Ognyan Simeonov: Don't Feel Guilty For Every Bite You Eat

 what is the healthiest way to move from 40 days of fasting to the festive Christmas table?

First of all, I would like to emphasize that Lent is a very healthy way of eating. When we do not eat meat, our body is cleansed of various toxins. This is extremely useful considering that the meat products we eat in our daily lives are treated with all sorts of hormones, antibiotics and pesticides. For me, the healthiest way to eat at all is to eat mostly plant-based products that are prone to raw food.

Of course, the transition from Lent to omnivorousness must take place gradually. It can start with half or a whole egg or no more than 100 grams of meat per day. Meat products are difficult to digest and a very large percentage of a person's energy is spent on processing them. That is why people who fast feel very well. So you should not rush to introduce food of animal origin in the menu, but in the end the body will show itself when we overdo it - if we overeat, we will feel strong and sharp pain in the solar plexus and chest.

I would not call the transition from fasting to a normal diet stress for the body, as it is not stress and vice versa - an organism to abruptly stop taking animal products and switch to fasting or vegetarianism.

Now is the time to say that vegetarians do not choose their diet influenced by any fashion, but because it is a way of consciousness, it is a philosophy. During Lent, many people realize the benefits of this lifestyle and their minds become so clear that they decide to indulge in vegetarianism because it makes them feel good. There are many who see vegetarianism not only as a purification of the body, but also as a liberation from negative thoughts. And everyone should think positively, because thoughts are really like a boomerang and if we think negatively, bad things happen to us and vice versa - if we think positively, good things happen to us.

The Christmas and New Year holidays predispose to overdoing it. What actually happens to our body when we overeat?

When we overeat, something very good happens to our body - we feel satisfied, we smile and pat our stomachs contentedly. I would say that it is not so bad for a person to eat more, but if he does it the right way. Then he may even lose weight. This is exactly the principle of my diet and the regime I recommend to my clients - large, even large amounts of food, which can be between half and one kilogram per meal.

In this line of thinking, I advise people to overeat rather than eat all day, eat a huge amount of food in the evening and then starve again for two days, which is many times more harmful to the body. Many women, for example, see the holidays as a kind of hell of overeating and self-punishment, because then they will have to starve for a few days. This is not right. We need to eat regularly and abundantly, but with healthy food.

Also, I advise people not to sit hungry at the table and always drink a glass of water 20-30 minutes before eating. It is best to drink two glasses of warm water in the morning after getting up - this will wash the intestines and improve peristalsis. From time to time the body can be alkalized with a teaspoon of baking soda, preferably organic.

Which foods should we avoid especially on holidays and which ones should we emphasize?

If we are fasting, it is really important to introduce protein to the menu gradually. Therefore, it is not desirable to start the holidays with a big steak, as many people do. This will not affect the body at all. Experimenters who do just that will always feel discomfort, heaviness and stomach pain. The same thing happens to people who starve all day to catch up on dinner.

Do not be depressed, try everything on the holiday table, but you must eat slowly, because when a person eats slowly, he eats significantly less food.

How to prepare your holiday table so that we follow the traditions, but at the same time consume as few calories as possible?

If we want to eat healthy and maintain our figure, we must not reduce calories, but to properly combine the ratio of protein, carbohydrates and fats in our diet. However, I advise people to eat large amounts of food, but it should be low in calories. We can eat 50 grams of chocolate, which in calories is equal to 700 grams of food. Chocolate will give us energy for a while and will also stimulate the hormone of happiness for a short time, but it is addictive and makes us eat more, and eating more, we take in a lot of calories. It is better to eat salads that are very large in volume, but low in calories. If we add to the salad, for example, a chicken leg or a skewer, it will be many times healthier than if we eat any pasta and sugar products.

The best menu for the festive evening is the buffet, because there is everything on the table, we can choose what we like and if we have a culture of eating, we will eat sensibly and in moderation, without overdoing it and gaining weight.

In this regard, I want to point out that people are full of two things - malnutrition and emotions. There is the so-called "emotional eating" , which manifests itself with particular force when a person does not like his body. These thoughts depress him and make him gain weight more and more. I always give the example of John Gabriel, who from 186 kg managed to become 83 kg without following any diets. After many years of various regimes, he realized that diets did not work, and he finally liberated his mind and accepted himself as he was. John realized that he could create the body of his dreams only through the power of his own consciousness. He later wrote a wonderful book, The Gabriel Method, which is already very popular around the world.

Eating becomes harmful when a person thinks it is not suitable for him. We all know, for example, that burgers are not a healthy diet and we always eat them with a special sense of guilt. And if we eat this sandwich with gratitude that we have something to eat and with the thought that we have eaten well, no matter how unhealthy this food is, it will not harm us.

It is good to know that when we prepare a dish with love, it will be many times tastier and more useful than what we have prepared in a bad mood. So I advise people to cook with love and enjoy eating.

If we still overdo it with the holidays, how can we recover?

Recovery is not about hunger, it's about eating. When we get up in the morning, we should drink two glasses of warm water and have breakfast, during the day we should continue to eat and drink a lot of water and tea without sugar. It is good not to consume sugar at all, but to replace it with the sweet herb Stevia, which has no calories and is even useful. Also, chocolate should be replaced with honey. Yes, honey is also high in calories, but it is many times healthier than chocolate. It can also be replaced with cocoa nuts, which understand the taste of real chocolate. People generally need to put more emphasis on superfoods - such as goji berry, quinoa nuts, chia seeds, buckwheat and others.

And with what physical exercises could we combine the diet you recommend?

Bulgarians do not like exercise. This is one of the reasons many people come to me - I do not assign them any sports. I only prescribe them plentiful food. Of course, whatever physical activity you choose, it will only bring you benefits. I just do not advise people over 100 kg to run, because it will damage their joints. Bicycle ergometers are more suitable for them. Most often I advise people to relax. Take a bath with a kilo of sea salt, because it is very nice to cleanse your body in this way, to enjoy life and do everything with love.

Even if you allow yourself to overeat, do it with love and do not feel guilty about every bite you eat. One can lose weight without sports, you just need to change your diet and thinking. As Hippocrates says, "Let our food be our medicine and our medicine be our food." This is the principle I work on and I help the people who came to me with the idea to create the body they want.