Paul McKenna "I Can Make You Thin!"

fairly_good_fairy

Hi, I've been kinda doing this for ages now, but this thread is inspiring me to do it properly again! I hadn't thought about listening to the CD whilst I ate, so I may try that when I come back off holiday in September.

The two things I follow all the time without too much issue are eating what I want and leaving some food on the plate. I've also been doing at least 10,000 steps a day. I've lost 11 pounds since June which I'm really pleased about.

For me, the best thing about this eating plan is you don't have to think about food! All the diets I've tried invariably end with me obsessing with food - food that I can have, food that I can't have, food that I shouldn't have that accidently just made it into my mouth!

Well done to all the posters who are sticking with it

HH62

fairly_good_fairy wrote: »

For me, the best thing about this eating plan is you don't have to think about food! All the diets I've tried invariably end with me obsessing with food - food that I can have, food that I can't have, food that I shouldn't have that accidently just made it into my mouth!

Congrats on your weight loss f_g_f !
I agree about the not having to think about food, it's great. When I go shopping I just think 'ok what do I fancy?'. I don't sit around obsessing about what I should and shouldn't be eating.
Now if only I could deal with those intense PMS time cravings I get, I'll have this cracked...

WorkingHardDFW

Just caught up with the thread. Its so hard isn't losing the emotional detachment from food. I'm generally Ok whilst I am at work, where I don't really have any opportunity to eat the wrong stuff. But when I am home its a whole different matter.

That said: Day 5/6

I am going to lose count...

Great day yesterday since I took my DD and some friends to an aerial assualt course for DD's birthday. Very hard work both mentally and physically but an excellent day out and well worth a few bruises and aches and pains - it was activity though. I was clearly going for top marks yesterday and I went for a swim last night and swim about 40 lenghts. I already feel so much more positive then previously.

Today I've eaten Ok and made healthy choices generally. I did bring a piece of DD's homemade b/day cake to work today but I didn't eat it until nearly 4pm which for me is an achievement. Usually it would have been calling to me from 9am onwards . No exercise tonight as OH is out but I'm about to going and bounce on the trampette thing I bought a year or so ago.

Feeling positive and incontrol and loving this thread and the support it brings :T

Honey39

luc24 wrote: »

honey fifteen pounds in just over 6 weeks, isnt bad u suppose?!!its FANTASTIC!!u r eatin what u want AND losin an average of 2.5 lbs a week, well done that is so good!! and u shud definitely give yourself more credit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

as for not knowing what to do with your emotions rather than cover them up with food, i know exactly how u r feelin on that score, im havin a little bit of trouble, but also celebratin the fact that i dont need the chocolate to fall back on

well done again )

xxxx

Thank you, that's really nice of you to put it in perspective for me - I am really pleased, it just kind of showed to me that the scales are a bit of a tyranny.

On the second bit about the emotions - I do find it hard not to use food as a cover; it's what I *DO*, use food as a way of comforting myself and seeing it as a treat for a hard day at work, a reward for it being the weekend. I'm finding it easier to not do this, but when I get low, it is kind of tough.

I know what you mean about its being a lonely way to lose weight as we are not going to a club and I know when I have told people at work about PMK they look at me as though I am barmy! It is not an easy thing to explain is it? But it is working for us and I must say I think the CD is a big help both in reprogramming my mental attitude to food but also in making me more positive and happy generally. On one of the TV programmes I saw PMK actually said that he wanted to make people happier as well and I am certainly finding that to be true for me.

While I'm here I think you said before you were choosing healthy foods and wondered if that was OK rather than just going on what you wanted. I think that is all part of the CD's message that your body will naturally guide us to choosing the right "diet"/foods that will help us to be healthy and lose weight so I don't think that is a problem unless of course you find you don't enjoy the healthy foods. I bought some probiotic yoghurts which I didn't even realise were low calorie until I ate one and realised it didn't taste as nice as I'd expected! It is a learning curve isn't it?

Anyway hope you feel brighter and more positive tomorrow. How about pampering yourself a bit when you are feeling low, do your nails or a facemask, give your hair a treatment, or have a spa bath - something like that to give you a lift?

Thanks SilverSapphire, what a lovely message! I feel a bit bad for being down yesterday, you're absolutely right, it's all about taking it slowly step by step. I don't know why I want quick rewards, logically I know that's just silly - a pound or two a week is far better, for my skin, for my health, and for generally keeping the weight off.

Hi honey39, how are you today?
I think 15 pounds in 6 weeks is fantastic. Just think about it. You haven't had to be hungry, you haven't had to eat horrid things you don't like. You haven't had to count calories/points/syns. You're much more relaxed around food, eating what you enjoy. And you've lost over a stone to boot! It's brilliant.

I'm sorry I haven't been around, I've been really struggling. Probably partly because it IS such a lonely way to lose weight. I'm getting back into it today. Really found it hard to not just eat and eat this past 10 days.

Thanks HH62 - that's absolutely true, it IS a great system, and I can honestly see myself doing it for the rest of my life.

Why do you think you've been struggling? I know that I have tough times, Sunday evenings in particular are excruciatingly hard for me. Don't give yourself a hard time, just think how brilliant you are for doing this!

