Booster Attribute #2: Peace
What fills your life with a sense of peace or calm? And what spiritual beliefs help you to make sense of your life? As you think about the answers to these questions, consider the practices that are both spiritual
and
good for your serotonin: meditation, yoga, prayer, listening to music. Filling our lives with peace also has a direct effect on weight. A lack of peace increases the stress hormone cortisol in the brain, which tells the body to store fat in the most dangerous place—the belly. So find the activity, the pet, the relationship—and the food—that help you bring peace into your life.
Booster Attribute #3: Pride
If someone were to ask you, “What are the three things in your life that you are most proud of?” what would your answer be? When you can feel good about these answers, your serotonin and dopamine stores will rise. Enjoy the qualities and achievements that you are most proud of—revel in them and share them with others—and your brain chemistry and your waistline will benefit.
Booster Attribute #4: Power
What gives you a sense of power in your life? People who don’t feel power are prone to hopelessness, anger, low self-worth, and sadness. We all need to feel powerful, to experience a sense of competency and mastery in one or more areas, throughout our lives. You can increase your sense of power by knowing you are a good parent or that you are really good at Sudoku. You can know you’re a good driver, and when you use that skill to volunteer for a Meals On Wheels program, well, then you really have a double whammy in feeling good. Your serotonin and dopamine levels rise and you feel empowered, too, to make changes in your diet and your health. But if you don’t think you’re good at
anything,
then everything becomes harder. Ask yourself, “What are my strengths and how can I best use them?” In that answer lies your power.
Booster Attribute #5: Passion
What are the things in this world that truly interest you? You usually know it by your perception of time: When you’re engaged in an activity you’re passionate about, time seems to fly by. No two people are alike, so it’s important to fill your life with things that are captivating to
you
. When we operate from this approach, our lives feel more fulfilling. We actually
want
to read up about a topic or spend our time with that hobby. You can find passion in many places—work, relationships, hobbies, or volunteer opportunities. What happens when we have more passion in our lives? You guessed it: hefty doses of dopamine in the brain, since engaging in activities you’re passionate about is rewarding.
Booster Attribute #6: Productivity
One of the best things we can do when we feel sad is to distract ourselves with something that makes us feel productive. Clean out that junk drawer. Go to work. Do the laundry. Even if you don’t feel like it . . .
especially
when you don’t feel like it. This sort of redirection helps to decrease many pitfalls in our life, particularly paralysis-analysis, pervasiveness, and pessimism. It, too, builds our brain chemistry as it helps us to take action in our lives and instill a sense of purpose. Our serotonin increases, because we actually have more positive things to focus on.
Booster Attribute #7: Pleasure
Pleasure, dopamine, and serotonin go together like ice cream and hot fudge—or like berries and Greek yogurt. So when you’re sad, get a massage! Watch your favorite TV show. Laugh. All of these are great serotonin and dopamine boosters, and maybe just the thing you need to feel good. But, remember, a truly happy and healthy life has a balance of all these boosters—so don’t get stuck living a life of just pleasure!
Fine-Tuning Your Brain Chemistry
Now that you understand the basic principles of Diet Rehab, it’s time to get specific. Let’s move on to Part II, where you’ll find out which of your brain chemicals need boosting and exactly what you need to do to boost them.
PART II
Your Brain on Food
4
Feeling Anxious: Hungry for Serotonin
As we saw in Part I, serotonin is a key brain chemical that’s crucial for many mental and physical functions. This peace-giving substance soothes, comforts, and encourages. High levels of serotonin make us feel optimistic and hopeful about achieving our goals and triumphing over our challenges. Low stores of serotonin make us feel anxious, fearful, and pessimistic about what we can accomplish.
Serotonin’s importance to our brains is best illustrated by the cases of people with severely low levels. People with a history of aggressive behavior such as arson, assault, and murder have been found to suffer from drastically low serotonin levels. Self-directed violence, including self-mutilation and suicide, has also been associated with low serotonin. On a less extreme level, low serotonin has been linked to obsessive-compulsive behavior, chronic pain, chronic digestive problems, some types of sexual problems, alcoholism, sleep disturbances, chronic fatigue syndrome, migraines, cluster headaches, and eating disorders.
So when you’re feeling anxious, upset, or despairing—especially when you’re hungry—this is not a sign of poor character or emotional weakness. You are experiencing your body’s desperate need for serotonin. The solution is not to berate, restrict, or question yourself. The solution is to feed yourself! Your body, mind, and spirit will all benefit from the booster foods and activities that you’ll add when you follow the 28-day plan of Diet Rehab. And you’ll be amazed that, maybe for the first time in your life, you no longer feel hungry, but full, content, and at peace.
Are You Hungry for Serotonin?
In my personal and my clinical observation, the vast majority of people in the United States are serotonin-deprived, which is why sweet, starchy foods have such a hold on us. Speaking as the kid who grew up medicating my own anxieties with ramen and full-sugar soda, I understand! Our culture is fast-paced, and our obsession with following mostly frightening or disturbing news all day long only feeds the uncertainty that most of us feel. People are much more likely to live alone than in decades past, and this can lead to increased feelings of loneliness. A working parent may feel held hostage by constant worry—especially if he or she is the only parent actively involved in the child’s life. But there is a solution.
The first step in solving the problem is identifying the problem. If we can find out what is missing from your life, then we can also figure out what we need to add to your life, so you can get the serenity, hope, and peace you deeply crave. Once we target these underlying emotional issues through booster foods and activities, you may be relieved to discover that your battle with food no longer feels like a constant struggle. So let’s take that first step and find out what’s going on with your brain chemistry. Take the following quiz to find out whether you, too, are hungry for serotonin.
