Happy New Year! Happy New Paul McKenna Thread Number 11. Healthy Weight Loss Without Restricting Your Enjoyment Of Food! Come Join The Paulettes For Support And Chat.

[GoodKingWenSOLOslas]

Welcome to thread 11 of the Paul McKenna's I Can Make You Thin weight loss system.

The Golden Rules that will aid you on your journey with our like minded support system are:

1. Eat what you WANT
2. Eat when you are HUNGRY
3. Eat CONSCIOUSLY
4. STOP eating when you are satisfied and full

This weight loss system is about re-educating your body; learning to listen to it and in doing so losing weight and inches. After all, eating a meal is not a competition.

Many people have issues around food. Many of us have been brought up by the 'clear your plate' parents of yesteryear which leave us feeling guilty if we leave even the smallest morsel of food, but we are working through this guilt or any other hang up we might have, and we are learning to leave a bit on the plate; return to it another time if we really want to or even feed it to the dog or the bin!

So!! forget diets; they may work for a while, but they aren't permanent solutions. This is a new way of living for your brand new life!!

The Paul McKenna system really works and is easy to maintain.

I've C&P'd our previous threads links as they are helpful.

Here are the book choices on AMAZON which is all you need to get started! they aren't compulsory, but they do help! it's something to refer to and listening to the cd's can really focus you.

This is the tapping technique EXPLAINED - this can be useful to combat cravings.

You don't have to buy the book and CD, but we have found that they do help and somehow they keep you on track, so it would probably be a good investment and will cost you far less than a couple of trips to WW or SW meetings, so do consider having them in your life.

Please feel free to join us, whether it's 10lbs or 10 stones you want to lose.
We are friendly, supportive and successful, but we're not hungry OH NO we're not!!! so come on in and start living your new life today and make 2013 your year to drop a dress size or several.

That sounds really good never Congratulations [grin[!!!

Dottie are you a newbie ,welcome if you are or have you name changed? I got that bug (well it doesn't sound like the one I've STILL effing got and and now my size 10s are too big I don't want to eat at all!!)

Hi everybody. Hope you are all OK. Seems to be some positive stuff going on too so congrats to the losers.

I've been in hiding due to repeatedly falling off the wagon and not bothering very hard to get back again but I have finally got my act together in the last week or 2 and have been making an effort and feeling a bit more positive.

I am also reading Adore Yourself Slim which is another take on PMcK written by a lady journalist turned hypnotherapist. I'll tell you all about it some other time but she is basically saying the same things as PMcK but with a little more awareness of eating healthily and doing some exercise. I know PMcK is trying to keep his message simple and to make the method as different from a diet as possible but I do think sometimes he should acknowledge more that following the 4 rules won't be quite enough if you don't make some effort to eat more healthily. The other thing I like is that unlike PMcK, the lady was overweight most of her life so she appears to understands better. I haven't listened to her CD yet but I hope it is better that Ol' Smarmy Pants.

Hi BB. Sorry you have fallen off the wagon. It would seem that you are not having success now with PMICMYT. I dont think more awareness of eating healthily is necessary with this woe. Most people find that when left to their own choices they will eventually eat lots of so called "healthy " foods because they want to not because a book makes them feel guilty for not eating them if you see what I mean. Yep, choose foods that suit you and your body but otherwise you seem to be heading in the direction of the good bad food mentality and also the "exercise" guilt . To me the point of PM is that I dont have any of these issues with food any more. It would seem that your maybe looking for another way to lose the weight as PM isnt doing it anymore. And I definately find that if you stick to the 4 Rules that it is enough.

BB...what do you think and feel about the PM Hypno Gastric band? Alot of people seem to be having sucess with that. Would that help you to stick to the 4 Rules more do you think?

No the gastric band doesn't appeal at all. That feels like a diet to me. I have that book too and couldn't really bring myself to read it after listening to some of the reports.