I think it IS quite a lonely thing to do, because it's important and a big deal to me, but too hard to explain. Other women understand diets easier, and at work there is definitely a sense of camaraderie as I turn down treats etc - but that's not quite what we're doing, is it? I guess we have to be our own support network here!

I've thought about this a bit, and I've come to the following conclusions about what makes this work (for me):

• Doing it consistently day after day, even if those days aren't 'perfect', does seem to be making changes - it's kind of normal now to eat like this
• Drink loads of water - I didn't do that yesterday or today, and I realise that I'm thirsty rather than hungry. I drink sparkling water, because I like it, and find that palatable.
• I like the journal more and more - it just feels like it's something to focus on each day at the start and end; I've bought the next one for about £4.00 on amazon, so it's really not an expensive system to follow!
• I listen to the CD a LOT. Usually once a day when I'm having either breakfast or dinner, and that focuses my mind - remember, I have a LOT of weight to lose, and I have binged/purged all my adult life.
• I have to remind myself each day that I need to keep *working* at it, deliberately and consciously - I can see myself speeding up my eating, or eating a biscuit when I'm surfing the internet, and I have to really catch myself starting these bad habits and go back to basics again.
• I know this is extreme, but doing the crisp aversion exercise was a major thing for me; I cannot bear the thought of crisps, whereas they were my huge huge trigger for bingeing all my life. Nothing else has that hold on me, so I'm grateful to be free from that - it's weird. I get the impression I could *probably* overcome the aversion if I tried, but of course I don't want to, so every time I think of crisps, I deliberately think of cat food covering them and that just makes me want to throw up!

My commitment still holds - do this for ninety days and evaluate where next. It's been an amazing tool for giving me a breathing space around food, which I do like. I've never ever been relaxed about food before, and now I am fairly chilled out. When I have lunch at work, I'm not bothered about 'breaking' a diet. A colleague today who is dieting brought in her own salad and what a palaver - I just picked a bit from the buffet and stuck to the 'rules'; it felt nice to be normal.

Anyway, thank you all for being so nice to me, it really really helped, and I hope I can cheer on you guys as well! :T

jomo70

Hi all, well I truly lost the plot with this....and decided that this time I wasn't going to just give up like all those previous diets, and if any diet was going to work it would be this one.....So I took the plunge and booked myself into see a hypnotherapist (SP)!! Had my first session on Monday and it was great, he was great and I've now got a six week course to help me along....so I will keep you posted.

Honey39...Well done you, thats over a stone a great start, keep positive!

Working hard...I was just like you with my eating pattern (great at work, Bad at home) then I became a SAHM so you can imagine how bad I got! thats when I realised its all to do with my relationship with food, and that needs to be sorted out.

Good luck to all.....

chezabelle_2

Hi all,
Hope everyone is doing ok today. Honey39, I'm glad that you are feeling a bit better about everything, and your list is fantastic - I always find it quite helpful to write down a list of positives, because then it makes giving up or being negative so much harder when you have all those brilliant things staring you in the face!! :rolleyes: I can definitely agree with the Journal point - even when I get home late, I still find this "OVERWHELMING COMPULSION" (hahaha I think I know the entire PMK CD off by heart now!) to record the day. Interestingly, at first around the edges of each page, I was keeping a note of everything I'd eaten that day too (I think that was the mental overlap with Rosemary Conley/WW creeping in!) but now, on Day 21, I've found that I haven't done that for at least a week or more... perhaps not that significant, but I guess it shows that counting every calorie and item I've put in my mouth is just not so obviously at the top of my thoughts anymore....

jomo70 wrote: »

.....So I took the plunge and booked myself into see a hypnotherapist (SP)!! Had my first session on Monday and it was great, he was great and I've now got a six week course to help me along....so I will keep you posted.

Jomo- I'd be really interested to hear more about your hypnotherapy... what kind of things (I don't mean to pry; just general stuff!) did you do and are you planning to do with him? (haha, that sounds quite rude... sorry.. ) I had a couple of sessions of hypno a while back for weight loss, and I think I lost about 10lbs, but then it petered out. Maybe I should've persevered for longer. Anyway, would be really interested to see how things go for you and if you think it's a worthwhile investment.

I don't know if anyone else is having trouble with this, but in the CD, when Paul asks you to visualise yourself at your ideal body weight, I just can't seem to get a picture in my head. I think it's down to the fact that for 99% of my adult life, I've been unhappy with the way I look, so I just can't seem to get in my head what I would like to look like. I can easily visualise a friend or a celebrity or whatever that I'd love to look like, but just can't seem to transfer it over to me!! Any tips???

Lastly (wow, this is a mammoth post... sorry!!) I noticed the You magazine link to a reduced price ticket to the PMK weight loss session in January on the thread earlier - has anyone been to one of these? I'm quite interested in going, but a little wary of forking out £100 (£250 without the offer!) if it is basically going to be him running through the book. What do you think?

