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!

I was the girl they selected for the tug-of-war team at school for extra weight so I know where you are coming from nora and onesandwich. But now nora is turning into a sex maniac foxy lady, I'm now longer Olive from On the Buses, but getting Juicy. Onesandwich - we'll get you there.

Positive Attitude - well done on your moment of truth. Have a big hug (I'm not even going to qualify that as un-MN-y) from me and go easy on yourself. It's great isn't that if you want food - if you actually feel properly hungry - you can go to that cupboard. Now put the scales away for a couple of weeks, relax, enjoy lots of lovely food (slowly and consciously of course) and just see how you get on.

CY - my parents equated feeding with affection. My mum still does it with my DC, especially DS whose total love and admiration can be easily bought with chocolate. Luckily they live about 100 miles away so it's not constant but it does annoy me intensely.

I was a pretty normal weight until I was about seven, which is when we moved to another state and left all our extended family a 20 hour drive away. My mother was pretty depressed and out of it, my brother started becoming really difficult (he has addiction and, I think, mental health issues), and I think I was just kind of lost in the shuffle. That's when I first remember my eating issues beginning; I think it was a form of loving myself and trying to care for myself. Of course now I have to care for myself enough to not eat all the time...it's been a little over 20 years so it's tough. But I'll get there! :)

(Sorry if this sounds all psychological and poor-pitiful-me. I didn't mean it that way and I may actually be wrong about all of this! :) )

CY - that sounds really tough. Tell DH to keep the hugs coming - it sounds like you need them. And of course, feel free to offload on us - this thread is very good for that.

It's odd but I really didn't expect this whole PM thing to be such an emotional journey - not just for me but for all the others on this thread. When I joined in the webchat all those months ago, I thought that it was just about getting a bit of hypnosis to stop me feeding my face. Little did I know that I would be re-evaluating my whole attitude to food, working through loads of issues, and meeting some very lovely people (both in RL and on-line).

Onesandwich, it's slow for me too and it makes me feel down and too...we will get there though :)

Good morning everyone.

Thanks for your lovely encouragment JuicyOlive

I hope the trip today to Stepmums goes Ok Onesandwich. Don't let her get to you. Easier said than done, I know. I have a MIL who is a cow not helpful with her comments! She will pass cake around, miss me out and say "oh, I dont think you need any for another year!" Probably why I haven't stepped foot in her house for 10 years!!

last day of the holidays to enjoy today. Glorious sunshine, so we may go for a walk, either through the woods or down to the beach.

Have a lovely day everyone.

No, I didn't replace comfort food with comfort sex, but I did go for a run! Exceedingly proud of myself and feel very Pauly today

Positiveattitude, your MIL is a massive bitch. I cannot believe anyone thinks it is okay to be that rude. Although I was once called a 'fat cunt' when I was out running. Luckily I was fuelled by endorphins at that point so I didn't track down the white van (surprise, surprise) and kill the fuckers.

And she should be not you.

Some really emtional stuff going on here, but its good to examine it then put it to rest :) I cant believe how much my life has changed since 19th Feb!

I too had massive booblies at a young age, when I was far too young to deal with the shape I had. I wore baggy clothes to try & hide them, which made me look bigger so then I got called fat! My mum also has always gone on about weight my whole life, took me to my first slimming class at 14 and cnstantly made negative remarks about any fat person we saw. I wonder if I put on weight, to test her, to see if she would stop loving me if I was fat? Who knows, but Im sure it has soemthing to do with how I am.

Looking back on the last 2 months, I can see that I am naturally cutting down on white/refined carbs! When I have a curry, I dont have rice and only a tiny piece of naan, as I want flavourful food, not boring white rice! I dont want to waste my chewing on food that isnt 100% flavour. Same with potatoes, they fill me up too quickly with very little flavour, so I just dont bother with them. And teh best bit? I dont miss them! I really dont want them! Bread is the same, too boring unless its one packed full of seeds & grains.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day today x

Morning everyone and welcome to the newies! About MIL's, Mums' attitudes to food ;our DDs are staying for easter and all we talk about is food and diets!!it's a circle my mum started and v. hard to break!

Also great to see you on here PositiveAtttitude you're in the right place!! I've never been on Atkins, WW type diets so have not had too much weight to loose but am still maintaining with paul!

