It mends broken hearts, building a road leading to happiness made out of… cocoa. Filling us with a desire that, just like the thought of a loved one, is always there with us.

Chocolate – the forbidden fruit in any slimming diet and the temptation even the sturdiest among us can’t resist. Until a book came out on the market, advising us to go for the old, well-tested method of getting rid of a temptation by yielding to it. “Eat chocolate and lose weight” does two things – obliterates “diet failure” and wipes the sour look off our faces to replace it with a smile.

“When they are on a diet, most people are not the happiest people in the world for the simple reason that many of the diets are very restrictive and simply silly,” fitness instructor and author of the book Lazar Radkov says. “The truth is that we can eat a healthy diet that will help us burn excessive fat without having to cut half the food out of our menu. Meaning that it always comes down to doing things the smart way.”

And so – if our diet, exercise programme and way of life are in harmony, then we will be able to enjoy small pleasures like chocolate. Unfortunately, there is no magical product that will help us lose weight, that is why we have to be careful of how much food we eat, how much sleep we get and how much we exercise. “Chocolate is the easiest thing that can throw us overboard,” says Lazar Radkov, “because it is delicious, whets the appetite and calms the nerves.” So, to avoid its grasping claws, the author suggests a strict one-month programme of diet and exercise that will help us lose 6 to 10 kilograms of our weight and as many centimeters from our waistline. But only with half a bar of chocolate…

“The two simplest and most effective things we can do is drink more water and add vegetables to each meal,” Lazar Radkov says. “When we drink more water we regulate our appetite, as the body sometimes makes an erroneous interpretation of the signal of hunger. Vegetables are more filling than most other kinds of food and they will keep us from overeating. It is no coincidence that salad is taken before the main course. These are just two of the ways we can start eating less and losing weight without counting calories.”

And by taking the road to self-discovery.

“This is one of the principal things I advise people, whatever the diet they choose. How effective any programme will be to a great extent depends on reading the signals our body gives us. It is important to monitor our sense of hunger, energy, our sharpness of mind. Because our body always gives us feedback, all we have to do is monitor it and never force it.”

In other words everything we do must be within the bounds of our limitations, it should improve our quality of life and help us feel better. Without going hungry, without exhausting ourselves with exercise… but with just a few blocks of chocolate. “Give yourself the pleasure of eating them with your afternoon coffee and make a happy face to tease your coworkers,” the fitness instructor jokes.

Lazar Radkov prefers to describe himself as a savvy motivation provider. Last weekend he brought thousands out to Southern Park in Sofia early in the morning with the idea of breaking the world record for most people doing push-ups simultaneously. With the cause - #30in30 – he endeavoured to motivate one million Bulgarians to exercise in the course of one month, and inspired about 100 to take part in the flash mob “Push-ups in front of parliament building for 180 seconds”. But his most difficult mission is, without doubt, the latest one he has undertaken – to help chocolate addicts “put on the brakes” even when they have picked up speed.

English version: Milena Daynova