Get the Full Picture
Whatever your results, please don’t stop here. You might also be ravenous for dopamine. Whether you score high or low on the serotonin quiz, check out Chapter 5 to make sure you’ve gotten the fullest possible picture. You need both scores to choose the version of Diet Rehab that is perfect for
you.
Are You Hungry for Serotonin? A Quiz
Score the following:
0—never
1—rarely
2—sometimes
3—frequently
4—always
1. I feel that I’m not getting enough of one or more of the following: calm, serenity, peace, or quiet.
2. When I feel blue, my idea of comfort might include one or more of the following: cuddling, seeing a therapist, meditation, yoga, a gentle stroll, a romantic movie, peaceful music, or talking to someone to cheer me up.
3. I crave tea, wine, cigarettes, or cigars.
4. When I’m in a bad mood I crave sugar, carbs, foods with a soothing texture, such as ice cream, or soothing temperatures, such as soup, or familiar foods.
5. I don’t like it when things are out of place.
6. I don’t like it when people are late.
7. I question myself and wonder whether I’ll be good enough to reach my goals.
8. I wonder why other people seem to have it so much more together than I do.
10. I prefer a job where there is not much pressure or where I can work alone without competition or demands.
11. I like to take care of others by cooking.
12. I will eat when others do, just to be polite.
13. I startle easily or am easily frightened.
14. I get stuck in anxious thoughts.
16. I carry tension in my body, especially my neck, back, shoulders, around the temples, or in my jaw.
18. When I have a physical symptom, I worry about what potentially life-threatening disease I might have.
19. I have trouble falling asleep.
20. I don’t like to sit still. I either pace, do something with my hands, or have something in my mouth. I rely on gum, toothpicks, cigarettes, candy, playing with my hair, or some other way of keeping busy.
22. I have the general feeling that things are not going to be okay.
23. I eat to calm myself down.
26. I consider myself a conflict-avoider or people-pleaser.
27. When things are bad, I have trouble seeing any hopeful possibilities.
28. I use sedating prescription drugs (e.g., painkillers, tranquilizers, or anti-anxiety medication) in a way I know a physician did not intend or use illegal sedating drugs (e.g., marijuana, Ecstasy, heroin).
29. I have a history of anxiety, bipolar disorder, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anorexia, agoraphobia, or specific phobias. (If no, score this item 0; if yes, score this item 4.)
30. I have responded favorably to anti-anxiety medication, sleeping pills, or the following antidepressants or their generic formulations: Buspar, Celexa, Cipralex, Cymbalta, Effexor, Lexapro, Lustrol, Luvox, Paxil, Pristiq, Prozac, Remeron, Sara-fem, Seroxat, Serzone, Zoloft. (If no, score this item 0; if yes, score this item 4.)
SCORING
Add up your scores for items 28, 29, and 30.
Total (from boxes 28, 29, and 30 only): _______________
Now, multiply this number by 3.
X3 = _______________ (A)
Add up your scores for items 1–27.
Total: _______________ (B)
If you are a woman, put a 5 in box C.
If you are a man, put a 0 in box C.
_______________ (C)
A + B + C = _______________ (D)
Your score: _______________
Did Just Taking This Quiz Make You Feel Anxious?
If it did, don’t worry. That’s a perfectly normal reaction—especially if you’re starved for serotonin—and it doesn’t actually mean that anything’s wrong. It only means that your default reaction to stress is to feel anxious.
The good news is that whatever your score, there is something you can do about it—something that won’t be difficult and that might even be fun. Remember,
gradual detox
means that you get to keep eating everything you already enjoy while adding serotonin boosters to your diet and your life. Adding these new foods and activities will go a long way toward calming your anxieties and making you feel great. So take a slow deep breath, release it slowly, and then read on to find your score.
ARE YOU HUNGRY FOR SEROTONIN? YOUR SCORE
0–20 : SATISFIED AND AT PEACE
Congratulations! Your serotonin levels are healthy, and you’ve figured out how to keep them that way. Your balanced brain chemistry is paying off with a feeling of well-being, self-confidence, and peace. Read the rest of this chapter to understand how you can identify your mantra and other key elements of Diet Rehab. Then move on to Chapter 5 to explore whether you are ravenous for dopamine.
21–40: HUNGRY FOR SEROTONIN: MODERATE, FREQUENT ANXIETY
If you scored in this range, your anxiety is under control, but it’s a far greater presence in your life than it needs to be. You may be aware of your anxiety as something that impedes your pleasure, or you might be so used to feeling anxious that you don’t even think about wanting to feel less so. (It took me a long time even to identify that I
was
anxious—I thought I was just being realistic about how scary the world was and how hard I had to work not to fail my family or to be a bad person.) Again, the good news is that you can start taking steps to make yourself feel better by undergoing gradual detox from the foods and thought patterns that are contributing to your anxiety. Read on through the rest of this chapter to find out more.
OVER 40: FAMISHED FOR SEROTONIN: MODERATE
TO INTENSE ANXIETY, ALMOST ALWAYS
If your score was over 40, your serotonin levels have fallen very low, and you are understandably desperate to feed them. You probably experience frequent, intense cravings for sugar and starch, and you may also struggle with mood swings that are linked to when and how you eat. You may be frustrated, discouraged, or despairing about how out of control you feel, both of your moods and your appetite. Please don’t berate yourself any longer. You are simply doing your best to feed your brain chemistry, but you haven’t yet been given the tools to help you do it effectively. Now you have those tools: Diet Rehab and gradual detox will help you rebalance your brain chemistry without making you feel deprived. Congratulate yourself for finding this book and read on through this chapter for concrete, specific suggestions that will start you on your healing journey.