Please dont feel overwhelmed by it! It is quite literally the easiest & most liberating thing I have ever done with regards to food & eating :)

Wondering if you are thirsty instead of hungry? Drink a glass or two of water. If after 5 minutes you are still hungry, then you obvioulsy werent thirsty :)

Physical hunger you can feel in your tummy, there wil be growls/rumbles & an empty feeling. It might take soem practise, I dooubt many get it straight away, but it does come & then you just know. Being "mouth hungry" (as I call it) means you just fancy something for how it tastes, not because your tummy is rumbling. Try putting a hand on your tummy, and asking yourself "Am I hungry?" before you eat it. That works for me.

You are right, you have to stop thinking and just do it what do you have to lose apart from weight? Learn to trust yourself x

Hello everyone (hi PositiveAttitude )

Ppeatfruit has highly recommended this thread and Pauls ways to me so I hope you don't mind if I hop aboard.

His rules make sense to me.

If I wait until I'm hungry and only eat what I want, then I know I'll make good choices.
I tend to eat junk because its there. I never want to eat junk if I'm properly hungry. I'll always want to eat something healthy and nutritious.

I also have a tendancy to eat all the time, all day long but I've managed to get that under control a bit by trying to eat a low gi diet and practising more self control.

I'm really looking forward to being in control, rather than the food controlling me. I know it sounds like a cliche but I honestly feel like I've lost all control over what goes into a mouth. Sounds stupid really.

No stupid at all Jahan, its why a lot of us are here! It's definitely the reason why I ended up so big Welcome to the thread and hope you have great success with it!

Welcome Jahan

Hi,hope everyone is enjoying the lovely sunshine [bugrin]

Welcome Jahan [busmile]

onesandwichshort the exercise is not as bad as it sounds,am completely unfit and have never really been sporty so if I can do it so can you.
It has warmup then 3 circuits of 3min strenght,2min cardio,1min abs and cooldown.I find the first circuit always the hardest as got pushups,but I do the half ones on knees and starjumps init.Hate starjumps specially with weak pelvic floor but it is getting better.After that cicuit 2 and 3 are ok.And you have 3 levels,no idea ho long am going to do level 1 but definitely for a while yet.For strenght you need some weights,I use tins at moment and works fine will invest in some proper ones when have some spare money.
I have only done it 4 times but it gets easier every time and am not in pain today after yesterday.Wasn`t in too much pain the other times either might have to do with stopping a few times though.
It is a good dvd under £6 at amazon so worth it.
Am eyeing up Zumba wii game as never got the time to go to Zumba,as all classes start too early around here and never know when ds2 falls asleep,oh the joys of bf.
Hope your visit to awful MIL went ok.

Noticed my trousers are finally a bit loser and am on last hole on belt which I couldnt do 2 weeks ago yay. So slow changes here too finally as been doing this for 5 weeks but tummy still huge was supposed to weigh today but cant face and think won`t be anymore and just go buy clothes sizes and see how I feel.

God why does ds2 wake up as soon as am on here grrrhh. xxx

Hi everyone!

I fell off the Paul wagon big-style yesterday. :( I did ok at the actual holiday gathering. I didn't overeat, and didn't have dessert because I didn't really want it. But when I got home I started eating DS's Easter candy and then I fell into my old mindset of "well I've already started eating badly so I might as well continue..." GRR! I hate that, it's so self-defeating. And I knew that, but my mind switched off. Oh well. Yesterday is yesterday, right? And honestly looking back, if I added up everything I ate it would still be less than I usually ate before Paul. (I should start measuring time like that: before and after Paul..BP and AP :o)

So I'm moving on today and going to start journaling. Not what I eat, but how I feel. It's a new day! I haven't actually eaten anything today yet; just not hungry. (It's 10:30 a.m. here)

I've also noticed that I'm really thirsty lately- wonder if I always was and just didn't notice because I wasn't in touch with it? I've been drinking tons of water with frozen fruit in it...it keeps it really cold and gives it a light fruity taste.

Welcome newbies! Stick with this! My jeans feel a bit looser already and my gorgeous slim put-together SIL told me I looked fantastic yesterday :)

Flippin heck, just lost a long post, so forgive randomness...

