Paul McKenna "I Can Make You Thin!"

30_something

I didn't post yesterday as planned, as I was too exhausted last night. Day 1 and day 2 have gone pretty well so far though.

Day 1

I listened to the hypnosis cd the night before, and then listened to the emotional eating cd on my ipod while I was walking to the shop first thing in the morning. These must have helped because most of the day it seemed really easy to follow the rules. I did have a bit too much to eat in the evening though; not a huge amount but went past the "full" stage.

Day 2

Excellent day really. Normally I have breakfast as soon as I get up, but I genuinely wasn't hungry until about 11am so skipped breakfast altogether and ate lunch at about 11am and my next meal around 3.30pm.

I do seem to have more energy today, and although I haven't exercised as such I have started having a big clearout at home. If there's going to be a new me, it's time to get rid of all that junk I've been hanging onto since I was a teenager! Planning to spend the rest of the weekend Freecycling, Ebaying, and trying not to scream so loud every time a giant spider jumps out on me :eek:

Honey39

Day 54: It's been a good couple of days, to be honest. Well, not good exactly, I've been horribly busy, but am pretty happy with what I've done ICMYT-wise. I haven't binged tonight (Friday), so am pleased about that. I cannot believe that I've done almost eight weeks - I'm quite proud of that to be honest.

Honey39

Day 55: I cannot believe that I will have done this for EIGHT WEEKS by tomorrow! Unbelievable, I am so pleased that I have stuck with it for so long. It's making a real difference to my life, I feel pretty wonderful today to be honest. And I'm not tempted to binge/purge at all (yet), which is a real relief. I bought a fabulous meal from M & S - frittata, little parcels, mozarella cheese and sun dried tomatoes, cabbage/apple; lots of things, in fact. I was enjoying it so much it was a real struggle to make myself stop when I was full (which was really quickly, dammit!). Never mind, I've simply put the plate in the fridge, so if I'm hungry later on, I'll have some. I'm also going to have a scoop of cherry garcia frozen yoghurt, which is just defrosting as I type.

I've been putting my meals on smaller plates, and that has made a big difference. Tonight's meal looked *massive* because I had it on a small tea-plate (you know, the sandwich sized plates? Don't know what they are called). If it were on a dinner plate, it would look normal/small sized portion. That's actually quite a good trick I've been doing regularly - I serve pudding in ramekins (those tiny little dishes). The reason I've been doing this is because a friend of mine, who was tiny but loved her food, used to serve food up this way naturally to her family, and I honestly think that it makes you eat less, if you have small crockery and serve smaller portions. Like wine glasses, I guess.

I've also been taking a lot of photos of myself; I just want to keep a record of myself shrinking, and also I have it in the back of my head that I could do a film montage of me shrinking over a couple of years, lol. I usually take a daily photo, so that's been quite fun.

I listened to the CD twice today, and I'm not sure how important it is to me. I suspect it is very beneficial, but I don't know. I often zone out when I'm listening - I have it on as I eat, because I don't want to read/watch TV and eat unconsciously. I think having it on as I eat reinforces the messages a lot, and that's good.

I met a friend of mine yesterday who is doing a very restrictive diet, and we have both lost about the same amount of weight in the same time. The difference is - I can honestly see myself doing this for the rest of my life if I work at it. My friend can't eat any food that she has not prepared herself; so which is the better way to lose weight, huh??? I really really want her to lose weight as well, she's a wonderful person and tries so hard, but I feel carefree by comparison on ICMYT. I haven't struggled much with it, because if I do backslide, I just start again tomorrow. The lack of a weekly weigh-in helps as well, because it's not so cruel as weightwatchers. I do wish I had someone else doing it with me, because like I've said before, it's a kind of lonely thing to be doing - it's so important to me, and yet I feel a bit bonkers going on about it to people who haven't heard of it before. Dieting is the main, accepted way to lose weight, and even though it's NEVER worked for me long-term, this feels somehow a bit out there.

I hope everyone else who is doing this is having a brilliant day

SilverSapphire

Well the weight loss is not going so well for me. I put on half a pound this week instead of losing any! But I think this was mainly due to family barbecue last weekend and another family do this weekend. It is difficult to refuse the birthday cake even when you don't actually want it. Also I think I have speeded up my eating again and I need to get back to basics and slow down and put the knife and fork down between mouthfuls. I feel like I am writing my lines at school - if I write it down though maybe it will reinforce it more in my head!

Despite of not doing so good this week on the eating, my clothes are definitely looser and I am feeling more energetic. I have been walking more and using the stairs at work. Over the weekend I have used my Rosemary Conley fitness DVDs and done a workout. I am like that guy on the ad where the TV falls off the wall, lumbering along about 3 steps behind but I must be burning calories at least!

I've been trying to listen to the CD too because I think that really helps. I listen on my MP3 player while I am doing my chores etc. Hopefully it is sinking in subconsciously.

BitsyBeans, I hope you are doing better now. Could you not just put the CD on in the background while you are doing other things as I am sure it would help you too.

All the best to everyone. It is good to read your posts and hear how everyone is doing.