I have no problem with PMcK as a WOE. I just think he leaves you to come to your own conclusion that you can't actually eat anything you want in the long term and the other book just points it out for you. I do understand that tastes change eventually but it helps if you think about healthier eating and speeds things up a bit. That is not saying count calories or diet, that is just saying that if you are hungry, at least some of the time make a sensible choice rather than always go with what you want. The woman who wrote the other book had been on every diet under the sun and stayed fat. She even ran marathons and stayed fat. Dieting and painful exercise are not the way and nor does she advocate that. On the contrary, the book is called Adore Yourself Slim because no matter what you look like and how much you weigh you should be able to find something good about yourself and if you can, you will be better motivated to look after yourself and eat in measured and moderate way.

I think you attitude will be different depending on where you start from really. If you have a balanced healthy diet but portion size and overeating is an issue then you can follow PMcK and be very successful without thinking about what you are eating. My trouble on the other hand has not been portion size but what I eat so although for a while I can lose weight by cutting back a bit, in the end I have to change what I eat as well. A portion of chocolate will always have more calories than a portion of salad so you can be eating chocolate mindfully, chew slowly, stop when full etc but sometimes you have to leave the chocolate and eat something else. That doesn't make chocolate good or bad, just something to have in moderation. I think you are confusing making conscious healthy choices with labelling food good or bad. They aren't the same thing.

But really, I simply fell off the wagon. Nothing to do with lack of faith or anything. I just gave up thinking about what, when and how I was eating as I had too much else going on. I can't remember the last time I listened to the CD either. There is no lack of faith in the WOE just not getting my head in gear about it. Nothing worth doing is ever that simple, it does require some conscious effort. I am reading the other book to compare and because I find the whole hypnotherapy thing interesting. The other book has a different feel to it. It was interesting as the WOE is basically the same.

And Dottiespots , I had fallen off the wagon but I did say that I had got my act together again and was making an effort. I though we were meant to be positive on this thread!! No need to be sorry for me falling off the wagon as I am back on it now.

I am being positive. But that is the point of the book surely....that you can eat anything you want, when your hungry as long as you stick to the rules. In dealing with emotional eating and breaking the diet habit, you have to not see food as healthy or unhealthy. It is just food and by talking about making conscious healthy choices you are labelling food as good or bad/healthy or unhealthy. You said that it was no more complicated than the 4 rules yourself a few pages back when others were talking about having to cut out certain foods because they cause problems with their bodies. Of course if something doesnt agree with your body or causes you to have a reaction then you are probably best removing it. I myself dont get on with too much wheat but to me if I am going to start not eating something because it is not a healthy choice then I am going to be back to the diet mentality. I eat quite healthily anyway, I love fresh fruit and veg, nuts, chicken,but also love my chocolate, icecream, homemade cakes, kettle crisps but dont tend to overeat them. This woe teaches me to eat everything in moderation as long as I stick to the Rules.

I have had a look at Adore yourself thin a few years ago and it does talk about good foods and bad foods and even has a section on healthy meals designed by a nutritionist to help with your diet and weight loss. I stuck to PM as I didnt want to get worked up about food again and lost my weight. I find that if you really stick to the 4 Rules then you will eventually lose your excess weight and lose your emotional eating problem and you do find that you tend to make sensible choices naturally. When you get back in touch with your body it tells you what it needs. Yes some foods have more calories than others but if your eating to the 4 Rules then calories dont matter.

Morning all this is interesting . As someone who has NEVER counted calories or been on a diet 'proper' (unless you count the Hay and Blood type which are Ways of Eating not 'normal' diets.) I've been doing them for 20 years and only lost weight properly with Paul Mckenna I still do them BTW.

This may make me seem obsessive and I know I CAN be but I'm fully aware of it so not dotty IYSWIM.

Food is such an enormous and emotive subject we will all be bound to have very different opinions and experiences. So I say whatever works for you is fine but IMO its very sad if you can't hear the signals that your body gives you and you go on eating the crap that makes you ill.

Sorry that was an silly thing to say about crap food because I'm allergic to some foods that are fine and healthy for other people like tomatoes and oranges!

Indeed ppeat but crap food (by which we mean unhealthy right? No food is bad ) doesn't necessarily make you ill. Not in a direct way. For me crap food just makes me fat so I don't have to cut anything out of my diet.

