The Paul McKenna Thread Number 12. A Simple Title, for Simple Weight Loss and All amongst Friends!!

[Solo]

Welcome to thread 12 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, it's about enjoying what you are putting in your mouth, but not feeling bloated and uncomfortable (or guilty) afterwards!
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 may 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!! Let's get lighter for those summer clothes!

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 ~ 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...if we can get into a smaller size for summer, just think how we could look for next Christmas!

Thank you Rules & ppea. Although it seems like common sense, the rules are quite a radical way of eating - well for me anyway.

The whole chewing 20 times has been a revelation. I had no idea how much I bolted my food. I have two DCs & one of them eats like me but my bird-like, naturally slim DD, eats like a snail and spends ages chewing each mouthful!

I also hadn't realised how much I ate "on the go". We sit down to dinner in the evening, but even then I am often hopping up and down, or eating in a really distracted way. Breakfast has always been standing up & rushing around doing all the other jobs you do in the morning & lunch is at my desk at work - while I work! So, I have ensured that I really concentrate on my meals and eating them properly the last few days. I've even got up earlier so that I could have breakfast at the table.

I still don't feel full when I eat, but I am giving myself smaller portions & don't feel hungry afterwards and have no desire to snack until the next meal.

I don't quite get the "eat what you want" thing yet either. Rules made a good point about our relationships with food being really mucked up from years of dieting and I think there is alot there. I'm going to give myself a chance to work on this aspect of Paul's rules, because I sometimes think what I want is in reaction to my emotions and not what my body actually needs.

I'm quite excited in a funny kind of way as I've never thought like this before.

Hi Ladies
PostBell you say you don't feel full when you eat your smaller portions but you also say that you don't feel hungry when you stop. Dah dah!!!!! that's it for you then. I don't feel "full" when I eat. If I feel full then I have eaten way tooo much. Its feeling like your body is sated.
To me the eat what you want thing is really really thinking what you like to eat when your not dieting and you give yourself permission to do so. Its maybe keeping your fave icecream in the freezer or your favourite biscuits in the tin. Its a wonderful cheese that you love. Its real salty butter spread on a piece of yummy toast. Its that bar or three of yummy chocolate that you deprive yourself of. Be prepared that when you initially allow yourself to eat the foods you really love that you might overeat them in the way of a dieter having a binge. This is because your body doesn't really believe yet that it can have what it wants. So if you eat too much at first, just go and buy more so that its there. Eventually when you really understand that you can eat anything you will probably find that you hardly ever bother with any one thing again in great quantity. You find that a couple of squares of chocolate or a small cake is all you want or need. Also when you start allowing yourself to eat whatever you want (intolerances aside) you will also find yourself naturally choosing fresh fruit and veg, fish, nuts, etc. Because then all foods become equal again. Like I said before, its not a quick fix . If you really want to let go of the diet mentality forever then you have to be kind to yourself and except that this will be an up and down process but if you stick to the 4 rules as much as possible you will not overeat unless you over ride them a eat because you want to....which is ok too. Just go back to the 4 rules next time.

Sorry to go on here but also when you have real food and real cheese sauce and cook with butter (if you want) or oil and wine and cream etc then food tastes so good and has soooo much flavour that eventually you don't need as much food to feel sated because rather than just eating to feel "full" you are now eating to "taste" and if your tongue gets all the taste sensations if can then eventually you don't need as much food. IYSWIM.

Yes, it is exciting....its like being free for the first time in years. Just try not to concentrate too much on weight loss for the first couple of months because you have a lot of the old mindset to overcome first and a lot of trial and error but if you want to be free forever then you will get there.

It's interesting Rules because I came to Paul Mckenna from a different direction in that I'd never been on a ww or SW or cal.controlled diet (I tried Atkins for 2 days which made me feel ill so I stopped that ).

My mum made sure we didn't eat shit or special 'diet' food or make us clear our plates (though she was on a diet). Ive always had good fresh tasty food and not binged and starved. BUT Paul Mckenna worked and is still working for me.

