Hey, it's Mukundan from Data and AI with Mukundan.
Welcome to another episode. So today's episode,
I just want to talk about how I turned a midnight
craving into a moment of reflection. And I used
GPT -4 for this. So if you've not been here before,
Data and AI with Mukundan is a show where we
explore how technology can connect us back to
ourselves. So today's story actually starts with
Taco Bell. You know, the one that gives us the
runs in the morning. And more specifically this
episode, I wanted to actually see how an experience
of me ordering on Taco Bell has changed how I
order in the future. So this particular one.
revolves around me standing in front of my fridge
for the third time that week. And not because
my week starts on a Thursday of the previous
week. It doesn't even start on Sunday. It started
on Monday. Monday was my first day. Went to the
fridge at midnight. Tuesday, went to the fridge
at midnight. Wednesday, this is the Wednesday
that I did go back again and yes that was my
third time and i'm it's not because i'm you know
i was hungry or something i was just searching
and i don't even mean for food it's i don't know
what i was searching uh at that time i didn't
know at least so so this particular you know
wednesday midnight it was 12 19 a .m and i had
already deleted the doordash app and doordash
for those of you who are not familiar it's a
food delivery app basically delivers food to
your home and this app can be super addictive
if you are someone who likes to binge eat a lot
at really odd times and i i was that person um
and i think i'm still improving it's most days
i may still browse it but that's where this app
comes into play And I think this is something
which can really help us go address what we feel.
And so anyway, just coming back to the app here,
my fingers knew exactly where to go in Google
Chrome because I don't have the DoorDash app,
but I do know how to access it in my Google Chrome.
And I'm already signed in. I'm already signed
into the app on Google Chrome. So all I have
to do is just... Just click on D and dot app
appears, right? And it knows my recommendations.
It knows that I like McDonald's, that I like
Taco Bell. It knows that I like the one pizza
place that didn't even deliver past midnight.
And on that night, just like others before that,
I wasn't hungry. Like I said, I was just anxious,
restless. and lonely and lonely because it's
been i felt like it was a long week and you know
just dealing through these problems at work um
by myself it was it was a lot to deal with i
didn't feel like i was communicating enough at
that time and um yeah so i felt like it did affect
me i was stress eating is what you know there's
a term for that Or most people like to call it
binge eating, right? On that night, however,
something clicked. So what I did, instead of
placing an order, I opened my laptop. And I wrote
a small app. One that would do what I wasn't
doing for myself. It was going to ask me what
I was really feeling. Think of this as no calorie
counting, no judgment. It's going to be just
a space, like a place where you can come and
vent. It's a place where I could type something
like, I just want to inhale fries. I can inhale
the Coke right now. And not even diet Coke or
Coke Zero, just regular Coke. And the bot would
reflect, maybe it's not hunger. Maybe it's your
body asking for comfort. And, you know, it will
also tell you what else could you do to soothe
yourself tonight. And it used GPT -4 to detect
emotion. It logged my craving and most importantly,
it reflected it back with kindness. So every
entry was like a mirror, not one that pointed
out the flaws. It was just one that asked, what
are you actually needing right now? And here's
the wild part. The more I used it, the less food
I needed to avoid my feelings. Because I started
spotting some patterns. The cravings which I
had, they peaked after I avoided hard conversations.
And so what I mentioned earlier, that I was not
communicating enough. so kind of going in my
in my own shell um so that was something i felt
like um my cravings increased after that i was
not even communicating with myself that was the
biggest problem and i was just like avoiding
my feelings right you need to have hard conversations
with yourself when you are feeling certain things
and i wasn't doing that these cravings they dropped
on nights when i journaled so when i started
journaling these cravings they started reducing
and they spiked on days i felt ignored or overstimulated
now it's been a few weeks since i've developed
this app and i've started using it so just wanted
to see how this would work and just like that
what started as a snack deflector became a truth
finder and here's the thing i wasn't trying to
build a food dairy i ended up becoming i mean
building a therapist that i could talk to without
shame i didn't become a therapist but the app
did the app became my therapist it just listened
and that's what a therapy is like i mean the
therapist is supposed to listen um they don't
offer too much advice i don't know i've never
been to therapy but um I think that's what it
is. But anyway, so I wasn't trying to build that
food dairy. It's just that I ended up building
a therapist that I could talk to without any
shame, right? And eventually I just turned to
the same concept, turned the same concept into
a full -fledged dashboard. So which is having
a check -in tab, a journal view, and a CSV that
you can download and... Look for trends. And
I even made a custom GPT inside ChatGPT, which
is like craving confidant, right? So this is
someone you can message it from your phone, like
it's a friend who listens. Not one who fixes
you, but one who just hears you, right? So if
you're like me, and if you ever stood in front
of a fridge at midnight, not because you were
hungry, But because you are hoping to feel something,
maybe what you need isn't another app to block
bad food. Maybe what you need is just a way to
hear what your body's been whispering underneath
those cravings. Build it, talk to it, reflect
with it. And if you want the code of how I did
it, I'm going to link in the show notes of how
I've done it. There's also going to be a mini
course of how you can do it step by step. that's
going to come up soon on mysubstack .com on mysubstack
website and the website will be linked in the
show notes so just keep watching the website
for a new subscribe to my website I will post
like a little mini course which will help you
build this app by yourself as well if the blog
is not clear the blog is actually on medium .com
and you need a medium .com membership to access
the blog but anyway this isn't just about the
food It's about learning to listen when the world
gets too loud. So, you know, thanks for joining
me. And like I said, you can find the full code,
the screenshots, and build guide for the Midnight
Cravings companion in the show notes. And next
time you're about to order Taco Bell, maybe just
talk to yourself first. Because I did and it's
helping. So I think that's something you can
do as well. So if you like this, subscribe to
my podcast, Data and AI with Mukundan. And keep
watching for the latest shows. Thanks again for
tuning in. Until next time.