I've never been on a diet either except 6 months on the Alternate day diet which I did for 6 months and lost 2 stone. It stayed off for a year after I stopped doing it. No calorie counts except in so far as you know you need to eat very little every other day but no obsessing about it because there were no banned foods, just a bit of deferring the gratification. That is not unlike this WOE because you can have anything you want but you choose not to have it this moment. You are never more than 24 hour away from eating anything. It also adjusts you palette to want nutritious food more often than unhealthier food. That takes a time though. Like PMcK says actions need repetition to become habits and in the meantime you have to be conscious of your choices. That is all I am saying. I don't label foods bad and cut them out of my diet. Healthy and unhealthy is not the same as good and bad - some food is more nutritious than others. It is a statement of fact, not a value judgement like good and bad. PMcK's methods are less dramatic than AD but essentially aim towards the same thing and he makes hypnotism the key -
you are trying to help your subconscious take over from the conscious to make the choices automatically.

The Adore Yourself Slim works on the same basis and encourages you to love yourself regardless of how big you are because then you will want to do the best for you body. The same message as in PMcK but the emphasis is different. It is good to have another take on things.

I'm soo excited (to come off thread !) DS (who is a brilliant bongo type drummer)and a friend are going to open a show at the Royal Albert Hall next week

PMs aim is to reset your eating habits to that of a non dieting person who sees all food as equal and normal. Alternative day dieting is a starve mode one day then eat whatever you want the next (and alot of peope binge on the free day) and in my opinion this then sets you up for the binge diet mentality. You did well to diet like this for 6 months. For me it would totally screw with my mind and the way I eat. Eating consciously has been around long before PM came on the scene but he sort of made it more mainstream and easy to understand. I dont feel that PM and AD aim towards the same thing at all as AD causes you to eat abnormally. But that is just me and all diets cause you to feel bad if you fail on one of their days.
BB in your opinion what do you consider "unhealthy food" and "healthy food" and what do you see as good food and bad food. Bad food to me is diet coke and anything with artificial sweetner in or trans fats, most ready meals because they are full of numbers and letters but they are also unhealthy food. Not sure that Im getting the difference here between good bad, healthy and unhealthy.
In the end though you have to try whatever woe makes you and your body happy .

PP Yay!!!! Isnt he brilliant. You must be soooooo very very proud. Will you be going to watch?

Thanks Dottie we are very proud of him!!!!!. We live between France and London, DH is in England now so I hope he can go.The planes are not regular here ATM so it may mean me not being able to.

I agree about the bad and good foods. I think the problem is that sooo many DCs are bought up to think that some foods ( e.g.chocolate and sweets ARE 'good' a reward or comfort for example) hence colouring so many of our attitudes to food and P.M. is trying to remove the subjectivity IYSWIM IMO it's not possible .

PP i read lots of books years ago on mindful eating and was determined to bring my children up with "normal" attitude to food not the messed up one I had couresy of my own upbringing. So I always had most foods available. Chocolate, cake (if wanted) , sweets etc but I also had huge bowls of fruit, at least 3 portions of veg with meals, salads at lunchtime etc. If they wanted chocolate they had some but it was interesting to see that they did not seem to ever overeat. They had a little chocolate and that was it. They seemed to see chocolate as just another food. I have always had a drawer that has chocolate in,biscuits etc and it doesnt have to be replenished very often. It took me years to achieve this way of eating for myself and find PM really does simplify the issue of food to what it should be.

That's interesting, though another problem is the addictiveness of certain ingredients like sugar and salt; (which the manufacturers know all about BTW!!) your body gets used to having a certain chemical and we DO crave them, I love the P.M. tapping technique for that,I find it works.

