suddenly want to eat something.

Even though you've had dinner, your mouth still feels lonely.

There are days like that.

Sometimes you are truly hungry.

But on other days,

by eating,

from work to home.

from tension to relief.

from activity to rest.

you may be trying to switch your body's state.

When you consume something warm, you feel relieved.

When you eat something sweet, your mood relaxes for a moment.

When you chew something crunchy, you feel a little refreshed.

When you eat something with a scent you love, you feel like 'the day is finally over'.

Food provides not only nutrition, but also

temperature.

scent.

texture.

taste.

and the stimulation of chewing.

It works on those five senses.

That is why,

'I want to eat = I am hungry'

should not be the only conclusion,

I should look at what I am trying to receive from food right now

and observe.

👃 Do I want something sweet, or do I want a 'feeling of rest'?

For example, suppose you crave something sweet on an exhausted night.

In that case,

'Sweets are forbidden'

If you decide just that, you might end up eliminating even the things your body was actually craving.

Let's observe for a moment.

Do you want sweetness itself?

Would a warm drink be enough to calm you down?

Do you want to lie down?

Do you want to go to a quiet place?

Do you want to be alone without talking to anyone?

Conversely, do you want to talk to someone to feel at ease?

Is your body cold and seeking warmth?

Do you want a 'reward for the day'?

It is perfectly fine if the answer changes from day to day.

And,

If you truly want to eat something sweet, you also have the choice to eat it.

The Five Senses Diet is,

not a method of replacing all your appetite with something else.

By checking your body before you eat,

what you truly want to eat,

and

a state where your body is seeking something else,

it is a way to gradually make it easier to distinguish between. 🪑 Before heading to the kitchen, try stopping your body for a moment

To prevent overeating,

there is no need to create elaborate rules.

When you feel like eating something,

before heading to the kitchen,

try pausing for just 30 seconds.

Before opening the refrigerator, stop for just a moment. Take time to check in with your body's voice—are you hungry, or are you tired?

Then, look at your body as it is right now.

Where is the hunger?

Is it in your stomach?

Is it in your mouth?

Is it in your head?

Is your body tired?

Are you thirsty?

Is there tension in your shoulders or jaw?

Are you sleepy?

Are you feeling frustrated?

After that,

if you still want to eat,

then go ahead and eat.

This is the important part.

It does not mean you cannot eat just because you observed yourself.

Observe your body for 30 seconds,

and if you still want to eat chocolate, then choose the chocolate.

However,

instead of opening the bag unconsciously,

confirm by saying, "I want to eat this right now,"

and then eat it.

This small difference

will shift your eating behavior from a "reflex" back to a "choice."

👁️ Today's Five-Sense Check | Recall the 30 minutes before you felt the urge to eat

On days when you overeat,

rather than reflecting on what you ate,

look back at the 30 minutes or so before you started eating.try to reflect on it.

1. Was your body tired?

Check for sleepiness, sluggishness, stiff shoulders, or a feeling of heaviness in your body.

2. Was your previous meal sufficient?

Did you reduce your meal portion too drastically?

Did you eat in a rush, leaving no time to feel satisfied?

3. What kind of taste, temperature, or texture were you craving?

Sweet.

Salty.

Warm.

Cold.

Soft.

Wanting to chew.

Look at what you were craving.

4. How you felt right before eating

Irritated.

Bored.

Lonely.

Tense.

Fatigued.

A sense of accomplishment.

A sense of relief.

Take a brief look at your emotions as well.

5. After eating, was what you truly wanted satisfied?

My stomach was full, but I still don't feel settled.

Conversely, I felt satisfied even with a small amount.

There are hints there as well.

You don't need to identify the cause all at once.

If you observe yourself for a few days,

you may start to see a pattern,

such as, "I tend to overeat when I'm in this state."

Record not just what you ate, but also your physical state and mood before you felt the urge to eat. That is where your own unique appetite pattern may be hidden.

🌿 Measures against overeating don't have to be just about "mechanisms to stop eating."

When we try to prevent overeating,

we immediately try to change our environment.

Throwing away snacks.

Not buying them.

Not going to the kitchen at night.

Putting food in places where it's out of sight.

Of course, if that makes things easier for you, feel free to use those methods.

In the Five-Sense Diet, those are just tools.

However,

there are also people who find it painful just to change their environment.

They feel anxious when food is gone.

When they forbid themselves from eating something, they can only think about that food.

They end up eating a lot when they go out as a reaction to having restrained themselves.

In such cases,

before trying to "keep food away",

consider whether you can reduce the physical state that makes you want to eat

instead.

If you are exhausted in the evening, take a small rest then.

If your lunch is too light, review its contents.

If you keep eating right after getting home, make time to change your clothes and sit down first.

If you crave stimulation at the end of the day, try other sensations like scents, sounds, or a bath.

The entry point is different for everyone.

Therefore,

rather than searching for a universal "overeating prevention method",

knowing the state you are in right before you tend to overeat

can sometimes be more helpful.

🌙 Before opening the refrigerator, try opening the doors of your body a little

After overeating,

we look at the results.

The amount eaten.

The calories consumed.

The weight gained.

But if you only look at those results,

It becomes easy to arrive at the answer of "I'll try harder to resist next time."

In the previous article, I talked about how when you're not losing weight despite your efforts, you should check if your body is feeling strained before increasing your efforts.

The same applies this time.

Because you overate,

you forbid yourself more.

you distance yourself more.

you endure more.

Before doing that,

try turning back time just a little.

Before I ate,

was I tired?

Was I lacking something?

Was I tense?

Was I seeking some other sensation?

The hint to stop overeating,

is not necessarily only inside the refrigerator.

Sometimes, even before opening that door,

your body might have been trying to tell you something all along.

Before organizing the kitchen, look at what state your body was in when you headed there.

Before organizing the kitchen, look at what state your body was in when you headed there.

From there,

a diet that doesn't rely solely on willpower begins.

*If you frequently experience intense hunger or overeating, find it difficult to control your eating behavior, or if it is significantly affecting your physical health or daily life, please do not try to handle it through self-observation alone; consult a professional such as a doctor or registered dietitian.

About the Five Senses Analysis Lab

Overseas, there is a concept called "Whole Person Health," which views a person as a whole, including their lifestyle, environment, and values, rather than separating the mind and body.

In the United States, this is a concept that is researched and practiced by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and university medical institutions.

The Five Senses Analysis Lab is also a place that aligns with this idea of "viewing a person as a whole rather than in parts."

However, the Five Senses Analysis Lab is not a medical institution and is not a place for diagnosis or treatment.

We observe daily concerns by looking at the five senses, physical reactions, lifestyle habits, psychology, and environment, rather than separating them into just the mind, just the body, or just finances.

Based on that, we select tools that might be useful for you right now from among options such as neuroscience, psychology, five-senses observation, the Five Elements, and I Ching.

The Five Senses Analysis Lab is a place to explore "what kind of entry points and tools suit me" while confirming your current position using physical reactions as clues.

We aim to be like a small toolbox where you can take out the necessary tools when needed, rather than forcing any single way of thinking as the correct answer.

Rather than leaving judgments entirely to AI or analysis results, we use them as material to verify your own senses in the end.

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