How’s My Eating?

Zachary Sturman — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 06:17:16 +0000

“Breathe”
"The food’s not going anywhere."
"Are you in a race?"

I eat too fast. It’s something that’s been an issue in my life for as long as I can remember. I always finish my food way faster than the people around me.

Sitting in front of the TV, barely chewing my food, and missing the moment when my body tries to tell me I’m full—binge eating can be a challenging habit to break, mostly because it’s really, really hard for me to pull my concentration away from the act of eating to the act of self-control.

There are a lot of benefits of slowing down:

Mindful eating habits lead to healthier food choices
Avoiding overeating by listening to your body
Quality of life increases when you actually taste what you're eating

I’ve tried a lot of different ways to slow down my eating like matching my bite pace with someone who eats slower and counting my chews.

These strategies have their downsides, such as:

Distraction from social interactions
Not allowing yourself to enjoy the flavors
And it's just hard to maintain long enough to build habits

"There's an app for that"

“How’s My Eating?” is an app designed to provide real-time notifications about your eating habits. Specifically, the app would monitor your eating pace or chew count and alert you if you’re eating too fast. This could lead to:

Healthier eating habits
Better digestion
More enjoyment of food

How to Make It?

To achieve this, I decided to focus on kinetic data—movements and patterns captured by devices like AirPods. This method is less intrusive and more feasible for users who value privacy.

I’m excited to continue developing “How’s My Eating?” and share my progress with you. This is the first post I’ve made in this format, so I hope it came across well. I plan to develop a schedule to keep these updates coming, but for now, let’s aim for one post a week.

DEV Community: Zachary Sturman

How’s My Eating?

"There's an app for that"