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 :)

Well good on you for getting back on track Fairy sometimes you have to go back to "dieting" numerous times before you fully understand the impact they have on you psychologically. There is a lot of money in the diet industry, always has been, and they are there to make money out of people. That is their main purpose, not to help you lose weight and keep it off forever. If that was the case you would never need to go on another diet again in your life. But ......that's not what happens is it. Paul McKenna has used a principal that has been around for years and years. There are many books out there and the one that started me on this woe many years ago was Overcoming Overeating. It basically said the same thing as PM (before PM) but without the hypnotherapy part. I brought my kids up to eat "normally" which was very different from the diet mentality my mother brought me up with. I have always had a chocolate drawer in the house and all the foods my kids enjoyed eating but we always had bowls of fruit and ate loads of veg too. My kids are both slim and have no issues with food. So it does work and I have seen it work in my two kids over the years. I never made them eat everything on their plates either.

hello orianne & yaimee welcome to the HGB thread. i've been doing this for a month or so now & though the band disny appear to be working for me, the four golden rules have made my life sooo much better i almost don't mind the band no working! yes i'd like to shrink quickly but wouldn't we all? that's what the diet industry plays on. but the transformation in my attitude to food is really one to be utterly grateful for, now it's a positive thing i enjoy when i'm hungry rather than a cure for emotional overload or just a guilt & longing. and i can see a wee difference in my body so i'm moving in the right direction. it seems to work for the vast majority on here so i'm sure you'll be grand.

fairy i would have been very bored eating a couple of tatties with sauce too, i had an idea which may help: how about batch cooking? if you did a big pot of say bolognaise or curry or somesuch, & freeze little weeny portions, then you'd only have to cook a few strands of spaghetti or rice to go with... just a thought
i find the havening really effective: when i've done it the original thought is still there but i just amn't as bothered/upset/annoyed by it, can look at things more logically & less carried along on the wave of emotion.

mameulah so nice to hear your wave of revelation & how you're giving yourself time to enjoy it

rules glad it's working for you, and loving what you're saying on here - you talk good sense with understanding

clench i did the havening three times (whilst thinking about being worried/annoyed/disappointed that it still wouldny work for me) before taking HGB to bed & tried really hard (& succeeded) in drifting away & not really paying attention, as before when i've listened i've been really paying close attention & i thought maybe i'd accidentally stopped my iceberg from tipping IYSWIM! today i had half my usual breakfast, half my usual lunch & three quarters of my usual tea... but about an hour after each meal i was hungry again so had the remainder. bah. i thought seeing as fairy found it too effective by listening very often, i'll try the same & do it every night this week. any other tips?

very ok keep Havening and see where it takes you. What I mean by that is once you clear one issue see what else comes up and clear that. Listen to the CD every night (or whenever) for a week. Hypnosis is an accumulative thing so the more you do it, the better at it you get
when you're eating it helps to close your eyes and really slow down the eating process. This helps you to really taste the food and also to listen to your body and wait for the 'full' signal.
Are you drinking enough water?

Just wanted to say I've only been following the 4 rules so far as my book and cd haven't yet arrived. I had done ICMYT a couple of years ago so remembered them.
Been doing it since Friday and lost 2lbs so far!!
Maybe we should have a weigh in day to keep everyone's motivation up? And post how much weight we have lost out of how much our target? I need to lose a stone so I would post 2/14lbs. It's just an idea but I think it would be inspiring to anyone joining us if they could see our successes and also to each other, and having a weigh in day would make us a bit accountable and keep up morale

clench, great idea about all weighing the same day. Due to a really hectic week, I 'forgot' to weigh when I started. I really like weighing on a Monday. For me, it makes me stick to the rules over the weekend.

Greetings Paulers! I had an interesting day yesterday. I was pretty anxious and stressed though still had lots to do. I think my normal routine is to eat to try to get through emotionally. Such a deeply ingrained habit I do it without noticing - up to now! I was so much more aware of what I was doing! Yes, I did still do it a bit - jump back you evil crisps you know who you are! - but definitely not as much. And no massive guilt about it, usually I eat a load of junk and then feel rubbish. If I had learned havening I could probably have dealt with it so I had a few goes at it last night to try and get on top of it. Also today back to normal, no paying penance for eating too much yesterday. I'm so hopeful that this is going to help me change how I interact with food. I feel ridiculous even writing "interact with good" but it's about so much more than eating for me.

