Last Sunday night (two days ago), TLC had a show on called "I Can Make You Thin". A PhD/NLP specialist named Paul McKenna hosted this show. For those in the USA, Paul McKenna is an extremely well known, sometimes controversial European motivational speaker who claims he can help Americans (like he has across Europe) lose weight.
The Four Golden Rules according to this program are incredibly simple.
1. When you are hungry, EAT!
2. Eat whatever you want!
3. Eat Consciuosly! (further explained below - because THIS is the key)
4. Stop when you think you are full!
So, what the hell - I decided that I was sick and tired of dieting and this seemed easy enough to try.
Yesterday - was Day 1.
When I woke up in the morning, I decided to have a bowl of oatmeal. Making my usual serving, I sat down and began to consciously eat my breakfast.
Golden rule #3 - Eat consciously. What he means is that you enjoy the food. Eat every bite slowly, savoring the flavors, the textures, etc. When you put a bite in your mouth PUT DOWN THE FORK, KNIFE, UTENSIL. (He even says if you have to sit on your hands then do so) until every morsel is chewed and swallowed. No distractions - no TV, no reading, etc. As a result of eating this slowly, your stomach has time to signal the brain that it is full. The result of this style of eating was that instead of taking 4.5 minutes to shovel a bowl of oatmeal into my gob-hole (my usual time), I was full before I was halfway through the bowl. So I stopped.
Lunch that afternoon: A friend of mine and I decided to go out to lunch. We both ordered those Lunch salads with all the fixings that come in a gargantuan bowl (yes, this is what I truly wanted to eat - Golden Rule #2). My usual experience is that I can wolf down this type of salad and still want dessert after 10 minutes. However, this time, after each bite, I put my knife and fork down, chewing slowly and enjoying the flavors. Within 5 bites, I was full. I took the rest of the salad home for dinner.
By the way - Golden Rule #2 - Eat whatever you want. This one seems a bit counterintuitive. But what McKenna says is that once you begin consciously eating, you may find your palate rejecting the things you may have loved in the past. You may find chocolate too sweet, Chips too salty, foods too greasy, etc - so you refine the food plan to begin including foods which you really like which are "healthy" for you.
I find this fascinating! Since I have been able to put away mass quanitities of food at a sitting that I was full in such a short time.
Next Sunday, the show will explain how to avoid and rid yourself of emotional eating. This is a big one for me since that's how I gained most of the 40 lbs that I would like to lose.
But I like this program after one day and one meal. It's not a diet and something that even after such a short time, I think I can stick to for the rest of my life.
