2011 Paul McKenna P3 - the march towards skinny jeans continues

[whomovedmychocolate]

Well the old thread was getting mordibly obese wasn't it?

Welcome new people and people who've been here for a while, this is the definitive Paul McKenna support thread.

Whether you are dribbling over his Paulness or wibbling over pudding, we're here to listen, slightly mock you and tell you to step away from the scales.

The Paul Mckenna plan is not a diet but a way of teaching yourself to eat slowly and consciously and achieve the body you've always dreamed of.

There will be no diet foods on this thread, no starvation and no beating ourselves up because ^lifes' too bloody short to weigh a carrot and we'd far rather be doing something incredible instead!

Hello everyone, sorry not to have been around for a bit, but this thread moves so fast and I am now utterly out of date. You all seem to be doing very well, it's really inspiring.

I am intermittently doing alright, although I have been dog-tired for the last week (the result I think of a virus and some mean old antibiotics) so have done some sugary eating at DD's teatime just to keep going. But I am definitely a bit (say, half a belt hole) thinner, so things are going the right way. And I have done no exercise at all because of being so wrung out, so must get on top of that. Although I have cleaned the house a lot - like WMMC, we're in the throes of viewings right now, which means that I am most displeased with the cat that has just put muddy pawmarks on my nice clean sheets.

TCTM - that spaghetti sounds yummy.

am going to weigh myself tomorrow but feel more positive this week.
I've realised that I can eat more consciously when I am on my own - if I am with other people I tend to chat and then lose track!
Will sign in tomorrow if it is good news

sorry havent been posting for a bit, have had a lot going on with work etc

but, got on the scales this morning (only 2 days before I had promised myself to wait for LOL) and I have lost another 2lbs woo hoo! That's 8lbs in total in about 3 weeks. I am so pleased and so relieved that I this is working.

Had a bad weekend where i overate a bit but the great thing about pauling is that I dont feel the need to punish myself by eating less calories the next day, such a revelation.

Also, I have found that I am rarely snacking in the evenings which was definatly a problem before. I wake up hungry every morning becasue I havent stuffed myself with biscuits the night before.

Just hope I can keep this up. I am listening to the CD's but find my mind wanders, so just hope it is going in. My clothes are a little looser and I think I can see a bit of a difference, dh says so anyway, but then he would LOL.

Anyway, hope everyones having a good day today - the sun is shining here which helps my mood enormously.

It seems a side effect of the surgery is that my full and empty signals have changed. I need to retune fast! I now do not feel hungry at all at any time but will then go to suddenly feeling violently sick with hunger. There is really nothing in between. Also some foods are really upsetting my stomach. All a bit trial and error but onwards and upwards. I shall enjoy retrying every single food and discovering what effect they have on my digestive system

Although I am struggling with the system a bit at the moment, I have definitely made permanent shifts to my relationship with food. I cannot imagine ever doing a conventional diet again. I can imagine gradually feeling better and better about myself and losing weight as a side effect of that.

I think everyone on this thread is fabulous - it is such a leap of faith but it really does work.

yay! 2lbs off (at last)

Hi there,

There are some great posts on here - on Day 3 and l
ast night really not feeling like anything had 'clicked'! Anyway, spent the evening reading all your messages, listened to CD before bed, and woke up feeling quite 'different'! Really motivated - determined not to have another fat summer - not enjoying things on the beach with the kids cos too self conscious blah blah blah! Kids at home today (no school on wednesday in France) so normally a bingeing day coping with normal arguements, tantrums etc! But, no.....today really tuned into if I'm hungry or not and going well so far. (I know its only midday, but for me thats good!!!)

anyway, have a good day everyone,

Liz

Well done Liz - lovely to feel in control, isn't it?

And well done to you too Tommy!

Well done Tommy and Liz!

Okay, so I weighed in three days before I am due to (I weigh in every 2 weeks) but I've lost 4lbs so a total of 17lbs in 6 weeks .

Wow! That's fantastic!

shrinkingnora - have you tried using the hunger scale and asking yourself on a regular basis 'what number am I?' - I find sitting and leaning back helps because it allows your stomach to contract/expand and you are more likely to notice the signals from it than if you are scrunched up (I've done my abs in at the minute and pretty much can't feel my stomach at all unless I stretch out!).

Oh and newsflash - I now have red hair!

WMMC - photo please!

Well, it's just me checking in, everyone sounds like they're doing really well.

I love PM, I just feel so much better about food! Even though I'm technically only on day 5, I had a good practice at it the week before. Anyhow, I just wanted to share with you (group hug/fuzzyfluffs) what I would eat in a day before PM.

Breakfast- probably nothing or a sausage and egg mcmuffin/belgian bun.

Lunch- Cheese based baguette with crisps

Snack- fudge/butter tablet from thorntons

Dinner- (usually quite healthy as DD eats the same as us) turkey bolognaise/veg curry and rice/ fish and rice etc.

Evening snack- chocolate/crisps/cinnamon roll from Tesco.

Today, though, this is what it looks like.

Breakfast- few grapes and half a pate sandwich (wholewheat bread)

Snack- more grapes (I took a big bag of them to work)

Lunch- sushi snack pack from M+S and prawns with cocktail sauce dip.

Will eat the rest of my pate sandwich later if I get hungry, and it's pancakes for tea; special request from DP. I hope this hasn't bored you, but I just wanted to show you how much it's changed. I genuinely feel fantastic, I don't feel hungry all the time and I feel in control! WMMC, you have been very helpful too. Thank you.