Still food is a very emotional thing. When we comfort eat we fill a hole so to speak. Replacing a feeling of emptiness, loneliness, boredom, whatever with food.
If you have a bad day (and we all will now and then) just dust yourself off and get back on the horse (like you have done).
Havening is a great tool!
Also I know you'll prob all know this anyway but NEVER weigh yourselves the day after eating something salty or eating something loaded with MSG like a Chinese or when you're due on, because you'll always weigh more than you actually do. Salt causes water retention like nobodies business and its only temporary and not worth getting down hearted and derailling yourself.

Fairy Monday it is then
It might encourage me to be extra vigilant over the weekends

hello all!
clench firstly, well done on your loss!
thankyou for taking the time to coach me, it's very much appreciated. yes i drink plenty water, i'm a herbal tea girl. i'll try approaching the issue that came to light through a bit of home-NLP with havening next time.
i'm in two minds about the weigh-in - half of me says it'll keep me focussed, good to be accountable etc, but the other half worries that it will derail me completely, because so far my weight has fluctuated up & down by a few lbs but no clear loss & though i have lost some inches, relying on the weight may not be a clear indicator of how i'm doing... don't want to be a partypooper though!

still good stuff noticing your previous get-me-through eating.
there's three stages to any successful change.
1)awareness
2)planning
3)practice
to make the change & keep it up that's all you need to do & you've done #1 & made a start on #2 by trying to learn the havening, planning to do that instead of eat next time. that's great progress!

Hi Ladies
Clench glad your pleased with your loss although for me I can lose 2lbs overnight and then easily put it on again so I try hard to not take any notice of the scales. I think that's why PM says only weigh yourself occasionally rather than every week. For me the idea of weighing in on a Monday is too much focusing on the weight loss and is like a slimming club/dieter rather than changing my attitude and relationship with eating and food in general. Im measuring my success by my clothes cause I know that I have definitely lost body fat if my clothes are getting loser IYSWIM. Also I do weights and gym with running thrown in so what the scales say is never the full story. The weights I do can actually cause weight gain because of increased muscle but my body fits better in my clothes.

Well DH thinks I'm insane because I think it might be working. I feel full (well I think it's a full feeling have spent years ignoring this feeling and continuing to eat) but it feels like full. Iykwim. I'm craving raspberries not chocolate. I've even managed to cut down on my tea drinking as it fills me uncomfortably. I take two sugars in my tea so that's a huge thing to cut down on for me. Early days though ...

Orianne tell your DH that the majority of hospitals in the UK use hypnosis to do operations on patients where anaesthetic can't be used. They even did one live on tv a few years ago. Hypnosis isn't hocus pocus so it works perfectly well for weight loss (thankfully!)
I am another 1lb down ladies, (I know I shouldn't keep weighing myself but it's exciting stuff this) although DH and I are out for a meal tonight so that should be interesting!
Wish my book and CD would hurry up!!!

hello all!
orianne it's true what PM says about you eating a balanced diet by choice because your body will let you know what you need if you just listen! i've found myself wanting certain foods at uncharacteristic times (which DP has been quite vocal about thinking it's weird:"eh? that's a dinner, why are you having that for lunch?) so yesterday i had spicy bean burger & chips for lunch (i've never had cooked lunch in my puff), but then i'd a mango & protein shake for my tea! yum. that used to be breakfast! so it all evens out.

having said that i went a bit off today with utter exhaustion & fed-upness (tiredness is my trigger to eat shite) & the comfort food i ate tasted all wrong, i suppose i must have thought about what i've tended to go for at times like this, rather than listening to what my body really wanted. tsh. at least i was actually hungry though.

clench bloody hell it's just falling off you eh? nice one. hope you enjoy your dinner oot, & if you cany finish it just ask for a doggy bag!

clench forgot to say thanks for the emofree.com ref, i looked it up & wowee that's powerful stuff! watched the intro videos so far, & intend to go back for the tutorials at the weekend after hectic thurs/fri. cheers

Do you think I can do this when pregnant? I'm 23 weeks and ever since i got my blue line I have been stuffing my face with junk food and crisps and biscuits, its very unlike me! I am putting on weight too quickly according to the weight gain charts, and just need something to help me think about what I'm eating rather than just shovelling it in.