30_something

I still haven't read all of this thread yet (am still on page 6), but I have read Honey's recent posts. Well done Honey for doing so brilliantly. It's really inspiring to someone like me who's still struggling with the early stages, so thanks for sharing your progress :T.

I have to confess I have fallen off the wagon already! My 3 yr old is not well at the moment so is not sleeping much and therefore neither am I. I was doing great, but then yesterday I was feeling low and exhausted, and probably ate a week's food in one day :mad:. It didn't exactly do my energy levels much good, I can tell you :rotfl:.

I am feeling quite positive again today though, and wanted to ask if anyone has tried the craving buster thing to stop wanting chocolate for good? I have seen PM do this with people on tv, but usually fast-forward that bit as it makes me want to go and throw up. I have never listened to that particular cd as I couldn't face the thought of life without chocolate, but have changed my mind now. I am now seriously considering giving it a go as I know chocolate is my 'trigger' food, and is most likely to make me want to keep on eating.

I just wanted to hear from anyone who has given it a go. Did it work? Did you need to go through that part more than once? Did it only put you off the exact food you imagined (eg did it put you off mars bars for life, but you can manage aeros perfectly well lol)?

I am going to be giving it a go tonight before bed, and going 'cold turkey' with the chocolate avoidance starting tomorrow morning. Will keep you updated on my progress on here. I am actually finding the idea of life without chocolate quite scary. I am ex-smoker, and it feels the same as when I gave up cigarettes! That's why if anyone has already been through it and can offer any words of advice it would be appreciated.:D

Honey39

30_something wrote: »

I am feeling quite positive again today though, and wanted to ask if anyone has tried the craving buster thing to stop wanting chocolate for good?

I just wanted to hear from anyone who has given it a go. Did it work? Did you need to go through that part more than once? Did it only put you off the exact food you imagined (eg did it put you off mars bars for life, but you can manage aeros perfectly well lol)?

Hi there!

I did the aversion thing for crisps - they are my trigger food, and I need to never eat them again to avoid bingeing. It took me a long time to do it, because I think it's pretty extreme, but yes, it DID work for me. Even when I'm overeating (a couple of times) I cannot touch crisps. And they were a terrible trigger for me, I would eat packets and packets.

I think chocolate may be even easier to do, because it's more 'same-y' - with crisps, there are so many varieties of flavours etc. I used cat food as my blech food, and I was nauseated by the thought of crisps afterwards.

I do think that I could probably break it if I wanted - so every time I think of crisps or pass them, I try to reinforce that disgust and nausea, because honestly, even if this doesn't work for me (ICMYT programme), I could live without eating another crisp. But think long and hard before you do it - I wouldn't do it for food I enjoy but aren't a trigger (eg ice cream, chips etc). It's quite an extreme step.

I think if I were to do chocolate, I would imagine it infested with maggots...:)

Good luck, nice to see you posting here!

30_something

Thanks for the tips Honey, I really appreciate it.

It really has come to the point that I've accepted I can't just have chocolate in moderation like most people. I think when I gave up smoking, chocolate became my nicotine substitute.

I have now decided to approach giving up chocolate in the same way I went about giving up smoking, treat it as the drug it's become. When giving up smoking I planned well ahead, knew exactly what I was going to do to distract myself when the craving hit, and planned to quit on a day when I knew I was least likely to be stressed.

I have now chosen tomorrow as my start day (I know I originally said today, but I later decided tomorrow is the better choice as I will have more going on to distract me!). I intend to do the PM 'imagining maggots on my chocolate' part of the cd tonight now. Not looking forward to that at all :-( but know it's a means to an end.

Have today written a list of all the health problems that can be caused by long-term overeating and a list of the reasons I want to be slimmer and healthy, so that I can refer to them often to remind myself why I am doing this. I have also found a couple of jigsaws from out of the loft (don't laugh, it's to keep my hands and mind busy when the craving hits :rotfl:), and have got lots of nice pampering treats lined up to reward myself for good days. Just want to take one day at a time. I will also be searching for my PM journal later, know it's around somewhere!

In the MSE spirit, I am going to estimate later how much I spend on choc, and save the money. Am hoping that the £'s build up as the lbs go down ;-).

Honey39

Day 60: Gosh, very quiet here!

Anyway, I've lost a stone and a half in sixty days - 21 lovely pounds, woo hoo!! Am thrilled to bits about that.;

Bitsy_Beans

Well done Honey.
Nothing to report here. Am feeling very tired due to the kids and it's making me want to eat. So I do, to try and stay awake. I have no idea how to get round this as this afternoon I could have put my head down and slept, even with DS bouncing around. I fighting the urge to beat myself up about it but it's really hard not to feel disappointed in myself. Life seems to keep getting in the way

luc24

im not the doin the best either atm, iv put a lb on, i think im eating wen im not hungry, and also eating more at meal times than i should, i feel like iv gone back into the mode of eat it whilst i can which is the complete opposite of paul mckenna but i cant seem to get out of it but im not givin up, nothing could pull me back to weightwatchers, and putting it in perspective iv been in most of this week, bein quite stressed and takin it out on rubbish food eating!

did anyone see the authors of beyond chocolate on dragons den?