I've struggled with stress eating and binge eating for years.
It started in college. I'd stay up late writing papers or studying for exams and eat junk food to keep myself going. Later, social media, beauty standards, and constantly trying to lose weight made my relationship with food even more complicated.
I'd go through periods where I felt completely "in control," then life would get stressful and I'd fall right back into eating to cope. I'd feel guilty afterward, try to restrict the next day, and eventually end up overeating again.
For a long time, I thought I just lacked self-discipline.
But eventually I started noticing that a lot of my eating had very little to do with hunger. I'd reach for snacks while staring at my laptop because I was stressed or stuck on something. If I was tired, eating somehow made my brain feel awake for a little while. Sometimes I wouldn't even realize I was doing it until I was already halfway through the food.
I tried a lot of things to change this. I read books, went to therapy, exercised more, hired a personal trainer, and made countless promises to myself that tomorrow would be different.
But the hardest moments were usually really ordinary ones.
It was 3pm, I was alone at home, tired from not sleeping enough, frustrated with work, and suddenly standing in front of the fridge again.
There was nobody there to help me catch what was happening in that moment.
That's why I started building Como.
At first, Como was a little AI companion I could talk to when I felt like stress eating, binging, or beating myself up over something I ate. It helped me slow down long enough to ask: am I actually hungry? Am I exhausted? Am I anxious? Am I just trying to escape whatever I'm doing right now?
And surprisingly, those tiny pauses started helping.
I began noticing patterns too. I was much more likely to snack when I was alone in the afternoon, especially after a bad night of sleep. Sometimes I really did want food. Other times I needed a nap, a break from my laptop, or just a minute to let an uncomfortable feeling pass.
Since then, Como has grown beyond chat.
We've been adding guided tools for the moments when you don't know what to do next, like grounding, urge surfing, mindful pauses, and other short practices. There's also a place to log and reflect on eating, notice patterns over time, and learn more about what might be driving the cycle in the first place.
I don't want Como to become another app telling you to eat less, have more willpower, or follow another perfect set of rules.
I want it to be something you can reach for when food feels hard, whether that's before you eat, in the middle of it, or afterward when the guilt starts kicking in.
I originally built Como because I needed that support myself.
I'm still building the thing I wish I'd had all those years ago, and I hope it can help you too.