Probably best to ask your midwife/ Dr rum.

When I started orianne, I received a mixture of eyes raised to heaven in a kind of not another fad diet way, and full blown hysterical laughter! When I've tried everything from the 60 min to the cabbage soup diet, I really couldn't blame them.

I have to admit, I haven't been following the rules to the letter this every day this week.( really mad, hectic week) Things are better now, so starting from scratch, reading the book tonight and listening to the cd in the morning.

very too late I think I've put it all back on! Urgh! I had 3 courses and ate the lot very mindlessly for the first time since Friday (although bear in mind I've not had the band fitted yet because it's still not come!!) and my tummy is bloated and hurting!
Back on it tomorrow!
Glad the EFT stuff is of use, I use it for everything (when I remember) you can use it for deep-rooted painful memories, cravings, confidence, even headaches! I use it for my ice-skating sometimes when I'm struggling to do something. There's lots of useful stuff on Youtube.
It really is a skill for life.
You will find when clearing one problem that something else pops into your head and you end up working on that instead.
If you get stuck on anything just shout me! I am only too happy to help!
Blimey I hope my cd comes, I feel very annoyed with myself for stuffing my face, had a nice flattening tum before I went out and then I was sure I was going to split my jeans on the way out of the restaurant!

Rum you can't do hypno while pg. I think you should ask your GP about the 4 rules though.

Clench Oooo not nice feeling having eaten too much. If your doing the 4 rules why do you think you overate? Do you think you have been eating too little and maybe depriving yourself which caused you to overeat? Just wondering really. Interesting that you say you cant have hypnosis in therapy. I had a little to help me with childbirth, it was a very positive experience that enabled me to focus on the pain in a good way and move it away. I was given a word to say whenever the pain hit. It really helped to calm me down. My therapist wouldn't do any other hypno therapy work with me though until I had given birth.

sorry......meant hypnosis in pregnancy. Silly men.

silly me.....bugger bugger bugger

Rum I don't see any reason why you cant do the 4 golden rules because they are just common sense and eating like a naturally slim person would. Usually only those of us with disordered eating eat too much. We envy friends or other people who seem to be able to eat anything without gaining weight....but if you were to follow them all day and night you would probably see that they eat just like you do when you follow the 4 rules.

Rules Hypno isn't advised in certainly the first tri. I do hypno for childbirth but baby is on its way outwards then so it's really valuable for both baby and mum but not during the pg.
I overate because I didn't follow the rules while eating out tonight. I was being a pig. I think my CD will come tomorrow so it was kind of one last hurrah because I knuckle down and do it properly.
I do enjoy following the rules and find it liberating because we aren't dieting as such so there is no guilt associated with whatever we are eating.
Tomorrow is a new day!

I agree with you there Clench each day is a new day with this woe. I look forward to seeing how the gastic band affects you. Its certainly making a big difference to me. Although I have done PMICMYT for a year and mindful eating for years before that, Im finding this band to be like the icing on the cake. It helps me be more mindful without having to really think about it if you know what I mean. Like a little voice in my head. I too only want to lose a stone and I think that its sometimes harder to lose a small amount than to lose a lot.

I'm really looking forward to getting my band fitted. I love listening to other hypnotherapists cds, sometimes it's a little difficult for me to switch off because through my job, I know what techniques they are using and it's hard not to lie there sometimes and think 'oh yes that's really clever' or Grrr at their technique if the voice isn't right or something.
I know PM is sometimes a bit too left-brained and American-style and NLP for some people but I'm looking forward to doing this.
This woe makes a lot of sense to me.
I agree rules when we only have a small amount to lose it can be harder to get it shifting. I am due to have a hysterectomy (don't have a date yet) and will enter surgical menopause and am scared of ballooning after the op, not least because I will be bed bound for ages and struggle to move around. I want to make sure that I don't pile on the weight and I think this woe will sort that out!