SLIMMER AND HEALTHIER CREATING A SLIM, HEALTHY BODY FOR LIFE

Experts Weigh In continued … A big twitter spat exploded this week. Barney Calman, a health journalist writing in a national daily newspaper, took issue with the idea put forward by the low carb champion, Dr David Unwin, that eating a banana was the same (or had the same effect on blood sugar) as 6 teaspoons of sugar. He tested the idea on himself and another person who had been diagnosed with pre- diabetes. The resulting article was, in true journalistic style, somewhat critical of Dr Unwin whose many supporters leapt to his defence. Very soon the arguments turned into trolling, vitriol and alleged racist remarks. Many respected scientists and doctors who were referenced in the article (let’s call it Bananagate) have received personal abuse. And all because one doctor said a banana is the same as 6 teaspoons of sugar and a journalist argued otherwise. What is the world coming to? There is a wider point to be made. That losing weight has somehow become the province of experts and that ordinary people are not qualified enough to have an opinion. You need data, science, lots of it, peer review of your work, meta- analysis of all the studies ... before you are allowed to have an opinion. But a quick glance at the science soon yields many conflicting arguments, all backed up by expert data.  Who can we trust? Well I’m not qualified enough to say, really. I’m not a doctor or a professor or anything resembling a scientist. I have only collected information about my clients, each one different, each one receiving an individually tailored therapeutic approach. Which is how it should be. No randomised trials or laboratory experiments. There is ample research into hypnotherapy that a quick internet search will show you, but for weight loss there are so many, many variables that the subject isn’t really suitable for a standard research framework that will yield results that are acceptable for the scientific community. And to do research you need money. Lots of it. My client records are private. Only the general conclusions I’ve reached during 20 years of practice can be made public. The stories of client experiences in my book have been carefully anonymised. GDPR requires records to be kept secure for a number of years then destroyed. So where can we go for some certainty? In my book and 12-track album, I’ve made the perfectly reasonable point (backed up by no published scientific evidence whatsoever) that the best diet to follow is the one that suits your own unique tastes and preferences. It’s by far the best starting point. You’ll feel comfortable with this approach. You know how to make the meals, your family likes them, these foods make you feel OK. You don’t have to chuck everything out of your fridge or buy stuff you can’t find in the supermarket. Kale chips, anyone? When you begin, I ask that you eat foods that you love and that ‘love you back’. When you start out like this, you improve the chances that you won’t give up because you dislike the foods on your diet plan. And that is really important because the single most common cause of failure is giving up. So that is the starting point. Eat what you love and what ‘loves you back’. It will make you feel good in your body, mind and soul. Then you work at portion control. You focus your energies on eating less but enjoying it more. Eating half is the suggestion given, with plenty of wriggle room for those who lead active lifestyles. Your intelligent mind will make sure you are eating the right amount to lose weight but feel good as you progress. When you begin to eat approximately half of your normal meals, you’ll immediately save half the calories. And for the vast majority of overweight people that I have worked with, it’s portion control that has been their downfall. So by working right away on portions, but at the same time ensuring the enjoyment is as great as if you ate twice as much, you begin to take back control of your eating. And weight loss follows. You can adjust your food intake. You can lose weight more quickly or more gently. But you never go back to acting like a hog at a trough. That imagery is from a client who had a shocking revelation about her work colleagues. It’s in the book. Maybe you’ve already read about her. And when you work with the guided meditations you will soon find your food preferences are evolving. You listen to your body telling you what it wants and needs. You are more aware of the provenance of your food and you take a moment to respect where it has come from. Gently and easily, you’ll find yourself following a food plan that is automatically right for you. Your inner self is quite capable of designing a perfect food plan for you, as long as you listen to it.  If you haven’t read the companion book yet, please do. It contains important guidance that you need to know as you work at losing weight. Back to the argument about how only well off folks can afford to lose weight … and that somehow those on low incomes are condemned to eat poor quality food. Here’s an idea … if you start by eating half what you normally eat … then that actually saves money. Half of your normal intake. Half a takeaway treat and then share the other half with your family. Buy less and spend less! Try eating half a bar of chocolate. Half a bag of Walker’s cheese and onion crisps. YES! It is possible to eat half a bag of crisps. The trick is to eat them very, very slowly. Wherevever you begin, and I’m not going to judge anyone who doesn’t have a nutritious diet when they start, you’ll soon progress towards foods that give you that ’glad to be alive’ feeling. Foods that are full of all the things your body needs to be healthy and happy and allow you to get the maximum enjoyment out of eating.  Which brings us neatly back to the banana argument. There is no right and wrong. Only what is right and wrong for you. But you must listen inside to what your body is telling you about the food you are eating. And notice how you feel while you are eating, but also for many hours afterwards. Foods that love you back. Think about that and let’s get on with losing all our unwanted weight. Back to Blog menu