Hi Jahan

Just about to dish up a large family Easter meal. Slightly panicked. Do I just put on my plate a small portion of what I want and stop eating when I am full?

Yes! Portion out a tiny bit of everything that you want. Take slow bites, chew a lot, really listen to your body. Stop when you are full! You can do it!

:o

Thanks, well, I was doing OK until I got to the "I am feeling full" stage and I still had my favourite bits on the plate. Since I was a child I have always eaten from the least favourite first to most favourite last, so I had to have just a few bites of the nicest bits. Still it was WAAAAAYYYY less than I would normally have had.
My task from now on is to reverse my eating order so that I can really stop as soon as I feel full.
My very small portion of pudding is sat in the fridge for when I do want it, or if I don't DS will have it tomorrow, I am not bothered, I don't feel deprived by not having it, which I would normally feel like.

Hello everyone can I join please?

A quick introduction - I am 32 and live with 3 DDs aged between 9 years and 8 months. I have been wanting to lose weight for a while now but after being asked 3 times last week if I was pregnant again I thought I should pull my finger out!

I have a few questions:

when you go shopping do you meal plan or just buy things you enjoy?

If you take a packed lunch to work how do you know what you will want to eat a few hours or even the day after it has been made?

I hope I have as much success as everyone on here seems to be having!

Hello all, hope you had a good Easter break. I know some of you are having a bit of a time of it so I hope things get better for you soon.

I survived being surrounded by chocolate and treats all the long weekend but I admit I don't actually recall being genuinely hungry - I guess my tummy was neutral the whole time as I was grazing a lot.

So tomorrow is a new day. I resolve to eat only when my stomach physically growls .

Welcome MuffinsMummy, my answers to your two questions:

• DH and I generally tend to menu plan an entire week's meals because we do all our shopping in one go in the weekend but obviously we ensure each meal is delicious and exactly what we want (we're real foodies and peruse cookbooks in bed) .
• Lunches tend to be leftovers from night before or stuff we buy in advance (that we love) and then pack in the morning before work.

Time is really short for us so I have to plan everything in advance but as I have a wide repetoire of delicious meals and lunch fixings it's not hard at all to eat what I really want, IYSWIM.

HTH.

Hi all and welcome Jahan and Muffins and welcome back Dandy and hello to anyone else I've forgotten.

Positive - definitely reverse your eating order if you can. Why eat things you don't like so much. Or at least mix it up a bit. Just do it a few times and break those neural pathways.

Like HowTo I find I'm now longer enjoying carbs as much as I used to - they just get bland and gooey if chewed for a long time. I tend to eat all the yummy meat/fishy/proteiny + veggy bits of my meal, and then by the time I get to the bread or chips or whatever I'm usually pretty full.

Years ago, DH and I went to China and, interestingly, they ate like that. You filled up on protein and veg and if you asked for the rice it meant that you hadn't filled up adequately on the "nice" stuff. We accidentally put our feet in it by asking for rice in restaurants to accompany the main meal rather than having it as a filler afterwards.

Still haven't had any choc this weekend, although I'm still full up from a big BBQ and quite a lot of .

Just back from holiday and I'm not sure how well I followed the guidelines.

I listened to the CD religously every day and started out each day well, but we did outings with SIL and family so mealtimes had to workaround the requirements of 9 people so it was hard to say, oh I'm not hungry now as the chances were that when I actually was hungry there would be no food around.
I found it really difficult to eat mindfully as there were so many of us, and you know what Paul says about there always being enough food, well that wasn't true, there was so many of us, that the food disappeared within minutes so if I had eaten slowly and consciously it would all have disappeared. Then when we went for meals out, by the time we got there I was so starved that I wolfed it all down.
We had such a lovely time though and did lots of walking and cycling because of the weather, but I feel a bit disappointed as I have probably put back on the pounds that I lost and I'm not sure what to do to try to push past the block that I'm at.

Oh and I got some dirty looks from BIL when we went out for a meal, we had a communal bowl of chips and I took a medium sized portion because I knew that if I took a small one then there would be none left if I wanted more. In the end I left some, but I didn't take any more than my fair share, so felt it was my decision wether I ate them or left them on the plate.