Developing a Personalized Virtual Coach for Emotional Eaters 43 2 plate with fries and chicken satay. Esther babbles along, as she usually does. In the meanwhile everybody in the bar is a bit tipsy. Lisanne feels lonely. Esther is standing at the counter, talking to some guys. She invites Lisanne to come over and join them. Lisanne grabs her handbag. She is going home. She waves and gestures to Esther that she feels nauseous and that she is leaving. On the one hand she feels relieved that she has left but on the other hand she is disappointed in herself. Why can’t she just enjoy an evening out and have fun just like everybody else? Why is she so damn shy? Situation upcoming food craving: Lisanne comes home and plumps down on to her couch, next to the pile of laundry that still needed to be done. She is hungry. She feels lonely. Nobody likes her... Her stomach is rumbling and she takes a quick glance at the kitchen cupboard. Lisanne is about to giving in to her food craving. Butter biscuits and potato chips. She feels tempted to rip open the bag of potato chips and plunge into it, grabbing chips by the handful at the same time. Binge eating lies in ambush for attack and she senses a crying need for some kind of support, for someone who could provide her with advice to pull her through this situation. After finishing the bag of chips, she eats some leftover portions of ice cream she ordered at the take-away yesterday, and some mouldy cookies she found in the bread box. Situation upcoming food craving – consulting the virtual coach: Lisanne comes home and plumps down on to her couch, next to the pile of laundry that still needed to be done. She is hungry. She feels lonely. Nobody likes her... She reaches for her phone and activates the ‘Denk je zèlf!’ app. The virtual coach welcomes her with: “Hi Lisanne, how can I help you?” Lisanne starts typing: – When I come home at night I start craving for snacks and chocolate… I just can’t resist them… – Hi Lisanne, I really feel sorry for you. Let me try to help you. The greater part of emotional eating occurs at night, due to feelings of loneliness or experiencing stress, but it can also happen because of irregular eating behaviour. Shall we give it a try to investigate this? The virtual coach refers Lisanne to the behaviour chain analysis. Lisanne finds comfort in the reassuring words of the virtual coach and starts with the behaviour chain exercise. After finishing the chain exercise Lisanne feels somewhat relieved. The coach urges her to reward herself. She treats herself with a hot bath. The perfumed bath water makes her feel calm and sleepy... Figure 5 | Persona Lisanne translated into use-case scenario aspects
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