I had my hypno gastric band 'fitted' by Paul McKenna last night...

[lynniep]

...so far so good! Admittedly its not even 11am yet, but I havent eaten my snacks which are sitting on my desk and not even tempting me! Normally I don't allow myself anything till 10am, then I pounce!

I am doing this in conjunction with weightwatchers, which Paul McKenna would not approve of, since he despises 'diet clubs' (boy does this come through loud and clear in his book).

However since I don't know the man personally, and I feel I need the WW sessions for support, I am carrying on with pro- pointing and hoping that my gastric band will provide the backup I need to not binge and eat more than my body needs.

I've been (back) on weightwatchers for several months now and failed miserably because I am both a compulsive eater and a (hopefully) reformed bulimic.

I'd like to think this will help me - and I'm willing to try it because I am now as heavy as I was just after I gave birth to DS2 3 years ago (my heaviest, unless you count when I was 40 weeks pg!)

If anyone is interested I will report back :)

My book, CD & DVD have arrived! Reading book!

hello chewing you must read the book first, there's instructions to do before the CD. then the first track (pre-installation) is ~13min long, the installation itself is 28mins.

stillstarving i find i get a generalised craving which rumbles on so suits weekly shopping & planning. eg. i might really fancy some red meat & if it was the end of the week & we didn't have any, i'd still find myself rather fancying it when i went to do the big food shop on monday, so could get it then. if DH just lets you know his requests you'll be fine, & if you cook for kids teatime but aren't hungry yourself, just plate it up & it later when/if you are.

good luck to you both!

Thank you Veryberry. Will read the book first. I was keen to get going but don't want to short circuit the system

Is it necessary to 're-install' the band from time to time? (ie keep listening to the cd) or does once last indefinitely? (Sorry to keep firing questions. Should really read the book)

Read the book - I read it all in short bursts this afternoon so it's not long!

Read the book, watched the very short tapping DVD, listened to the Pre op cdb& then listened to the trance cd to have the band fitted.

During the trance part when the gastric band was being tightened around my stomach I felt a physical tightening - weird !! Just shows how powerful the mind is!

I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow but I know that I'll need to listen to it repeatedly as my mind slips easily!

veryberry thanks, I see what you mean - I had an idea that every time I'm hungry I would have to try to think what I really really wanted and then find it and eat it. As I say I can over-complicate anything!!
Got my book yesterday and have read it. Am now doing my preparation for my surgery! Eating healthily and need to plan a date for the op! Do I need to wait the full 2 weeks do you think? I'm keen to get started and was thinking maybe about next Thursday but I don't want to lessen the effect by rushing things. I've been trying to lose weight so have been exercising and eating pretty healthily anyway. I do need to learn the havening technique and I've started trying to follow the 4 golden rules. It all does seem slightly insane but if it works.....

I did it all on Monday (I don't eat junk food & already exercise daily anyway!) Getting full very quickly! It's great!

Midwife that's fabulous that it's working for you! I am sceptical about it but hopeful. How much less would you say you're eating?

ooh glad it's working for you midwife

stillstarving no worries i don't think you're overcomplicating it, i too like to have an idea of what i'm getting into! i tend to pack a couple of different snacks (eg. 1 savoury, 1 sweet) & sometimes still don't have the right thing, but as i said it's more like a low-level rumbling, quite different from the sudden urgent binge-urges i'd gotten used to as a dieter. lots of people upthread just went for it, not doing a full 2 weeks, with cries of "if i could stop eating shite i wouldn't need this"! i waited a good few weeks as i wanted to digest the book & reread, but still ate chocolate (come on it was easter!) so up to you.

chewing some people listen to the band every day for the first 5 days (the folk who did it in The Sun newspaper - urg i don't read that crap it just came up when i googled it!) it says in the book listen at least once a month until you've been at your target size/weight for 6 months. it's supposed to readjust itself automatically to the appropriate size for you when you listen. when you stop i guess it just wears off.

mameulah are out out there? how are you getting on?

oops are you out there?

very Thank you for thinking of me. I have been having a quiet chocolate guzzling meltdown wondering what it is that stops me being dedicated to actually sorting my food/diet/exercise/body imagine 'issues.' What you wrote on May10th makes absolute perfect sense to me. I have before been the person who had a positive head space about everything and frankly I am so sick of forcing myself into a new regime and then falling off the wagon that I almost can't even bear to think about it. And to top it all we are having our big family gathering this weekend and I am a dress size bigger than I have ever been and still look like I am pregnant. But, as my Mum says 'life is what you make it', so I am trying hard not to feel too shitie about it.

Things I have learned since thinking about this new approach......

Overeating is, to some intent and purpose, something that I enjoy and something that I dedicate far too much thought and time to.

I have spent almost every day of the last three years thinking 'I've ruined it (my healthy forever regime) so I might as well splure and then I will 'be good forever' from tomorrow.

