Up to 99.9 per cent of people who are overweight eat too quickly. That is the opinion of local author, therapist and trainer Diarmuid Lavelle whose new book The Sensual Slimmer has just hit the bookshelves.
It shows people how to adopt three powerful habits which will contribute not only to successful weight loss but also to their happiness.
“The three habits are enjoying and tasting our food, a positive attitude towards ourselves and our bodies and body movement for good feelings. The slimming process is actually hard wired into the human body if we give it a chance.”
He says the secret to successful slimming is to focus on increasing our quality of life and let slimming become a beneficial side effect.
“Dieting, disliking our bodies and arduous exercise routines actually go against the way normal people function. The sensual slimmer turns the whole process around so the results are permanent. The process of enjoying food, exercise and liking our bodies also works on increasing self esteem, confidence, anxiety, depression and overall quality of life.
“One of the most important aspects of the book is its emphasis on chewing food to taste food rather than bolting it down. There are 9,000 taste buds on the tongue. Taste buds work as monitors that immediately tell our brain when we have ingested too much. If we do not chew our food well our taste buds do not have time to measure the amount of food ingested so we eat too much.
Mr Lavelle - who graduated from NUI Galway in 1987 and since then has trained in a wide range of disciplines from counselling to NLP to cognitive behavioural therapy, says overweight and obesity problems canot be tackled solely by encouraging people to eat healthier food.
“Up to 99.9 per cent of people who are overweight, eat too fast. If we eat too fast we will choose foods with a higher salt, fat, sugar content because these are the foods we have time to taste. The problem of obesity and being overweight will change if we learn how to eat. If we chew our food well we taste it, enjoy it and we will not eat too much of it. Almost everyone knows the difference between healthy food and unhealthy food. We need to focus on how to eat not what to eat. When people chew and enjoy their food they automatically go for healthier foods as the tastes of unhealthy foods become overpowering.”
Mr Lavelle discovered the sensual slimming process after a cleansing diet in 1997 and applied and perfected the process since then. His book entitled The Sensual Slimmer costs €12.95 and is available from Easons and online from amazon.co.uk, Trafford.com/07-2610 and bn.com
