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Calm Energy Robert E. Thayer, Ph.D.
CALM ENERGY: How People Regulate Mood With Food And Exercise
Oxford University Press, 2001; Paperback ed. 2003
ORDER THIS BOOK IN YOUR LOCAL
BOOKSTORE, OR ONLINE: www.amazon.com www.barnesandnoble.com
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ABOUT THE BOOK
You are what you eat, but why are you eating so much? Why can't you
stay with a reasonable exercise program? It's your moods!
The causes of obesity and lack of exercise can be traced to unprecedented
increases in stress, depression, and anxiety. People are working
more, sleeping less, and gobbling antidepressants at an astonishing rate. The
increased pace of life and the information age are overwhelming us, and the
effects are evident. To combat stress in our lives, we are driven to
seek energy from foods we eat. When feelings of depression and
anxiety hit, we self-medicate with food. Drained of energy, we avoid
exercise.
Mood is central to these negative cycles. Our moods are made up of
two elemental feelings – energy and tension. Low energy and
increased tension (tense tiredness) can result in depression, overeating, and
avoidance of exercise. The opposite mood is calm energy, a Zen-like
mood that others have referred to as "Flow" or "the Zone." When
experiencing this state, we eat only what we need, and exercise becomes
attractive.
Managing energy and tension – and therefore regulating our moods – is key to
sticking to a healthy eating and exercise plan. In Calm Energy, Robert
Thayer describes how most people's daily energy cycles function, and explains
how you can learn about your own mood cycles. Instead of using food
as a mood regulator – as in emotional eating – you can use appetite as a
guide and have a better chance of controlling weight. When naturally
occurring periods of tense tiredness occur, such as late afternoon and evening,
you will recognize these danger zones. One of Thayer's most important
research findings is that exercise is a better mood regulator than food or just
about anything, and it can help you stick to a diet because it improves your
mood by giving you more energy.
This provocative new approach to understanding and fighting weight gain and
inactivity offers practical advice and a biological explanation for your
cravings, moods, and avoidance of exercise. You can learn to choose
exercise as an alternative to food when you are feeling down, and experience
the optimum goal of "calm energy."
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WHAT EXPERTS SAY ABOUT CALM ENERGY
"Do you want to be healthy and happy? I do. So I read
this book. It's based on science. But it's practical, and
tells us why we eat too much and exercise too little and what we need to
do."
--FRANK FARLEY, Ph.D., Former President, American Psychological
Association
"Robert Thayer proves that we can manage our moods by simple lifestyle interventions–he scientifically
vindicates the food-mood connection! I
would like to recommend this book to all my colleagues and patients."
–Dr. RONALD HOFFMAN, author of Intelligent Medicine and President of the
American College for Advancement in Medicine
"Thayer's profoundly valuable research on energy and tension, the two
decisive factors in mood, provides a practical set of guides for functioning up
near our best, and feeling like it."
–T GEORGE HARRIS, Founding Editor and Past Editor-in-Chief, Psychology Today
and American Health; Past Editor-in-Chief, Harvard Business Review
"[Calm Energy] (and much of Thayer's research) could have a very important
role to play in getting people to start thinking (and behaving!) in a different
manner about how they should take care of themselves, both nutritionally and
physically. The book is well written and presented in a very readable
fashion, complete with references for the reader interested in more detailed
information. I think this is an excellent addition to the
literature."
–STEVEN PETRUZZELLO, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Kinesiology, Univ. of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Editor: Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology
"As always, Robert Thayer is at the forefront in the new science of mood,
its consequences, and its regulation. His research can (and has)
changed the way people live their lives."
–JAMES A. RUSSELL, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Univ. of British
Columbia
"Thayer presents ...interesting but subtle connections in a way that makes
it easy to draw practical conclusions about how to manage both stress and one's
moods through proper eating and exercise."
–RANDY LARSEN, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Washington Univ. in St. Louis
"Dr. Thayer...offers convincing evidence that by becoming aware of our
daily cycles of energy and tension we can manage our moods and control emotional
eating. Calm Energy is based on sound scientific findings and has
clear practical applications. I recommend it highly."
–EDWARD ABRAMSON, Ph.D., Author of Emotional Eating.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Robert E. Thayer, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at California State University, Long
Beach, where he
teaches "The Psychology of Mood," among other courses.. He is the author of
THE BIOPSYCHOLOGY OF MOOD AND AROUSAL and THE ORIGIN OF EVERYDAY MOODS (New York: Oxford University
Press). His
work is widely cited in the scientific literature (for example, he is a Citation
Classic author), as well as in the popular science media, where his research has
been discussed in hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles. He
lives in Seal Beach, California.
MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
csulb.edu/~thayer
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
IX
Chapter 1 Mood, Self-Regulation, and Overeating 3
Eating
and Other Mood Regulators
Mood
and Overeating
A
Theory of What Moods Tell Us
A
Personal Example of How Moods Cause Overeating
How
We Regulate Our Energy
Self-Control
Mood
and Lack of Exercise
A
Look Ahead
Chapter 2 Living in a Stressful World: Mood and
Overweight 15
Is
Overweight a Society-Wide Problem?
Is
Stress Increasing in Society?
What
is the Cause of Increasing Societal Stress?
Juggling Commitments of Work and Family
Stress in the Information Age
How Do We Try to Counteract Stress?
Depression:
The Growing Epidemic
Are
Depression and Stress Linked to Problems of Overweight?
Chapter 3 How Are Exercise and Mood Related? 29
Exercise
and Eating
Why
Aren't We Exercising More?
Moderate Depression
Exercise
and Mood: A Vital Connection
Exercise and Energy
Exercise Intensity and Mood
Weight Training and Mood
Too Much Exercise
The
Pleasure of Exercise
Negative
Moods: A Double-Edged Sword
Chapter 4 Emotional Eating 49
Do
Special Diets Produce Lasting Weight Loss?
How
Moods Influence Eating
Food
Urges and Self-Regulation
Triggers
to Overeating
Tiredness and Tension
Relapse Among Dieters
Depression
Stress
Stress and Food Choice
Who Eats More Under Stress?
Why
Is Emotional Eating So Important?
Does
Overweight Indicate Emotional Eating?
Chapter 5 Mood Pleasure: Food versus Exercise 71
Pleasure
From Food versus Pleasure From Activity
Food,
Pleasure, and Learning
Eating
versus Physical Activity to Counteract Low Energy, Boredom,
Anxiety, and Depression
Understanding
Weight Gain as Disproportionate Pleasure From Food
How
Exercise Can Reduce the Urge to Snack
Appetite,
Hunger, and Their Cause in Physiology and Mood
Appetite
Suppression and Mood: The Wider Circle of Evidence
Chapter 6 Why Do We Have Moods? 87
The
Measurement of Mood
How
Many Moods Do We Have?
What
Underlies Good and Bad Moods?
Calm
Energy
Tense
Energy
Tense
Tiredness
Calm
Tiredness
Happiness
Anger
Sexual
Arousal
What
Is the Function of Moods?
Energy
Tension
The
Effects of Energy and Tension on Eating and Exercise
How
a Little Tension, but Not Too Much, Can Raise
Your Energy
How
Increasing Energy Can Elevate Tension, but Only Up to a Point
Exhaustion:
Too Tired to Be Tense
Chapter 7 Changes in Energy–And Mood 113
Energy
Rhythms and Tension Changes
Night-Eating
Syndrome
Self-Observation
of Energy and Tension
Tense
Tiredness and Negative Thoughts
Changing
Perceptions of Our Problems
Can
We Think Ourselves Into a Good Mood?
Energy
Variations in Sickness and Health
The
Value of Sleep
Are
Your Moods Caused by Things That Happen to You?
Chapter 8 The Biopsychology of Energy and Tension 133
The
Activated Freeze Response
Differences
Between Energy and Tension
Both
Body and Brain Direct Our Moods
Blood
Glucose
Autonomic
Nervous System
Hormones
and Mood
Chemical Imbalance: Neurotransmitters, Modulators, and
Neuropeptides
Serotonin,
Endorphins, and Other Well-known Neurochemicals
Brain
Structures Responsible for Arousal and Mood
Reticular
Activating System
Limbic
System
Cerebral
Cortex
Chapter 9 Managing Your Mood 155
The
Best Strategy for Eating Healthy and Maintaining an Exercise Program
Awareness
Becoming
Aware of Daily Cycles of Energy and Tension
Mood
Influences on Food Urges, Hunger, and Satiation
Personal
Problems and Low Self-Esteem
Depression,
Anxiety, Boredom, Loneliness, and Anger
Reactions
to Stress
How
Do You Self-Regulate Your Moods?
Your
Exercise Time
Effects
of Exercise on Mood
Relaxation
Techniques
Cognitive
Override
Appendix. Energy and Tension
Ratings 179
Notes 181
Index 255
About
the Author 276
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COMMUNICATE WITH THE AUTHOR
mood@csulb.edu