I am SICK of painting on self esteem and pretending I am fine with being huge.

My head space in all other aspects of my life is really together. Why can't I sort this out?

So, very if you haven't given up reading my long ramblings is......

Go away and enjoy my holiday, try not to be too hard on myself and...

Here is the dilemma, sing back onto WW because I don't trust myself to Paul-it.

O.R.

Trust myself to Paul-it and trust his method.

And very well done you. Really well done, I hope you are feeling suitably delicious about all you are achieving.

'sign' back onto WW, not 'sing'!

I reckon I'm eating about half what I normally do at the most. I don't think I could listen to the cd once a month. I think I will need it almost daily. But that's just me!

foodietoo I haven't undone it as such. I've just been less conscious when eating. Over the last 3 weeks my food intake has doubled.

Tbh I'm no happier on SW! First week -6, last 2 weeks sts. I was averaging 1.5lbs a week on HGB, so not a massive increase in weight loss. I'm doing the red plan, (which is high protein and low carb) and I really miss potatoes, and butter!!

Really not sure what to do........

Thanks a million for replying.

The gastric band didn't really seem to work for me. I did slimming world too. I loved that plan but very slow losses for me.

I thought I read from your post that you had absolutely no appetite whatsoever because of the band.

While I was on the band, I really struggled to eat because I didn't have much of an appetite, even though I could eat whatever I wanted. I basically lived on salad potatoes cooked in the oven, with a couple of tblsp of chilli or curry.

When I started SW I stopped following the 4 rules. I've started to naturally eat more, but have started craving the stuff I shouldn't have!

Beginning to wonder if I'd be better off just following the rules, without the band.

I'm sorry it hasn't worked for you. I listened to the cd at least 2 or 3 times a week, that was the only way I could get the effects to last.

hellooo & happy friday!

mameulah if you're not away yet, i hope you enjoy some of your family weekend despite your reservations, good luck i'll be thinking of you. when you get back give pauling a go! you've nothing to lose (except food stress & some inches!) let's face it you wouldn't have given up on WW before if it was working for you. i had a wobble yesterday but i'm right back on track today, that's the beauty you can just pick it up where you left off with no need to psych yourself up for more deprivation & going "oh well i'll just binge a bit more while i'm off the wagon". i had a mini magnum in the sun today with no guilt because i was hungry & it was exactly what i wanted! before i would have tried to balance it out by missing some of my dinner, but i would have then been hungry later & had something else over my allowance, then guilt, then urg, etc, you get the picture! we'll be here to chum you in paul-dom!

fairy you read my mind, i didn't have time to post after reading your initial wondering if SW was right, but i was thinking "just do the 4 rules without the band" because then you get to eat normal quantities so it's worth cooking, but you won't crave butter & tatties you're "not allowed" because you can have them! undoing the restriction allows your body to tell you what it really wants, not just what it thinks it wants because it's no allowed. when i started binge-eating as a direct result of dieting, i looked up loads of stuff on bingeing & without fail every single reformed binger/bulimic said "it's scary but you MUST STOP DIETING"

i'm happy to report i've lost an inch off my bust & waist, & 1/2 inch off my hips. all this while feeling a lot happier around food. yey!

p.s. that's from doing the four golden rules, the band didny work for me.

Hi everyone. I follow Paul's I Can Make You Thin. I hadn't heard of the gastric band version until I read this thread, but hope I can join in here.

vivacia you're very welcome here how long have you been doing ICMYT? how have you found it? there's also another thread on ICMYT called happy new year paul mckenna thread 11. they bin doin it longtime wiv success

Thank you for the welcome Very. I have done Paul before (with success) and have recently restarted to give myself a bit of a boost.

Would love to know how chinhealer, maskedhorror etc are getting on. Also OP lynniep.

Decision made, I'm going back HGB tomorrow! If I find it too extreme I'll just do the 4 rules.

mameulah, your post could have been written by me! I spend the majority of the time on a diet thinking- I've blown it for today so I'll just finish all the naughty food in the house and start afresh tomorrow. Or - I've blown it today, so the week is ruined, I'll pig out and start again on Monday.
We all know diets can only start on a Monday!!

I've just decided that, realistically, this is the only plan I'll be able to stick to 7 days a week.

Hope you have a good holiday.

hurrah i'm pleased for you fairy coming back to paul you're so right about it being the only sustainable solution.

i'm also very familiar with the things you & mameulah wrote about, it's a pattern of behaviour & thoughts every overweight dieter knows! it's weird, i couldn't really believe until i'd been pauling for a while that it's the diet that makes that happen, i thought i was just naturally a greedy pig with a propensity for eating shite with no self-control & thus deserved to be a fat cow. but since then i've found that often i really won't want dieter's forbidden foods even when they're in front of me!! & have preferred a healthier option like fruit & found it so much more satisfying

i'd also love to hear what happened to OP & others...