Maybe we need to redefine the word 'diet'. There's a huge difference between your diet in terms of what you eat and choosing foods that help your body and diet where you eat certain things and generally less calories specifically to lose weight. Many of us eat specific diets to help with health but we aren't doing the low calorie or bizarre food choices (cabbage soup anyone?!).

So how did you gain weight then pp.

Well diet in its simplest terms is what you eat I guess. The word diet today though means reducing calories.
pp Didn't you do the Hay Diet for awhile. Maybe it was someone else who said that....sorry cant remember as it was a while back.
pp I came to PM from having eaten mindfully for about ten years. Not from weight watchers of slimming world etc. I ate very very healthily as a child ( or what is considered healthy today) . I ate vegetables, meat, fish and salad. No fats or sugars allowed . My mother who was also always on a life long diet didn't allow me to eat when I wanted to only when she said I could. Hence where my problem came from. She was actually extremely happy when I didn't clear my plate and loved the fact that at 5 foot 8 I weight in at 7.5 stone. She thought it wonderful and would constantly tell me off for eating anything that she hadn't provided ,called me fat, legs like tree trunks. Im sure a lot of people had that sort of upbringing but it sure as hell confuses you about food.

Faith - exactly. For example, I am really working on increasing the amount of fruit and veg that we all eat. The boys diets (see what I did there ) are great, but DH and I not always so much although we probably eat more fruit and veg than most people.
This hasn't really got anything to do with wanting to lose weight, it is purely a choice for health.

I am going rather in fits and starts here. I'm so, so tired - DS2 has been a horror this week and awake for hours in the middle of the night.
We have just a normal weekend at home this weekend, to potter around and take the boys swimming so hopefully I can sneak a nap in :)

Aliba you sound sooo busy , how many children do you have? Its so hard to function when they wake up in the middle of the night.

Oh gosh, only 2!

They are only little though, 2 and 4, and the 4 year old is in reception. They can't really be left to their own devices or do much for themselves yet, so my day is pretty full on even when I'm not actually doing anything specific. It would all seem like a breeze if I actually got enough sleep, I am sure!

Tiredness has been the cause of so much bad eating.

Before I was diagnosed wheat intolerant, when my DCs were little, I think the only thing that kept me awake was intravenous tea and cake all eaten on the hoof of course. There is no doubt that the early years of motherhood has alot to answer for with regard to poor eating habits!

Awww bless. I remember when mine were that small. Its a lovely time although very very hard work and yes....sleep makes everything better doesn't it.

blimey i feel pooped with all this lack of sleep talk, i too cannot function without a good solid bit of comatose! (having said that, needing ~an hour less since cutting out wheat (thanks again pp & welcome back!)) i'm sure that's why all the mums & toddlers groups i went to had tea & baked/chocolate goods on offer, they know it's our lifeline at that stage! don't worry alibaba it gets easier.

well i'm LOVING all the wisdom appearing on the thread, thanks for sharing i'm having a refocussing patch which also ties in with my learning the alexander technique - it requires you to notice what you're doing with your body so i find it really ties in with PMing. what i'm noticing WRT food is that when i eat i'm still having trouble knowing when to stop. if i eat just until i'm no longer hungry, i still want more taste & am not feeling satiated or satisfied. if i stop myself eating the lunchtime sandwich at that point, i find myself looking for pudding of some sort 10 minutes later. however, if i eat slowly until i do feel satisfied - maybe 6-7 on the scale - then when i drink my after lunch peppermint tea i suddenly feel overfull, but it wasn't from the food! if i stop at 5 (neutral) then have my peppermint tea i feel fine but am hungry again half an hour later. aarrgh!! what should i do?? i feel i need to do something as i'm still the same size, possibly getting more porky round the middle

bbb i could never bore of eating! i guess that's the tablets talking though p.s. i've not cut out calories since cutting out wheat, i've replaced with wheat-free carbs instead. no weightloss expected as a result of that.

post i tried high protein low carb before & lost weight but just put it all back on. always missed bread. glad you sound like you're embracing PM even though it feels weird

Hi ladies, i hope everybody had a good night's sleep last night. I do wonder simetimes if it would be worth setting up a weight loss and sleep thread as I am pretty sure for a lot of people, me included, it is as much an issue as anything we put in our mouths.

