Toastmasters: Eat whatever you like

This the transcript of a speech I gave at Toastmasters on Wednesday. I've been going to weekly Toastmasters meetings in Fremantle for months and I am finally developing real confidence as a public speaker.

Competent Communicator project 9 - Persuade with Power

Eat whatever you like

Would you believe me if I told you you could eat whatever you like and still lose weight? Well it’s true.

We live in a world where diets are increasingly used by both men and women. Gone are the days of medieval banquets and Henry VIII gorging himself on huge chunks of meat. Nowadays men and women both want to look good and feel healthy.

The dieting industry is a multi-million dollar business. Books, DVDs and specialist weight-loss products prey on the human race’s insecurities and compete for our precious cash. Does anyone agree that a lot of the wisdom preached by dieticians seems bogus and contradictory?

Well now I have found something better than any diet. I have found a means to eat what I want, when I want, and still lose weight. It’s a book by hypnotherapist Paul McKenna, entitled ‘I can make you thin’.

Let me tell you about Paul McKenna. Paul McKenna seems to be barely known in Australia but over in the UK he is a household name. He’s helped countless people overcome smoking, all manner of addictions and serious phobias through hypnosis and mental reprogramming. His TV programs are rarely off the air – in fact he has become irritating in his ubiquitous nature and air of quiet smugness.

I was always dubious about his work... until I read his book I can make you thin.

A friend of mine recommended this book to me. He used have problems with his weight. He weighed over a hundred kilos. After studying this book and rigorously applying the principles that I’m about to explain to you, within a year he knocked off almost thirty kilograms. He looks and feels like a different person.

This obviously caught my attention. Now let me tell you something: I used to share the eating habits of Homer Simpson. In one scene of the Simpsons, a co-worker comments that Homer eats like a pig, and another replies, ‘Pigs tend to chew. I’d say he eats more like a duck.’ Well that described me too, until last week.

I’m going to take you through the four golden rules of ‘how to be thin’. It’s a simple system.

Let me make one thing clear – this is not a diet. The word ‘diet’ implies restrictions on what and when you can eat. The problem with diets, medically speaking, is that by restricting your access to food, you slow down your body’s metabolic rate and force it into what is known as ‘starvation mode’.

Our bodies cannot differentiate between life in the comfortable modern age and the days when we used to have to chase food round for days on end with a spear. It’s so difficult to lose weight on a diet because your body’s clinging on to every single morsel of fat it can get to prepare you for a difficult winter.

These four golden rules are very easy to remember, and you can take them away with you tonight.

The first golden rule is: eat whenever you’re hungry. Eating whenever you’re genuinely hungry sends signals to the body that food is in plentiful supply. If you keep doing this your metabolism picks up and you feel more energetic. But you must only eat when you’re actually hungry.

I always knew that most of the time when I ate, I wasn’t actually hungry! This is what is known as ‘emotional eating’ – devouring food for comfort or, in my case, to pass the time.

If you find it difficult to tell if you’re hungry or not, practise rating your hunger on a scale of one to ten, with one being as hungry as you can imagine, faint-headed through lack of food and ten being as full as you can imagine, bloated to the point of nausea. If you score a four or below, time to eat. If you score above four, chain the biscuit barrel shut and find something to distract yourself with for an hour. Then repeat the test.

The second golden rule, the one people find hardest to believe, is you can eat whatever you like! If you place certain foods off-limits you distort your natural relationship with them and fantasize about them all the more. But if you allow yourself the freedom of eating whatever you like, over time you actually gravitate towards healthier foods and develop a better diet.

The third golden rule is: enjoy your food. Eat slowly and chew each mouthful thoroughly. Stop and savour each meal. Eating provides a fix of endorphins which compel us to eat faster and faster in order to score another hit of brain chemicals. But by eating slowly and chewing thoroughly, you give your stomach chance to catch up and tell you when it’s full.

And if you chew your food properly, it becomes easier for your stomach to digest. You no longer feel bogged down and lethargic after eating. You feel lighter and you possess bags of energy. Also, because you’re stopping to enjoy your food, rather than wolfing it down in one go, you most likely feel like you’re enjoying it on a whole new level.

The fourth golden rule is perhaps the hardest to follow: you must stop eating when you’re full. Many of us were told as kids to always finish our meals. Leaving food on your plate apparently makes you an ungrateful person. “There’s people starving in Africa,” my teachers used to say. And I felt powerless to disobey their commands.

It’s difficult to break this programming. But doing as you were once told and finishing the food on your plate won’t solve any global food crisis. So sweep your leftovers into the bin. If you find this too difficult start by leaving a single chip on your plate.
After following the four golden rules for a couple of weeks, you start to develop an understanding of when your stomach is full. Continuing to eat past this point becomes a less and less appealing prospect.

I’ve been following this system a week, and already my food portions have halved. I can go hours between meals without hunger. I’m amazed. I don’t know what to do with all my spare time now I’m not eating!

The key is to apply the system consistently day after day. Soon it will become second nature. And don’t beat yourself up if you suffer a relapse into your old ways. Keep trying. You’re only human.

So if you’re worried about your weight, help is at hand. Don’t fall prey to the dieting industry – give this book a go. You can eat whatever you want and still lose weight!