Yes they can be addictive and this is why they pour them into ready meals. Sugar and salt are major flavour enhancers. I have always make my own meals from scratch and of course whenever I have been given a "ready meal" at work they taste awful to me. And then there is the "Low Fat" eating that was drummed into us from the late 70s. This has resulted in people over the last 30 years getting fatter and fatter despite eating "Low Fat" as to make the foods more palatable more sugar and salt was poured into them rather than fats. It is only now that people are seeing that fats are not the enemy and that butter indeed is a better food for you than a not natural butter type spread full of chemicals and sugars. This is believed to be why diabetes is much worse nowdays than it was 30 years ago. Same of heart disease etc. People are now starting to eat more naturally again with foods that have not been tampered with and the results are quite astounding. Blood pressure levels dropping, heart disease reversing etc.

Yes the hydrogenated transfats were literally killers .I remember my DM listening to a radio programme about that many years ago and I never bought those 'spreads' I 'm not good with butter so I use olive oil for everything. Dh has butter and has recently read that italian docs. CURE heart disease with olive oil so he's eating more than he used to (though he uses a lot of garlic with his olive oil so he's fitter than most O.W. men of his age!)

Yep Doctors and specialists and laymen all over the world seemed to be realising that butter and olive, rapseed oils and a diet that is more natural like that of cavemen or paleo i think its called is actually helping to reverse alot of modern illnesses and where people who were once on high dose meds have actually been able to reduce and in alot of cases come off meds by following a more natural way of eating. Best medicine in the world....food!!

Yes true Dottie but it's a double edged sword IMO it's a shame so many people are unaware that their food makes them ill and prefer to always seek 'cures' from OTC meds.

Dottiespots - I am not sure I would label anything bad at all as that might make it attractive or alternatively, making yourself feel bad for consuming it or both. We aren't into labelling things good and bad though are we? Nobody needs to feel guilty about what they consume which is what 'bad' suggests.

Healthy is anything that your body needs (in the appropriate proportions), unhealthy is anything our bodies don't need (wine gums for example - just sugar and nothing else) or which might have an adverse effect on your body. What could be healthy for one person (eggs, sea food, milk etc) could be downright dangerous for somebody who is allergic. Diet coke is unhealthy because of the potential to mess with your brain chemistry and whilst I wouldn't ban it from my diet, I wouldn't necessarily drink it either. It probably depends what is on offer. If somebody said have a diet coke or water I would go for water. If on the hand the offer was diet coke or wine/beer I would have a diet coke and not feel guilty. I can't think of anything that is deemed legal and fit for human consumption that would do you any harm if you have it occasionally so I wouldn't worry about the one or 2 glasses a year I might have.

This WOE is about teaching your body to prefer the healthy stuff (in healthy proportions as well) over the unhealthy. I think all I am saying is that you might need to make conscious choices about that occasionally rather than just wait for your unconscious to make those choices for you because that can take some time given how often you need to repeat something before it becomes habit.

I have to disagree about AD being about binging. It isn't, certainly after the first week or so. You know you can have what you want soon even if you can't have it now. You really don't bother binging when you get into it. Plus your appetite reduces quite significantly (as it does with this WOE of course). You do realise you can be happy and healthy on 500 calories if it is only for one day. Plus of course there is all the research on the effects on your blood pressure, blood sugar levels and cholesterol which all improve by doing it. Once you start getting results and feeling better all round you don't want to jeopardise it by going mad on your eating days - there is no urge to binge. You don't even think about it. It can be tough to fit into family life thats all. I managed it for 6 months and finally let it fizzle out during the summer school holidays as it was hard to do with the children around so for me it wasn't a long term solution.

ppeat - well done to your DS! What an opportunity! DH sang at the Albert Hall when he was at school, him and several hundred other children. He still hasn't stopped mentioning it 30+ years on. I am sure your DS will have the time of his life and it will be a day to remember for him too!

I have to disagree on PM being about teaching your body to eat "healthy stuff". To me PM is about relearning to eat normally without overthinking whether the foodtype is healthy or not so healthy. Its eating it because that is what i want to eat at that time. Stopping eating it when im full. Eating conciously. Yes I do eat very healthily anyway but that is cause I happen to love fresh fruit and veg . If I were to have to think of how healthy a food is before I eat it then I would be going into the diet mentality and that is not where I want to be. Maybe we just all interpret this WOE differently but for me the relief of this WOE is that there is no need to question if the food is healthy or not.