Not having the greatest few days with the in-laws in town. They are fine, it is the eating out that is the issue. We were out to dinner last night (nice pub) and out again tonight for pizza! [Shock] It is very difficult to eat mindfully when it is cooked by somebody else, at a time of other people's chosing and when you will be distracted by chat and socialising. Still they go back home tomorrow so we can relax and get back to normal!

I don't think we need to worry about the word 'diet' too much - don't we all infer the meaning from context? If Ali, for example, say that she wants to eat more fruit and veg it is obvious she is talking about what she is eating in general terms. I think that is easily is distinguishable from diet in the weight loss sense. I don't see anybody confused about it.

Afternoon all Do you know Rules youre right I've been on the Hay WOE (its more for health and to do with how you eat rather than what) for soo long now I'd forgotten .

There are some weirdnesses about it; but I do it to suit me not the sometimes strange rules.

I suppose it was as BB says the eating out and DH mainlining(I'd have one pain aux chocolat to keep him company) on fabulous croissants etc. when we first moved to France that the weight gradually went on.I noticed in photos and DD2 got the P.M. book and I've not looked back!!.

Veryberry Try the amazing muffin buster exercise to firm up yr. tummy Iforget it sometimes but it always helps.

Hi Ladies....pp what a shame you live in France and can't eat the delicious bakery goods anymore. See that's where the PM works so well for me. If I want a cake I will have one but probably only eat a bite or two now and I'm done. For me its all about the taste.

Wow Rules, I simply cannot imagine eating just two bites of a chocolate croissant and being done!

That said, it is all still going very well. I am sitting here feeling stuffed after my lunch, which was a stay fuller longer fresh thing from M&S. Not chosen because of its stay fuller longer properties, but because it is one of the few fresh take away lunches without wheat. This time last week, I would have eaten that and a yoghurt & would be craving chocolate by this stage BUT I can honestly say I am stuffed 2.5 hrs later!!!!! So day 4 and pleasantly surprised that I can actually do this.

I think it works that way for me because if I get cakes I buy four so I know that I have enough. So when I eat I don't feel like I have to eat it all at once and I can come back and have more later.

thanks pp i'm still doing the muffin-buster most nights (got a post-it up so i never forget!) i've found since doing it that the tummy-muscle-using machines at curves are easier! i keep getting a green light there yey no more amber. ooh, could you please tell me the right word for wheat or gluten in french please? so i can ask if stuff's got it in when i'm on me jolly holibags. i looked in my dicco but there's two: blé & froment. i'm fairly certain i'd use the wrong one & they'd be all ¿qé?!! oh no wrong country i mean quoi?!

Hi all, so many posts since I was last on and it was only a day or two ago.

I've been meaning to post each night but falling asleep fully dressed as soon as I get chance to sit/lie down. I have a only just 1 year old and an only just 2 year old who are both poorly. DD1 has a temperature and a bad case of feeling sorry for herself and DD2 is reacting to the MMR. Was up at 3 this morning and been on training all day so I'm shattered! Need to listen to the CD but I'll fall asleep again- does it still work subliminally?

Not had any chance to eat mindfully over the past few days as I've eaten on the run/while working so I've made a determined effort to purchase/ prepare smaller portions so I don't accidentally overeat (with a back up snack should I still be hungry after). I even ordered the worlds smallest pizza yesterday from the local Italian - it was like a cheesy coaster!

Ps, what's the muffin buster please?

Aww. We were all discussing tiredness recently. Think pp has put up her famous muffin buster" somewhere. It's a tummy exercise.

I think it works even when you nod off....I usually fall asleep and it works for me. I think it is less effective if your wiiiide awake

Morning all! :)

Hi Tin yes Pail says in the book it works subliminally. I know it's impacting because I always stir at 3,2,1! I love the sound of 'world's smallest pizza'!

Bugsy sounds like Pauling is going well!

I'm getting back to Pauling properly - still snacking a lot thinking I'm hungry but I'm not sure I really am. I don't think I'm delinking enough so I'll try a glass of water before I have a snack today. I'm hoping to go for a run tomorrow doing c25k while DH looks after Faithlet.