Anyway, hope everyone has lovely Fridays... roll on the weekend.
Chezabelle. x

Honey39

jomo70 wrote: »

Hi all, well I truly lost the plot with this....and decided that this time I wasn't going to just give up like all those previous diets, and if any diet was going to work it would be this one.....So I took the plunge and booked myself into see a hypnotherapist (SP)!! Had my first session on Monday and it was great, he was great and I've now got a six week course to help me along....so I will keep you posted.

Honey39...Well done you, thats over a stone a great start, keep positive!

Working hard...I was just like you with my eating pattern (great at work, Bad at home) then I became a SAHM so you can imagine how bad I got! thats when I realised its all to do with my relationship with food, and that needs to be sorted out.

Good luck to all.....

I'd be interested to know how you get on with the hypnotherapist. I find the CD important, even though it's dull. I kind of zone out listening to it a wee bit, but it does seem to call me back to following it more than anything else I've tried. I suppose it's never scolding, it's very encouraging.

Honey39

chezabelle wrote: »

Honey39, I'm glad that you are feeling a bit better about everything, and your list is fantastic - I always find it quite helpful to write down a list of positives, because then it makes giving up or being negative so much harder when you have all those brilliant things staring you in the face!! :rolleyes: I can definitely agree with the Journal point - even when I get home late, I still find this "OVERWHELMING COMPULSION" (hahaha I think I know the entire PMK CD off by heart now!) to record the day. Interestingly, at first around the edges of each page, I was keeping a note of everything I'd eaten that day too (I think that was the mental overlap with Rosemary Conley/WW creeping in!) but now, on Day 21, I've found that I haven't done that for at least a week or more... perhaps not that significant, but I guess it shows that counting every calorie and item I've put in my mouth is just not so obviously at the top of my thoughts anymore....

Thanks! Yeah, it's weird, but I am finding the CD good, and also the journal. I like crossing off the days, and I like recording my progress without recording what I've eaten. It's a really useful tool for me, especially now I'm more than half way through the first book (there are going to be many books for me, I'm afraid, lol!). I am pretty sure that calorie counting, points, staring at labels, recording exactly what I eat, is not the way forward for me, it just doesn't work. But I do like a sense of achievement as well, so the journal kind of gives me that. Especially on days like today when I really want to stuff my face with loads and loads of food!!

I don't know if anyone else is having trouble with this, but in the CD, when Paul asks you to visualise yourself at your ideal body weight, I just can't seem to get a picture in my head. I think it's down to the fact that for 99% of my adult life, I've been unhappy with the way I look, so I just can't seem to get in my head what I would like to look like. I can easily visualise a friend or a celebrity or whatever that I'd love to look like, but just can't seem to transfer it over to me!! Any tips???

Yeah, a wee bit. I try to think about clothes I'd like to wear, and play around with that a bit; or clothes I would never think of wearing, lol. I guess if you think of your body as really slim and shapely, and then your face? I know what you mean - I think clothes/body first, then hair, then jewellery and shoes (very high shoes!), and face last.

Have you tried the mirror exercise? I think that would be really important for you if you're unhappy with the way you look, because that does focus on learning to like yourself right now - I like that his programme is about losing weight, but also thinking you're just lovely as you are now; it's a nice programme, building you up rather than tearing you down. Give the mirror exercise a go tomorrow every time you go to the bathroom, and see if it's positive or not - I'll have a go as well, because I'm terrible at doing it, and we can compare notes! :j

Lastly (wow, this is a mammoth post... sorry!!) I noticed the You magazine link to a reduced price ticket to the PMK weight loss session in January on the thread earlier - has anyone been to one of these? I'm quite interested in going, but a little wary of forking out £100 (£250 without the offer!) if it is basically going to be him running through the book. What do you think?

I thought about doing it - I think my decision remains to give the ninety days a full proper go, and see where I am. If that works, fine. If it doesn't, then after ninety days I might consider going to one of the sessions as well. I'm reluctant to just now, in case this works - so far, it does seem to be the best thing I've ever tried, and that's after 47 days of really really focusing on it. I think the sessions sound good, but maybe not worth it if you've got all the messages and CD already?

WorkingHardDFW

Day 7 for me and still working at it.

Good food choices for me today although I did have to buy lunch out however, always looking for the positives, the cake I bought to go with the sandwich and smoothies I ate with colleagues. Now little more than a week ago I would have squirred that away to eat on my own but I ate it with colleagues and felt much better for doing that - not so much guilt particularly as I'd made other healthy choices. Anyway enough.

I got home from work a little earlier than usual tonight so I took the dog for a trot so my plan to do something everyday is on track.

Planning to do at least one walk tomorrow if not two and the same for Sunday. Plus if the weather holds some gardening will be on the cards as well. Looking forward to nice chilled weekend.

I'm interested in this journal that you've all mentioned. Sounds like something which I could do/use.....Shall I trawl ebay/amazon?

Bitsy_Beans

Hey everyone. Been MIA as been on hols. Was totally in holiday mode and ignored all the "rules" (I really hate calling them that as that just makes it sound like another "diet") and just ate for england. Put 3lb on which is my own fault as I didn't make any effort at all - except for the eat what you want bit
Back home now so will be working towards changing my bad habits again.
Glad to hear you all sounding so positive, love reading your thoughts/posts on the subject!