MissVerinder, thanks for sharing - very instructive! Okay, so here's my example :

Typical Day Pre-PMK:
Breakfast - 2 slices of toast with butter, jam or peanut butter (but sometimes both)
Snack - Fruit
Lunch - Bowl of leftovers eg pasta and sauce plus chocolate bar OR curry and rice plus chocolate bar OR 4-slice sandwich with protein and salad filling and bag crisps and chocolate bar
Snack - Crisps and chocolate bar. Fruit (Yes, often I'd have two bags of crisps a day)
Dinner - Bowl pasta and sauce OR curry and rice OR roast chicken and potatoes etc OR meaty stew with crusty bread - all meals always very healthy with loads of veggies
Dessert - Portion of cheesecake or bowl of ice cream with fruit
I was never hungry and always stuffed .

Typical Day Today:
Breakfast - 1 slice toast with butter, full fat cream cheese, slice ham plus handful grapes plus half a banana
Lunch - Bowl of leftovers or salad but now just smaller than the size of two cupped hands! If sandwich then just two slices with protein/salad filling. 1 full-fat yoghurt
Snack - If I feel like it, tends now to be a mug of hot chocolate around 5pm as we don't eat until 8.30/9pm OR fruit
Dinner - Same as before but again much smaller portion - smaller than two cupped hands generally.
Dessert - Square (or 2!) of black Lindt or Valrhona or similar best quality chocolate PLUS/OR fruit
Eating only when hungry, stopping when full and eating slowly had reduced my food intake considerably without feeling deprived (no diet foods!)

Oh, and now if I have ice cream for dessert (often!) it's a heaped tablespoon rather than a bowl. That's all I need to feel satisfied.

Hey Liz in france where are you? 'cos Iam also in our 2nd home nr. Poitiers ATM hello and congrats to everyone for their weight loss i've reached my goal so it's just maintenance but feels like loss too!!

Go PP- well done!

WMMC I bet your hair looks fab. I am going a bit blonder in few weeks.

My stomach seems to be settling down a bit now. Making some very peculiar noises though! There genuinely was no sensation of hungry at all - If anything I would have said pleasantly satisfied to immediately starving To be fair to my digestive system it has had to change the way it works after 35 years of having a gall bladder to help! I'll get back on track, never fear. Hopefully the sudden horrendous shits urgent need for the toilet after eating certain foods will stop soon.

Well done PP, that must be jolly satisfying (but not to the point of being stuffed ).

No bugger has noticed yet. But will get a photo done. In the meantime, pop over to chat and look at my spooky teacups. It's funny!

(going back a page or so)

"life is easier when you are thin and attractive"

Do you know, I can't answer that one as I've never been thin. I was a chubby child, probably my thinnest was when I was at sixth form when I was a size 12. Of course, I thought I was massive compared with my size 8/10 mates although the last time I looked at photos I gasped at how young/slim and (yes) attractive I was, but I do remember going to bed hungry at times trying to get thinner. At Uni, I gained weight (mainly through drinking pints, plus a year in Southern Spain eating loads of fried food). I was probably a size 16 when I graduated and gradually got bigger over the years (yo-yo-ing on the way depending on whether I was on a binge fest or a diet).

So I honestly can't answer that question and it's time for a new experience as I'm going to find out what it's like to be thin.

As I've said elsewhere in the threads, I come from an overeating family where food is seen as a highly emotional activity. My parents experienced wartime rationing and have always been obsessed by food, plates had to be cleaned because of the starving kiddies in Africa, you were rewarded with calorific treats, I had to gobble your food down or my big brother would nab it etc, etc. I am finding Pauling hard still but the more I think about it, the more I realise I've got nearly four and a half decades of extremely faulty programming to unravel.

Sorry for the essay - just offloading a few things I've been mulling over.

BTW red hair sounds really funky. And Nora I think blonde would really suit you.

Incidentally looking at the pre and post Pauling food habits, I don't think I've changed that much. I didn't really do crisps and stuff before, although I would occasionally binge on choc. Previously I would sit down to a meal and think: "I'll feel really happy if I eat loads of this food".

I now sit down and think: "I'm going to eat this food because it's yummy and I will enjoy it, it will fill me up and be nourishing".

I have only been doing it for a short while, but sometimes I find it a little frustrating, but in a good way.

We got a chinese banquet on Saturday as had friends over and before I would love to try everything and get really full to bursting. This time I enjoyed the starters but was too full to eat hardly anything when the main course arrived, dammit !

Tonight we are going out for my birthday to my favourite restaurant and I have been dribbling over my main course for weeks - steak tartare, but now I'm a bit worried about starters as I want to have enough appetite to enjoy it.
It's all very weird and wonderful how it works.

Yes, that's the frustrating thing isn't it rookiemater. Buffets have always been my downfall. "All you can eat for a set price" - and psychologically I felt I had to overeat to get my money's worth .

For your birthday, why don't you choose a light starter (personally I'd go fishy, e.g. scallops or smoked salmon terrine) and stay away from the bread rolls. I find soup very filling so that could be one to avoid.

Or forget the starter altogether and save yourself for some yummy pud.

I'm sure if you manage it you'll really savour that steak tartare.

Thanks juicyolive. I am hoping they have scallops as a starter as I absolutely love those and will stay away from the bread rolls, but will be having my kir royale

Yes I love buffets too, luckily as DS is quite fussy we tend not to go to the carvery type ones or the excellent chinese buffet close too us.

Kir Royale - mmm!
A Chinese buffet does it for me too - or general deli type food (if not too brown and Iceland-y). Not a carvery fan though - they tend to overcook it a bit I find!